(Re) Bordering during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 border restrictions marked the first time that governments took the same tools that have been used against less privileged migrants and asylum seekers and turned them on citizens from countries that had long enjoyed relatively unfettered travel — and sometimes on their own citizens. During the pandemic, those living their lives across borders faced newly constructed and constantly shifting borders re-shaping their mobility. These restrictions went far beyond the most severe, and usually brief, domestic lockdowns limiting internal movements. Such actions were imposed by the same governments that for decades have promoted globalization and are only too willing to profit from the movement of tourists, students and migrant workers. This presentation, based on interviews, secondary sources, and lived experience, assesses the use of borders as a policy response to a growing diversity of ‘external’ threats, spanning from pandemics to terrorism to unauthorized migration. The use of border restrictions during the pandemic accelerated two unfortunate trends – growing nationalism and the breakdown of international cooperation – that have harmed millions of people who live cross-border lives. Covid showed the world that new restraints on government action are needed, that left unchecked governments will continue to increase their capabilities to restrict borders, internalizing them toward their own citizens and residents, with little regard to the collateral damage and disruption they cause.