The Fading Dream of a Borderless Europe

Right now, the idea of borderless, passport-free travel within the EU seems to be teetering in the balance. Since the beginning of the European refugee crisis in 2015, six nations have temporarily brought back I.D. controls at some or all of their internal frontiers within the free movement zone created by the Schengen Agreement. The striking thing about these countries—Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden and non-EU member Norway—is that none of them are on the zone’s frontier. But all have apparently lost faith in their neighbors’ ability to manage flows of people.

Meanwhile, the dysfunctional concentration of refugees in bottleneck countries such as Greece—where extreme weather this month has led to refugees freezing in their tents—continues unabated. All this on a continent where a network of border fences has sprung up around the zone’s fringes, creating a humanitarian crisis. These fences have so reshaped the environment that some animals have seen their migration paths blocked, putting them at risk of decline or extinction.