Borders

Hundreds of desperate Chechen refugees are still stranded on the Belarusian border, waiting to enter the EU. Many locals are sceptical of the newcomers — but some have stood up to help.

A year has passed since activists occupied a decaying hotel in Athens, accommodating 400 migrants. In the fourth part of ‘Stories from the Babel Archipelago’ Michal Pavlásek looks at this alternative model of integration.

Talk Real presents ‘Talk Real – Art Real’, a series of episodes about artistic projects and social practices from grassroots movements that aim to counteract the dominant discourses of crisis and threat in the so-called “refugee crisis”.

*This article is part of a five-part series, available to read here.  In summer 2015, Greeks awoke from a short dream that they associated with the left-wing party Syriza. At the time Tsipras´s party made Greeks feel that they had someone they could rely on in the hard times of austerity, someone who would defend their […]

I was asked to write an article in defence of no borders. This article isn’t really that, because I don’t believe it needs defending. But I would like to explain it a little. To break the myths, if you’ve heard any at all, of no borders as either an obscure brand of radical left politics, […]

*This article is part of a five-part series, available to read here. Over the last decade many social and community centres have been created or expanded in response to Greece’s economic crisis. Today unemployment in the country remains at 25%, rising to over 50% among young people. Meanwhile as a result of austerity measures, pensions […]

When I ask him if he has any plans for the future, he just shrugs his shoulders: “Here? Here there is no future. Prison was bad, but you don´t find your future outside either.” He offers me a cigarette, and we stand in silence. A boy sitting on scorched grass watches as we say goodbye […]

On a quiet street in the Sicilian mountain town of Castelbuono there’s a tall stone house that looks like all the others on Via Mangano. Inside, though, a very different life unfolds. Fourteen African teenagers, under the watch of government-paid caretakers and counselors, live in a parallel world. These boys are Castelbuono’s refugee and migrant children […]

Across the EU, citizens face increasing insecurity in their rights, attacks against their persons and even threats of deportation. The nature and the consequences of this insecurity and the drivers of hostility can be different, in particular between Western and Eastern Europe: it has never been so urgent to address this issue by being active across Europe and advocate for mobile citizens rights.

Poland can become a great place to start democratising Europe through enhanced social dialogue on the future of the continent, but a blanket espousal of liberal democracy will be counterproductive.