Covid and Schengen

https://www.euractiv.com/section/justice-home-affairs/opinion/the-slow-death-of-schengen/

Already under significant strain due to the immigration crisis and growing nationalist concerns, the Schengen Area of uninhibited visa-free travel and trade which began to be implemented in 1995 is under growing threat – and one greatly exacerbated by the Covid crisis.

Nationalist governments are turning to economic protectionism and coming into conflict with Brussels. Likewise there are growing movements resistant to the free exchange of ideas and certainly immigration. First, there was resistance to internal immigration, migrants coming from other parts of the EU – particularly there was resentment in the West due to migration from the poorer sections in the East and South. But then in 2015 a crisis erupted as economic migrants were joined by both economic and war refugees ranging from Africa to Central Asia.

Nations began to shut down their borders and erect fences. There was defiance toward Brussels and the ideology, not only of Schengen but the entire EU project.

And then Covid hit. This has only exacerbated these tensions. Now there's more economic stress and thus nationalism – as well as resentment toward migrant populations. It's hard to imagine that there won't be more conflicts on the horizon when it comes to open borders. The truth is the nations in the East and the South don't want the open borders because of the migrants coming in from Turkey and the East. Once inside the EU, they can range freely. The wealthy Western nations (while still officially in favour of Schengen) are facing growing internal hostility as the populations of nations like Germany, France, and Italy are tired of internal immigrants from Eastern Europe.

It's a brewing problem that is certain to fuel or at least augment already existing political crises and those looming on the horizon.