Schengen ain't what it used to be
savageevan.com
savageevan.com
Unfortunately, Schengen has made it easy for organized crime. On the simpler end, for example, bicycle theft, cargo bike theft, and electric bike battery theft have exploded, and the police do not have the resources to solve it. When they occasionally caught the perpetrators and deported them, a couple of months could pass before they encountered the same people again. There is a lot of that kind of thing in Denmark, and unfortunately, it is often people from Eastern European countries who are behind it. I am not far-right, but it is a fact. The ironic thing is that border control doesn’t really solve anything. There is no control when you drive out of the country (possibly with stolen goods), and there is no round-the-clock passport control at all border crossings.
A FlixBus coming from Denmark is likely to be checked in Flensburg.
Therefore people who can afford more expensive means of transportation don’t see the border checks as much.
The modern EU economy can't function if you were to thoroughly check every single vehicle transiting a border. The costs to the economy would far outpace whatever some Eastern Europe Rroma thieves can steal from someone's back yard, nor do I wish to be checked every single time I cross a border just because I might have a stolen bike in my trunk. Imagine how US's economy would be if they had border checks between states.
Also, EU border checks when they are in place, are mostly restricted to the major roads, but small country roads at borders have no checks, so the truly bad people wishing to cause harm have so many ways of crossing the porous EU border undetected, while the innocent Average Joe has to be stuck in border checks for hours.
So the hole EU border checks thing is just a security theater anyway, causing economic harm and frustration just to look tough for the right wing voters but brining no actual security benefit, except for catching the really really dumb criminals.
Also I live in Switzerland an no border is controlled permanently, generally I only was controlled once many years ago.
In a pure economic efficiency sense you might very well be right. But the "illusion" that borders without border control used to give shouldn't be completely disregarded either. Pre 2015 (and Corona) when you could just roam around without ever showing ID just felt very different. It didn't feel like I was moving between distinct and sovereign countries, but more like moving between states in the U.S: "Oh now we crossed in to Texas cowboy noises".
Especially if you live in a border region (e.g Malmö-Copenhagen) and commute across the border, you really feel the difference and might even consider stop doing that because of hassle and increases in travel time.
During corona the closed Finish/Swedish border in Happaranda/Torneå just felt surreal, most warlike experience I've ever had. These cities are essentially one, and all of a sudden families, friends, businesses and their employees were split with fences and armed people stopping them.
Last summer I was half way from Amsterdam to Berlin in my van when I remembered I had forgot my passport. I am an American citizen with a Netherlands residency permit, and I remembered the experience the previous summer so I turned around and blew my first day on extra travel. I passed through 4 countries on that trip and I never needed my passport.
This approach would greatly reduce the smuggling of illegal immigrants (which, in my opinion, happens because many Southern and - especially - Eastern national borders are porous due to easily bribable border guards). Sadly, I don’t see this happening anytime soon.
> And yet: countries like Denmark are safer and more prosperous than ever before.
Maybe ask the Swedes about how things are going there (apart from internet hyperboles, which tend to exaggerate things)
The problem with the current asylum system is basically anyone can come in and say: "look, Russia, US, UK, France and coalition blew up my middle eastern country, so now countries like Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Austria who had nothing to do with it, need to give me asylum to me and my whole family, simple" which makes the system very easy to be gamed as the ECHR forces you to accept anyone who crosses your border and claims asylum with a well rehearsed sob story.
So, is there any surprise of the growth of right wind in Europe? The bigger issue is that voting right wing won't solve this since they legally can't, it's not under their control but the ECHR, so we just keep moving right while suffering the same immigration issues making it a double whammy.
The solution is to reform the ECHR membership and give sovereignty over asylum policies to the member country instead of an foreign org people can't vote for.
Especially now, when Russia and Belarus are weaponizing illegal migration by giving them visa free travel for money to Russia and Belarus so they can then storm the borders with Finland, Norway and Poland. Recently a Polish soldier working the border with Belarus got stabbed on duty by a migrant trying to force the border[1]. This is obviously unacceptable and should mean proper military response against illegal border crossings.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/polish-soldier-dies-aft...
No-no-no, Denmark took an active part in Iraq invasion and was also invaded Libya. Refugee crisis isn’t just about Syria.
Correction: wrote Usaf instead of ISAF
Austria not Australia.
Not in the list here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participants_in_Operation_Endu...
OEF is an NATO Operation, Austrias policy is not to join any International primary Military Organization.
(about 20% of Tonga's contribution)
Tonga : GDP $000.5b, pop 0.1m
So Tonga 1/1000 GDP and ~1/100 pop contributed 5x more soldiers than Austria.
There's a Coldplay song:
Tonga: "Para-para-para-dise"
Austria: "Para-para-para-site"
Not an easy thing to fix
Honestly there isn't anything serious about such lack of checks. I'd say maybe US or Australia or such have serious checks in place -- EU is nowhere even close.
Still seem worth it overall nevertheless especially considering I already have to live with our local grown racists here anyway.
Was that an actual check that could catch something, or was that just a useless inconvenient?
Because whenever I enter Austria, the "border check" is just a young grunt soldier from his mandatory military service slowing down cars to 30kph and waiving them through. One time that young soldier fell asleep in his booth with his hand out. Probably too much partying the night before so I can imagine his CO wasn't thrilled when he saw that.
So to me, the Schengen border checks are 99% inconvenience and security theater, and 1% actual security.
Entering Germany from west is more controlled than from east (never been checked from Czechia or Poland).
Sorry, but that's just business as usual. Document checks on trains have continued to be a thing despite Schengen since its inception, and are even common on commuter lines. I don't have any hard numbers on their effectiveness, but it's not unusual to see people being detained as a result (which is risky for the detaining agency, as mistakes are quite costly), so I guess there is a net positive there?
Note that, from a passenger PoV, these checks usually consist of "vaguely waving your ID card at the officers passing by" (i.e. less effort than having your ticket checked, which involves interaction with an RFID scanner...), which makes this ominous think-piece even less convincing.
My earliest border police checkpoint was in '87, south east of Phoenix on the way to LA. My buddies from Las Cruces always use to remind us to carry your ids, but then they used to do the beer runs across the border as it was cheaper.
Who here think embedded ID chip is not coming - you know, to save labor costs