The Irish Times view on Germany’s new border controls: freedom of movement under threat

Germany’s neighbours are concerned about its unilateral decision to impose controls on all its eight borders as a special measure to control irregular immigration. The German interior minister Nancy Faeser said they are for six months but would remain “until we achieve strong protection of the EU’s external borders” when a new common immigration policy is introduced in 2026. The decision could create a snowball affect curtailing the Schengen system of free movement on the continent as domestic political pressures on immigration will feature prominently in political debate.
Germany’s own domestic political pressures are the reason its controls have been introduced. An estimated 300,000 people sought asylum there last year, alongside 124,000 described as illegals and another 50,000 who remained despite expulsion orders. Alongside these figures the estimated 30,000 refused entry by selective border controls since last October is limited, and the latest policy measures vaguely defined.
The issue’s growing political salience was highlighted by the victory in regional elections last week of the far-right AfD party on a crude platform of speedy deportations and benefit cuts for immigrants – and its prospective victory in next week’s Brandenburg voting. The German coalition of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals is faltering ahead of federal elections next year as the Christian Democrat opposition abandons Angela Merkel’s welcoming attitude towards over one million Syrian refugees from 2015.
Other states have taken similar measures, including Hungary, Austria and Denmark, under similar political pressures over immigration and the growth of far-right parties. This puts the commercial and civic benefits of free movement under strain legally as the new EU Commission takes up office. The new common immigration policy is predicated on a joint approach and an orderly transition towards a more restrictive standpoint involving closer co-operation and outsourcing with Mediterranean neighbours. That policy process is disrupted by legally dubious unilateral actions which also undermine the popular Schengen freedom of movement.
Such tensions tend to obscure the deeper reality that Germany and other EU member-states, Ireland included, rely increasingly on immigration to fill crucial demographic shortfalls in their labour markets, just as they face demands for greater investment to restore competitiveness. Alongside this, the EU is making the transition from an era of open globalisation towards a more geopolitical world. It is marked by greater competition for markets between regional blocs and great powers in which climate change forces more people to flee their homelands. Managing these contradictory forces must be a major priority for the incoming EU policy-makers.