The walls of Europe | How did we shift from 'Refugees Welcome' to fortress-like thinking?

Shortly after the onset of the 2015 refugee crisis, Viktor Orban, Hungary's Prime Minister, made an unprecedented decision for a country that had, until then, never exhibited any aversion to asylum seekers. Characterising the arrival of migrants as an "invasion" and a "threat" to Europe, he announced the construction of a barrier along the entire border with Serbia. At that time, the Hungarian leader stood as a solitary voice in the halls of Brussels while the Union showed commitment to the provision of refuge to victims of the Syrian civil war.

Today, we know that Orban was not destined to become an outcast but rather a pioneer.

"Nobody will admit it in this town, but yes, Orban's narrative is prevailing", confessed a senior Brussels official to Politico in 2017. Only two years had passed, but the transformation was already striking. Virtually all European leaders who had once championed the humanitarian duty of hosting refugees had abandoned their rhetoric, apprehensive of the rising popularity of those parties echoing the Hungarian leader's arguments. The concept of "Fortress Europe" was departing from its academic origins to firmly establish itself at the core of the continental psyche.

What was once a solitary discourse on the fringes of the EU has now become the norm. Whether in the far-right governments of Poland and Italy, the right-wing ones of Greece and Austria, the liberal administrations of France or the Netherlands, or the left-wing ones of Spain or Germany, one will be unable to find any policy contrary to the maintenance and expansion of border fences. Even within the German government, which once stood as the primary standard-bearer of refugee solidarity, the Green Party now calls for an acceleration of migrant deportations.

As Donald Trump keenly understood when he launched his now infamous 2016 presidential campaign, walls and barriers carry potent symbolism. There is no more visually compelling and direct way to sell a solution to a country’s migration challenges. Yet, decades of failed policies have demonstrated that no border wall, regardless of its scale or scope, can halt the inexorable flow of global migration dynamics.

The cases reported along the now seemingly endless walls of Fortress Europe once again underscore a reality that remains impervious to simplistic solutions: hard borders do not dissuade migration; instead, they engender hard border dynamics. They redirect migrants and refugees towards more perilous routes, escalating the incidence of fatalities, whether in the treacherous waters of the Mediterranean Sea, the dense forests near Poland and Hungary, or the narrow corridors between the border posts of Melilla.