Back to Schengen: the collective securitisation of the EU free-border area

Abstract

This article considers how a major influx of migrants from North Africa and the Middle East during 2015 led to an EU-initiated collective securitisation of the Schengen space. The events of 2015 represented an internal crisis for the EU. This was not simply because migration stretched host country facilities and created political division within and between the member states. The uncoordinated reintroduction of border controls by some member states threatened the unravelling of the Schengen Agreement itself. The consequent security discourse which then gained currency in EU documents strongly underlined the need ‘to go back to normality’ and ‘to go back to Schengen’, not only to manage increasingly tense relations among member states but also to preserve what was seen as a core achievement of the EU. Contrary to the expectations of mainstream literature on securitisation, the policies enacted in response to the securitisation of Schengen have violated neither ‘normal politics’ of the EU nor existing or planned policies on migration and asylum despite the wide contestation of current EU migration and asylum practices. The article concludes that the normative dimension behind this collective securitisation should not be underestimated or too easily discounted.