I am American and I have never seen photos like this. I had no idea there are borders like this. Even though I LOVE the idea of open borders, I am staring at these pictures like “wait…people can just…walk across some stones or grass and BE IN ANOTHER COUNTRY??? and nobody stops them?? how does that WORK?!” So you can tell that my country’s propaganda has gotten to me by convincing me that this CAN’T work even though…it…obviously can.
These pics just seem unreal to me. I’ve been taught my whole life that this can’t exist. In 27 years no one has ever sat me down and gone, look, here’s how it is elsewhere. It isn’t impossible at all.
French person here and where I live right now? I can take a walk and end up in Belgium by accident without even realizing it. Not kidding, when I first moved here, I took a small walking path and quickly ended up on a road I’d never seen before. I hadn’t taken my phone because I didn’t expect to be out for long (and even like that my walk lasted barely one hour). To make sure I wouldn’t get lost, I asked for directions and followed the road.
The next thing I knew, a “Bienvenue en Belgique/France” sign was in front of me. I had walked into Belgium without noticing and the man I asked for directions didn’t even blink when I asked for a French village. Because it’s that normal here.
The idea of taking this kind of walk and ending up in front of armed lines is terrifying to me and I’m so sorry that it’s what some people are used to.
The fact that you didn’t get detained or even questioned blows my mind.
The more I learn about the rest of the world, the more I realize why our education is so shitty here: they don’t want us to know how bad it really is.
I once took a ride on a bike to visit my ex from Germany, I live so close to there
Here’s some other pics from the borders of Europe:
It is irresponsible to decontextualize “open borders” between European Union countries when increasingly the external borders of the EU are becoming militarized and enforced, to the extent that countries are now criminalizing and attempting to prosecute NGO rescue operations to save drowning people in the Mediterranean, accusing rescuers of being people smugglers. In the background at an institutional level, the EU makes disastrous deals with Turkey and Libya in order to capitulate to right wing anti-migrant sentiment at the expense of human lives and commitment to the right of asylum. In 2019, nearly 1100 people drowned trying to cross to Europe. In the first 6 weeks of 2020, 99 people have already died.
I don’t say this to lecture anyone, but it is an extreme misrepresentation of the situation to discuss “open borders” in Europe and remove it from the broader reality where these borders are violently enforced - directly by police or militaries and indirectly by policy - against certain “categories” of people. I don’t think this discussion can be had without understanding who is excluded and why. These pictures represent a false image of a free world that falls apart when examined even a bit critically.
The western world consistently militarizes its borders in order to maintain its control over who has access to its resources, whether that border is in the desert between Arizona and Mexico or the sea between Italy and Libya.
IED Tracy Concept, 2020. The masters students of the Istituto Europeo di Design have come up with a “new concept of mobility” for this year’s Geneva Motor Show. It’s a compact electric runabout intended for both public and private use, on- and off-road. The trick is seating up to 6 passengers in an overall length of just 3.74 metres thanks to the innovative seating arrangement
