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Europe without Borders: A History
The contested creation of free movement—for people and goods—in the Schengen area of Europe
Europe is a place of free movement among nations—or is it? The Schengen area, established in 1985 and today encompassing twenty-nine European countries, allows people, goods, and capital to cross borders without restraint. Schengen transformed European life, advancing both a democratic project of transnational citizenship and a neoliberal project of international free trade. But the right of free movement always excluded non-Europeans, especially migrants of color from former colonies of the Schengen states. In Europe without Borders, Isaac Stanley-Becker explores the contested creation of free movement in Schengen, from treatymaking at European summits and disputes in international courts to the street protests of undocumented immigrants who claimed free movement as a human right.
Schengen laid the groundwork for the making of a single market and the founding of the European Union. Yet its emergence is one of the great untold stories of modern European history, one hidden in archives long embargoed. Stanley-Becker is among the first to have access to records of the treatymaking—such as letters between France’s François Mitterrand and West Germany’s Helmut Kohl—and Europe without Borders offers a pathbreaking account of Schengen’s creation. Stanley-Becker argues that Schengen gave a humanist cast to a market paradigm; but even in pairing the border crossing of human beings with the principles of free-market exchange, this vision of free movement was hedged by alarm about foreign migrants. Meanwhile, these migrants—the sans-papiers—saw in the promise of a borderless Europe only a neocolonial enterprise.
Europe is a place of free movement among nations—or is it? The Schengen area, established in 1985 and today encompassing twenty-nine European countries, allows people, goods, and capital to cross borders without restraint. Schengen transformed European life, advancing both a democratic project of transnational citizenship and a neoliberal project of international free trade. But the right of free movement always excluded non-Europeans, especially migrants of color from former colonies of the Schengen states. In Europe without Borders, Isaac Stanley-Becker explores the contested creation of free movement in Schengen, from treatymaking at European summits and disputes in international courts to the street protests of undocumented immigrants who claimed free movement as a human right.
Schengen laid the groundwork for the making of a single market and the founding of the European Union. Yet its emergence is one of the great untold stories of modern European history, one hidden in archives long embargoed. Stanley-Becker is among the first to have access to records of the treatymaking—such as letters between France’s François Mitterrand and West Germany’s Helmut Kohl—and Europe without Borders offers a pathbreaking account of Schengen’s creation. Stanley-Becker argues that Schengen gave a humanist cast to a market paradigm; but even in pairing the border crossing of human beings with the principles of free-market exchange, this vision of free movement was hedged by alarm about foreign migrants. Meanwhile, these migrants—the sans-papiers—saw in the promise of a borderless Europe only a neocolonial enterprise.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
416 pages, Hardcover
Published January 14, 2025
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April 7, 2025
For generations born after WW2 the idea of a Europe without borders was a dream that would enfold as the continent moved froward from its economic communities to a fully-fledged political union. The reductions of tariff and non-tariff barriers on trade and commerce had largely been achieved by the time the European Economic Community became the European Union in November 1993 but the real ornament was the end to the barriers on the movement of people across internal frontiers which remained a work in progress for a few more years.
Stanley-Becker chronicles this evolution , tracing its unfolding logic from the earliest days in which freedom of movement in the iron, coal, steel and atomic power industries in the late 1950s became a right for all workers and providers and recipient of services in 1960s and 70s. It is the virtue of the EU that all his sources are easily accessible, found in the texts of conventions and regulations, the minutes of meetings between politicians and officials at high levels, and in the rulings of the European Court of Justice that was required to interpret this mass of material.
What is particularly welcome from his account is the realisation that the move towards a borderless Europe was not quite the exercise of the bureaucratic power of an unaccountable elite over-riding the will of the people which is insisted on by so many of today's right-inclined commentators. On the contrary, huge impetus to the abolition of checks on border crossings was lent to the process by what the author describes as 'labour uprisings' mounted at frontier check points by tens of thousands of truckers responsible for transporting goods across the free trade area. Described in the New York Times on the day as a symbol of the "political and economic paralysis of the continent", the protests involved over 10,000 trucks blocking movement in protest against checks that often delayed drivers for periods of 24 hours and more. The response to the chaos was the now maligned Schengen Agreement, originally involving France, Germany and the Benelux countries, which committed their public authorities from impeding the movement of goods and persons at frontiers in order to carry out document checks.
The Schengen area expanded across the next decade to cover 29 European countries including four that are not members of the EU. Only the island nation of Great Britain held out against its logic, feeding an anxiety about foreigners at its borders which eventually produced its fully-blown Brexit.
But for the author the story of fast passage across the border zones has to be weighed against other Schengen developments which set freedom of movement against other civil liberties. European governments obsessed over the fact that their territories included not only citizens of member states, whose rights had been secured by the treaties and conventions, but also many so-called third country nationals - by some estimates as many as 29 million people making up around 6 per cent of the total population. Where they intended to benefit from freedom of movement as well?
The answer is no. The vision of the footloose and unpredictable cosmopolitan loomed too large in the European imagination to be allowed to escape forms of control which could not longer be carried out at border crossings. The tool for doing this was provided by the massive new databases made possible by information technology and the Schengen system committed itself to making full use of them. Records of non-citizens held by member states were combined into the Schengen Information System and made available to police agencies to maintain surveillance over third country nationals and monitor their movements. Commitments to a universal right to private life were called into question as states faced up to new obligations to share personal information with authorities in other jurisdictions.
Concern about the SIS had the effect of undermining support for open borders among groups who might have otherwise be counted on to give freedom of movement their full support. Robbed of a reliable support base, the Schengen system itself has become more vulnerable to criticism from political forces trading on xenophobia and anti-immigration anxieties. This is where we have got to today, with Schengen, though still notional place as the default for movement, in fact routinely violated as national authorities suspend its operation for reasons which were not intended to be permissible in the original agreement. Europe without borders has become a more problematic proposition as nationalistic moods rise across the region.
Stanley-Becker concludes his history with a stirring chapter on one social movement which stood out as both a staunch supporter of freedom of movement and also of the right of people to live without the shadow of constant surveillance and restraints on their private lives; the sans papiers of France. At around the time when the first Schengen agreement was being concluded, in March 1986, the French police raided a church in the Goutte d'Or neighbourhood of Paris to break up the protest of a group of African immigrants who had adopted the name 'sans papiers' - 'without papers' or undocumented in English. The African Collective of Saint-Ambroise, as they had been know up to that time, became the heart of a social and political movement that brought a much larger segment of liberal and progressive opinion onto their side in the following months. Stanley-Becker credits their movement as the point of proclamation of free movement as a human right, available to all people irrespective of their nationality.
If this book comes at a low time for Europe without borders generally, in reaching the conclusion of his history in his account of the sans papiers Stanley-Becker points to one group more embedded in European society than is given credit by national authorities - 'illegals', 'undocumented', 'clandestines', or whatever - and makes them the bearers of a human right which has yet to be given legal form but which might yet prove to be the only real guarantee of a Europe with borders - vive le droit à la libre circulation!
Stanley-Becker chronicles this evolution , tracing its unfolding logic from the earliest days in which freedom of movement in the iron, coal, steel and atomic power industries in the late 1950s became a right for all workers and providers and recipient of services in 1960s and 70s. It is the virtue of the EU that all his sources are easily accessible, found in the texts of conventions and regulations, the minutes of meetings between politicians and officials at high levels, and in the rulings of the European Court of Justice that was required to interpret this mass of material.
What is particularly welcome from his account is the realisation that the move towards a borderless Europe was not quite the exercise of the bureaucratic power of an unaccountable elite over-riding the will of the people which is insisted on by so many of today's right-inclined commentators. On the contrary, huge impetus to the abolition of checks on border crossings was lent to the process by what the author describes as 'labour uprisings' mounted at frontier check points by tens of thousands of truckers responsible for transporting goods across the free trade area. Described in the New York Times on the day as a symbol of the "political and economic paralysis of the continent", the protests involved over 10,000 trucks blocking movement in protest against checks that often delayed drivers for periods of 24 hours and more. The response to the chaos was the now maligned Schengen Agreement, originally involving France, Germany and the Benelux countries, which committed their public authorities from impeding the movement of goods and persons at frontiers in order to carry out document checks.
The Schengen area expanded across the next decade to cover 29 European countries including four that are not members of the EU. Only the island nation of Great Britain held out against its logic, feeding an anxiety about foreigners at its borders which eventually produced its fully-blown Brexit.
But for the author the story of fast passage across the border zones has to be weighed against other Schengen developments which set freedom of movement against other civil liberties. European governments obsessed over the fact that their territories included not only citizens of member states, whose rights had been secured by the treaties and conventions, but also many so-called third country nationals - by some estimates as many as 29 million people making up around 6 per cent of the total population. Where they intended to benefit from freedom of movement as well?
The answer is no. The vision of the footloose and unpredictable cosmopolitan loomed too large in the European imagination to be allowed to escape forms of control which could not longer be carried out at border crossings. The tool for doing this was provided by the massive new databases made possible by information technology and the Schengen system committed itself to making full use of them. Records of non-citizens held by member states were combined into the Schengen Information System and made available to police agencies to maintain surveillance over third country nationals and monitor their movements. Commitments to a universal right to private life were called into question as states faced up to new obligations to share personal information with authorities in other jurisdictions.
Concern about the SIS had the effect of undermining support for open borders among groups who might have otherwise be counted on to give freedom of movement their full support. Robbed of a reliable support base, the Schengen system itself has become more vulnerable to criticism from political forces trading on xenophobia and anti-immigration anxieties. This is where we have got to today, with Schengen, though still notional place as the default for movement, in fact routinely violated as national authorities suspend its operation for reasons which were not intended to be permissible in the original agreement. Europe without borders has become a more problematic proposition as nationalistic moods rise across the region.
Stanley-Becker concludes his history with a stirring chapter on one social movement which stood out as both a staunch supporter of freedom of movement and also of the right of people to live without the shadow of constant surveillance and restraints on their private lives; the sans papiers of France. At around the time when the first Schengen agreement was being concluded, in March 1986, the French police raided a church in the Goutte d'Or neighbourhood of Paris to break up the protest of a group of African immigrants who had adopted the name 'sans papiers' - 'without papers' or undocumented in English. The African Collective of Saint-Ambroise, as they had been know up to that time, became the heart of a social and political movement that brought a much larger segment of liberal and progressive opinion onto their side in the following months. Stanley-Becker credits their movement as the point of proclamation of free movement as a human right, available to all people irrespective of their nationality.
If this book comes at a low time for Europe without borders generally, in reaching the conclusion of his history in his account of the sans papiers Stanley-Becker points to one group more embedded in European society than is given credit by national authorities - 'illegals', 'undocumented', 'clandestines', or whatever - and makes them the bearers of a human right which has yet to be given legal form but which might yet prove to be the only real guarantee of a Europe with borders - vive le droit à la libre circulation!
April 28, 2025
all reviews in one place:
night mode reading
; skaitom nakties rezimu
My Opinion: Honestly, at first, I was a bit iffy about author’s almost condescending tone on this “experiment”. But as I kept reading, I understood it better, and think it’s a great book after all. It explains why Schengen Area as such was created, how it was back then, what caused it to evolve, and how did it evolve. Not to mention, it draws attention to a need to evolve it farther. And whilst I greatly disagree with some statements, others make perfect sense. Aside from the message it provides, the book is well written, and easy to understand. It touches upon some very important subjects, including Ukraine, pointing out a very notable key point today: Ukraine’s Maidan of Freedom was a protest to join EU. And there are many more such protests out there today. No one protests to leave (you can just leave, as proof by Brexit). And no one protests to join Russia. So, without us really acknowledging it, the EU has evolved again, already. We should’ve taken a note back then and done something about it. But since we haven’t, maybe it’s time we do more now.
A solid read, 4 out of 5. What a beautiful family Europe is. No better time to be proud, and take others, willing, in, with open arms.
My Opinion: Honestly, at first, I was a bit iffy about author’s almost condescending tone on this “experiment”. But as I kept reading, I understood it better, and think it’s a great book after all. It explains why Schengen Area as such was created, how it was back then, what caused it to evolve, and how did it evolve. Not to mention, it draws attention to a need to evolve it farther. And whilst I greatly disagree with some statements, others make perfect sense. Aside from the message it provides, the book is well written, and easy to understand. It touches upon some very important subjects, including Ukraine, pointing out a very notable key point today: Ukraine’s Maidan of Freedom was a protest to join EU. And there are many more such protests out there today. No one protests to leave (you can just leave, as proof by Brexit). And no one protests to join Russia. So, without us really acknowledging it, the EU has evolved again, already. We should’ve taken a note back then and done something about it. But since we haven’t, maybe it’s time we do more now.
A solid read, 4 out of 5. What a beautiful family Europe is. No better time to be proud, and take others, willing, in, with open arms.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews