Worries are brewing among Germany’s neighbours over Germany’s autonomous decision to establish regulations on all its eight frontiers, as an extraordinary step to curtail irregular migration. The German Home Secretary, Nancy Faeser, declared the measures will remain in place for half a year but may endure “until a robust safeguarding mechanism for the EU’s external fringes” materialises with the advent of the common immigration strategies anticipated in 2026. This decision could incite a domino effect risking the Schengen system’s open manoeuvre throughout Europe as domestic political issues associated with immigration will dominate national discourse.
The root cause for implementing such controls in Germany is its existing domestic political strain. Germans saw an influx of about 300,000 asylum seekers last year, coupled with approximately 124,000 tagged as unlawful immigrants and another 50,000 who stayed on even after expulsion directives. Simultaneously, the rough estimate of 30,000 barred from entry through pick and choose border checks since the previous October, somewhat minimises these facts and the current policy measures are rather indistinctly formulated.
The political prominence around the issue was underscored last week by the right-wing AfD party’s victory in the regional polls on a rudimentary deportation and public aid reduction agenda for immigrants – with another probable triumph in the voting in Brandenburg, expected the following week. The German coalition composed of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals is somewhat unstable as national elections approach next year. The Christian Democrats are starting to desert Angela Merkel’s previously warm welcome to more than a million Syrian migrants from 2015.
Other nations have also adopted alike measures, such as Hungary, Austria and Denmark, amidst similar political strain surrounding immigration and the upswing of right-wing extremist parties. Such moves place the business and civil advantages of unrestricted movement under legal pressure as the newly appointed EU commission assumes office. The contemporary common immigration strategy is grounded on a mutual approach and a seamless shift towards a more stringent stance involving tighter collaboration and contracting with Mediterranean allies. This policy progression is jeopardised by legally dubious separate actions, thereby also affecting the general appreciation of Schengen’s freedom of movement.
These strained situations frequently eclipse the broader truth that Germany and other EU member nations, including Ireland, increasingly depend on migration to fill significant demographic deficits in their workforce, whilst simultaneously contending requests for more significant investment to regain competitiveness. Alongside this, the EU is evolving from an era of open globalisation towards a more geopolitically assertive world. A world characterised by heightened rivalry for market shares between regional blocs and superpowers as climate change triggers higher migrations from their native lands. Steering these contrary forces must be an utmost priority for the incoming EU policy formulators.