When conservative German politician Jens Spahn urges Syrian refugees to return home out of “patriotic duty,” his words reveal more about Germany’s politics than about the Syrians themselves.
Tag: borders
A warning from Monica Minardi, president of the Italian branch of Doctors Without Borders, on how EU and Italian policies dehumanize migrants, empower Libyan abuses, strip reception services, and dodge safe legal routes as the “Fortress Europe” deal is silently renewed.
While the political debate and far right fixate on visible problems, new research shows that Germany’s everyday institutions quietly succeed in integrating refugees, often without anyone noticing.
As Poland reinstates border checks with Germany and Lithuania over immigration concerns, experts warn that the situation at the Polish-German border increasingly unregulated, threatening the life and health safety of migrants.
👋 здраво* Welcome to Tuesday, where Israel says Gaza ceasefire can be reached but may take more time, Emmanuel Macron aims to rekindle France-UK relations, and Milan’s opera-goers better pay attention to today’s quiz question. Meanwhile, Caterina Soffici in Italian daily La Stampa about what our four-legged friends can teach us about adapting to climate […]
Far fewer Latin American migrants are trying to reach the United States under the Trump administration, but is this a “problem solved”? For now?
The Trump administration is using the claim that immigrants have “invaded” the country to justify possibly suspending habeas corpus, part of the constitutional right to due process. A faction of the far right has been building this case for years.
After walking the 50 kilometers that separate the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and the Russian border, Spanish reporter Unai Aranzadi arrives in the small village of Kozacha Lopan. Places like these are perhaps the ones where it will be most difficult to heal the wounds of all that has been suffered to date.
How Germany, like other countries in the West, can avoid sweeping judgments and take a clear-eyed approach to a complex reality.
With a growing number of far-right victories in Western democracies, many individuals have begun idealizing Poland as “the ideal combination of capitalism and tradition.” What are the origins of the conservative fascination with Poland, and is it even true?
Greenland, Canada and Panama: Why is Donald Trump using maps for his politics? And what does Elon Musk’s Nazi-loving grandfather have to do with mapped utopias?
November 9 marks 35 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Once seen as a step toward open borders, walls and fences now span a quarter of the world’s land borders today. It’s central to what’s being called the “rebordering” among nations around the world.
Hundreds of thousands of migrants are in limbo in Tunisia, which has in recent years become a major transit point for migrants fleeing conflicts and poverty in Africa and the Middle East for better lives in Europe. Women in particular lack basic rights, including sexual and reproductive health services.
Arrests of migrants, camp destruction operations and searches of NGO premises: since the end of April, the anti-migrant policy has taken on an unprecedented scale.
For residents caught up in the surge of violence hitting the island, finding safety outside Haiti’s immediate borders is a struggle.
With Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas suddenly appearing on Moscow’s wanted list, both the past and present offer plenty of evidence that the small Baltic nation — with 40% Russian speakers — could be the next neighbor after Ukraine in the Kremlin’s crosshairs.
Is Venezuela’s President Maduro renewing the country’s long-standing claim to a big part of neighboring Guyana to distract from his unpopularity at home, to postpone next year’s general elections, or to nab some of Guyana’s rocketing oil wealth?
Though Russia’s intentions to take over Ukraine on the ground have failed, they are winning in the field of cartography. Maps seen in respected books and periodicals around the world offer a distorted view of who has the right to territory — and who is the aggressor. A campaign is underway to change maps to change perception of reality.
Portunhol is a hybrid language spoken on the borders of Portuguese-speaking Brazil and its Spanish-speaking neighbors. The author’s time learning it was a reminder that language is so much more than just a means of communicating.
Hundreds of thousands of men have left Russia since partial mobilization was announced. Turkey, which still has air routes open with Moscow, is one of their top choices. But life is far from easy once they land.
An exclusive visit inside Moldova’s breakaway pro-Russian republic of Transnistria, which many fear may be the gateway to the next war after Ukraine in the strategically important target.
With Russian troops now deployed through Belarus, the risk is growing of an invasion through Ukraine’s northern border. Vladimir Putin’s regional strategy and Alexander Lukashenko’s dictatorial demands are not always what they seem.
Unlike ISIS-K (Islamic State Khorasan), drug cultivation and trafficking are not an ideological matter for the new rulers of Afghanistan — more likely a bargaining chip in negotiations with the West.
The deaths of 27 migrants off the French coast of Calais is one more tragedy on a long list in the European Union. After the initial shock, however, we tend to forget, get used to it and in the end, become indifferent.
Hundreds of migrants arrive in Germany every day from Poland, which makes the Belarus border a national issue for Germany. It’s long past time that Europe acknowledge that tough measures are needed — maybe even walls…
? Kamusta!* Welcome to Wednesday, where G20 leaders agree to involve Taliban in distributing help to Afghanistan, the U.S. announces it will reopen borders with Mexico and Canada, and Dutch royals can marry as they please. Thanks to Chilean daily El Mercurio, we also follow the tumultuous journey of a Haitian migrant in her efforts […]
The colored tattoo of a fortified bridge towering high over troubled waters takes up almost all of my friend Ivan’s shoulder. In his early 30s, Ivan has a footballer’s build and flawless cockney accent. He’s been a British citizen almost all his life, but was born in Mostar, in present-day Bosnia, in the late 1980s […]
From Brazil to Canada, Finland to Israel, and well beyond, the impact of the new uptick in coronavirus is being measured across virtually every aspect of society.
In mid-September, fires destroyed Greece’s largest migrant camp, the vastly overcrowded Moria facility on the island of Lesbos. The disaster left some 13,000 already desperate people with no shelter at all, and raises new questions about Europe’s collective responsibilities toward migrants five years after German Chancellor Angela Merkel famously opened her nation’s doors to fleeing […]
Viewed from the proverbial (and literal) 30,000 feet, the most stunning consequence of the coronavirus pandemic may have been the sudden closing of national borders. In an increasingly open world, the past six months of severe international travel restrictions continues to disrupt lives and hobble the global economy. Last week, the six-months-long closure of the […]
Coronavirus travel restrictions have been a wake-up call for Europeans, especially since nearly a third of the population lives in cross-border areas like France and Belgium’s Eurometropolis Lillle-Kortrijk-Tournai.
-Editorial- BOGOTÁ — As the world recently watched humanitarian supply trucks burn on a bridge between the Colombian town of Cúcuta and the Venezuelan border, locals anxiously wondered if aid would ever arrive in a region plagued with years of economic crisis. Colombian Attorney General Fernando Carrillo echoed these sentiments after visiting Cúcuta and meeting […]
It’s not just Donald Trump’s wall. Around the world, people are erecting new and increasingly strict lines of division.
PARIS — Its destruction, nearly three decades ago, sent waves of joy across the globe. And yet, tourists of all nationalities still come to photograph its remains. The object of this paradox is none other than the Berlin Wall, the historic Cold War symbol that became an artistic symbol, even after its fall on Nov. […]
PARIS — When the migrant crisis started spinning out of control in the summer of 2015, a deep fracture appeared inside the European Union, between countries willing to open their doors and countries ready to erect walls to block the flow of incoming migrants. The tension culminated in late September of that year, when the […]
-Analysis- PARIS — Someone, somewhere will probably call this fake news. Reporters Sans Frontières, a Paris-based organization for the protection of journalists and free expression, released its latest annual World Press Freedom Index this morning, and … little good news to report. The Index, which tracks criteria like harassment and violence against journalists and laws […]
-Analysis- BUENOS AIRES — It must be a sign of the times. Echoing the clampdown of foreign visitors by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, Argentina is set to tighten its border controls in a country that has long received migrants from around the world. The move was taken ostensibly to target crime, which many Argentines […]
A reviled U.S. presidential candidate visiting a very unpopular Mexican president. How did Donald Trump’s flash visit Wednesday to Mexico City look to the people and press south of the border? After the Republican nominee’s diatribes and insults against Mexicans and vows to build a “huge” wall, what was President Enrique Peña Nieto seeking by […]
Tourists can take a trip through time—and across the French-Italian border—in the 75-meter Monte Viso Tunnel, a footpath originally built during the Renaissance.
Following the plan by the EU and Turkey to turn back refugees, many are looking for alternative ways to reach Europe. A new path to the continent starts on the other side of the Atlantic — in South America — and continues through far-flung French terr