A Diplomatic Conflict.
The recent economic crisis that is spreading all over the world from the US is specially affecting the construction industry in Spain, where construction has been a crucial pillar of Spanish economy during the last few years. Since last October, thousands of jobs have disappeared in Spain as a result of the construction crisis. These currently increasing thousands are becoming a problem, not only because they are unemployed, but because most of them are immigrants. >> Read more...

How being closed to be open?
Recently I passed through the article of Les Black “Beaches and graveyards: Europe's haunted borders“ on eurozine.com about the small border town between France and Spain in which his life ended philosopher and literary critic Walter Benjamin. The reason of suicide was the denying him possibility to cross that border and possibility to be saved from Holocaust. The author compares this story with present day situation in that town and with impossibility to cross that border for people from Africa for who attempt to escape ends also with death, but this time in the sea.
>> Read more...

Fear and Loathing on the German-Polish Border
It is hard to believe but this happened right in the middle of the “civilized world”, in the country that is among the first nowadays to advocate peace and human rights, the country promoting democracy and fair European Neighborhood Policy. The rude, almost inhuman behavior of the German border guards on the German-Polish border towards the Ukrainian legal (!!) migrants shocked many who heard about it. Unfortunately, most of the Germans would not now about this incident, and many of the Ukrainians in the immigration would simply fail to unite against the injustice towards their fellow country men. >> Read more...

Rocking in the 'Heart of Europe'
In May, June and July 2008 I was living in the twin city on German-Polish border Goerlitz-Zgorzelec. I had Polish residence permit and could freely commute between two sides of the river Neisse/Nysa just crossing one of two bridges. Now Goerlitz and Zgorzelec are divided by internal Schengen border and one cannot really grasp the signs of border control there. However from time to time one can see mobile brigades of both German and Polish border police randomly stopping cars and checking documents of car drivers (sometimes also cars themselves). I have never seen them stopping pedestrians or those riding bikes. Usually migrants from third countries just pass Goerlitz-Zgorzelec and try to do it as fast as they can. Every week there are reports in local and regional newspapers about illegal non-EU migrants captured on the roads going through Goe/Zgrz or in its surroundings. Since when living there I was always either walking or riding my bike I basically never had a chance to show my blue Belarusian passport to anyone in the city. My documents were checked just once and I should say that it was precisely one of those cases when your passport can make you feel a little bit like a rat. >> Read more...

Piles of Dirty Clothes
2007. I find myself at the border again. It’s the first time that I don’t have two medical insurances. >> Read more...

Snapshots from a schizophrenic country
There have been a number of instances, particularly since the election last April, in which some of us have reacted with disbelief to events in the immigration-racism debate that has accompanied moves to toughen the state’s response to “illegal immigration”, crime and citizens’ “sense of insecurity”. I hoped my last blog would be positive, trying as I have done to balance positive and negative appreciations of the effects of, and attitudes and responses to, immigration in Italy, but it is somewhat difficult in the present climate. Nonetheless, I have chosen to draw on some snapshots from current events that, despite their troubling implications, carry an intrinsic element of irony, albeit bitter-sweet. >> Read more...

strike of Polish custom officers
Three month ago I wrote a list of what I see as interconnected factors contributing to the “new Berlin wall” at the Polish-Belarusian border:
- introduction of the Schengen regime;
- absence of the EU-Belarusian and Polish-Belarusian agreement on small-scale border movement;
- in January came into force presidential decree №760 restricting Belarusians entrepreneurs;
- in January came into force presidential decree № 643 euphemistically entitled On facilitation of exit from the Republic of Belarus (Об упрощении порядка выезда из Республики Беларусь); and
- strike of Polish custom officers which for couple of weeks blocked transport at all of the Polish-Ukrainian and Polish-Belarusian border crossings.

As Ian, the head of the Border Blogs Project, asked me strongly, it is high time to analyze these topics. >> Read more...