The discourse on the reintroduction of permanent border controls at the Danish borders Martin Klatt Dept of Border Region Studies Denmarks short reintroduction of permanent border controls ID: 442492
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Slide1
Denmark – Europe‘s border to the East?The discourse on the reintroduction of permanent border controls at the Danish borders
Martin Klatt, Dept. of Border Region StudiesSlide2
Denmark’s short reintroduction of ”permanent” border controlsPolitical compromise between the ruling minority government of the Liberals (Venstre
) and the Conservatives with the right populist, anti-EU Danish People’s Party (The DPP was ‘bought’ with the border controls to support the retirement reform)
Permanent customs controls (not police), including electronic devices (plate scan) and new control stations
Should remain within the legal Schengen framework (legal experts say it did not)
Effective July – September 2011 (Change of Government to a center-left coalition)Slide3
Core of the debateSecurity aspect – cross-border crimeSpecial focus on gangs and violent robberies
Nørrebro
drug-related gang wars (and other problematic areas in Danish cities)
The
Skovby
-case
Bike-thefts (here, funnily, Lithuanians were the main ”crooks” in the narrative)
The narrative of German dominance in the EU, after the German ambassador had criticized the Danish debateSlide4
“Moral Panic”Stanley Cohen (1972)Mass media blows a case out of proportion to suppose a challenge to morality
Labour
immigrant as folk devil (
Pijpers
, 2006)
But why ”East”?
I argue that the European ”East-West” discourse/conflict has roots in Orientalism (
Saïd
, 1978) as well as pan-Germanic,
nazi
and Cold War
spatialisation
concepts Slide5
Skovby-case2 October 2008: a couple was robbed and severely injured in their home in
Skovby
near
Århus
by four Romanians, the 76 year old husband died in hospital because of the injuries
Wide media coverageSlide6
Eastern gangs?Danish Police:Severe home invasion robberies stable around 20-30 pr. year in Denmark in the 2000’s (
http://www.dkr.dk/hjemmer%C3%B8veri-2
, 4 January 2013)
Mostly committed by ethnic Danes or legal residentsSlide7
Orientalism-colonialism in a wider sense?Saïd – post-colonialism
(West)European image of the East as
Backwards
Corrupt
Uncivilized
Applicable to Central- and Eastern Europe?
Neo-colonialism
Transitory societies
EU-programs (Pre-Accession, Twinning, ENPI)
The German experienceSlide8
The ”people’s” viewPoll in Maj 2011: 54.1 % yes, 40.0 % no to more, permanently staffed border control
Poll in August 2011:
73 %: Cross-border crime is a big problem for Denmark
85 %: More European cooperation is the best solution to cross-border crime
58 %: Reintroduction of border control is purely symbolic policy (”symbolpolitik”)Slide9
Letters to the editorMorgenavisen-Jyllandsposten (conservative), 1 May – 30 September 2011
10 against the reintroduction of permanent border control
37 for, reasons (more than one possible)
”Eastern gangs” and similar: 10
Against German dominance or interference: 6
Crime in general: 9
Populist (”the people want it everywhere, only
intellectual/political
elite supports open borders”): 6
EU centralism vs. nation state sovereignty: 6
Other: 4Slide10
Letters to the editor Jydske Vestkysten
(regional monopolist, Southern Denmark), 1 May – 30 September 2011
27 against the reintroduction of permanent border control
51 for, reasons (more than one possible)
”Eastern gangs” and similar: 17
Against German dominance or interference: 8
Crime in general: 20
Populist (”the people want it everywhere, only
intellectual/political
elite supports open borders”): 2
EU centralism vs. nation state sovereignty: 9
Other: 7Slide11
East-West discourses19th century phenomenon – 18th century travel literature is rather neutral, cultural-geographic (Struck 2007)
”
Polnische
Wirtschaft
” and ”
Alldeutschentum
” – German pejorative image of the East combined with the nationalization
projec
t of the
Kaiserreich
–
similar
in the West: France and the French as decadent other
20th century interwar narratives
Nazi race ideology
Post WW-II prejudices/images of cultural superiority – supported by the ideological Cold War conflict
But Denmark?Slide12
”Der må være en grænse!”May 1997Slide13
Denmark joins Schengen, 1997Debate more academic:Danish EU-exemptions (juridical cooperation)
Denmark and the Nordic countries
Refugees – Denmark becoming part of ‘Fortress Europe’, losing her safe-haven special
status
No moral panicSlide14
The Eastern Threat - 1945Slide15
South Schleswigians and refugees
”Wir Niederdeutschen und Schleswig-Holsteiner [führen] ein eigenes Leben, das in keiner Weise sich von der Mulattenzucht ergreifen lassen will, die der Ostpreusse nun einmal im Völkergemisch getrieben hat” – We Lowland Germans and Schleswig-Holsteinians live our own lives, which in no way will be influenced by the mulatto-breed the East Prussian has driven within the blending of peoples
(Johannes Tiedje, County Mayor of Flensburg County, October 1945)Slide16
Danish reaction 1945-50Accept of the new-Schleswigian narrative of united,
nordic
natives threatened by Slavic refugees from the East
Refugees as ”Germanic Slavs”, ”descendants of the
w
ild Wends that had been a terrible threat to Jutland several hundred years ago. Real Prussians from an area 100 %
N
azi” [
the
rural German-Danish
border region had actually the highest number of
N
azi votes both in Germany and Denmark]
While the annexation of Schleswig remained a minority position, the need to protect Schleswig from “Eastern” influence became political consensus Slide17
ConclusionEast-West cleavage not new – but not that old either in the European perspectiveMoral panic is not a necessary consequence of media coverage
East-West cleavage is visible – beyond pure economic gap
Re-bordering is intra EU, as narratives, trust and distrust tend to mobilize re-bordering along ethnic national/nationalist frameworksSlide18
ReferencesCohen, Stanley (1972): Folk Devils and Moral Panics, New York:
Routledge
(3
rd
ed., 2002)
Klatt, Martin (2001):
Flygtningene
og
Sydslesvigs
danske
bevægelse
, Flensburg:
Studieafdelingen
ved
Dansk
Centralbibliotek
for
Sydslesvig
Pijpers
,
Roos
(2006): ‘Help! The Poles are coming’: narrating a contemporary moral panic,
Geografiska
Annaler
, 88 B (1), 91-103
Saïd
, Edward (1978): Orientalism, New York: Pantheon
Struck, Bernhard (2007):
Vom
offenen
Raum
zum
nationalen
Territorium
.
Wahrnehmung
,
Erfindung
und
Historizität
von
Grenzen
in der
deutschen
Reiseliteratur
über
Polen
und
Frankreich
um 1800, in: Francois,
Seifarth
and Struck (eds.): Die
Grenze
als
Raum
,
Erfahrung
und
Konstruktion
, Frankfurt: Campus