The EU’s New Pact📘 on Migration and Asylum will come into force in June 2026. It’s the most ambitious overhaul of Europe’s migration system in a decade. However, behind the Pact’s language of “efficiency” and “solidarity” lies a major shift in how borders, crises, and people are governed.
On Oct 26, Europe turns clocks back an hour. Seems routine, but it's sovereignty in action - states coordinating when you wake up, go to work, when shops open. This is a form of temporal border that's so invisible but shapes daily life across territories.⏰ #EurAsianBorderLab #BorderStudies
Our field trip to the Saatse Boot - a bizarre Russian corridor through Estonia - became the story itself. Hours after crossing, authorities shut it down due to military concerns. Monique Taylor examines what happened in @lowyinstitute.bsky.social's the interpreter👇 borderlab.eu/news/saatse-...
Rivers🚣 seem like the obvious choice for borders. They’re visible, they’re definitive, and they move slowly (or so we assume). For centuries, diplomats loved them precisely because they appeared to be nature’s own boundary markers, requiring no human intervention. But rivers don’t read treaties!
Jussi P. Laine has published a new chapter in the Routledge Handbook of European Borderlands, edited by James W. Scott and Thomas M. Wilson. 🔗 borderlab.eu/research-new... (open access) #EurAsianBorderLab
From October 12, a new EU-wide Entry/Exit System (EES) will be introduced across European countries, including Estonia, to register third-country nationals entering and leaving the Schengen area.
When Mia Tran pinned a single letter to her mother on a gallery wall in Saigon, she didn’t expect what happened next. Thousands of strangers covered that wall with Post-it notes - secrets, longings, grief they’d never spoken aloud. An art exhibition became a space where people could finally be seen.
Healthcare systems have long operated as sorting mechanisms, but the pandemic exposed just how political and uneven this sorting is.🌍 Vaccine access was not dictated by medical need but by entrenched infrastructures of wealth and power, leaving many frontline workers in the Global South unprotected.
New research from our Lab member Mikel Venhovens reveals how ethnic Georgian minorities survive in Abkhazia’s Gal(i) borderlands - caught between systematic suppression and impossible choices.
The first runner-up essay from our volumetric borders contest is now live, and it reveals how healthcare has become a battlefield of invisible barriers.🏥 Gwen Petrina Latenri Tappu, a medical student from #Indonesia, was selected from over 300 global submissions for "Bodies, bytes, and borders."
A rare opportunity is emerging for researchers worldwide🌍, particularly those working outside dominant Western frameworks. The Fez Border Studies Conference II actively centres Global South perspectives, Indigenous knowledge systems, and alternative approaches to understanding borders and security.
Recently, we hosted scholars from National Taiwan University, Prof. Po-Yi Hung and Dr. Mei-Huan Chen, for a fascinating exploration of maritime🌊governance and territorial dynamics.
Writing alone is brutal. Your argument feels solid in your head, but translating it to the page? Different story.🤦 PGSG’s Early Career Article Workshop puts you in conversation with other political geographers working through the same struggles.
This day in 1991, #Estonia restored its independence after decades of Soviet rule. It was a moment of defiance and solidarity. People stood guard at Tallinn’s television tower, protected ministries with their bodies, and made the fragile promise of sovereignty tangible through collective courage.
Part of a €2 million plan, Estonia has begun installing metal gates and drive-through barriers🚧 on the Narva border bridge to tighten security and prevent unauthorised crossings. 🔗https://borderlab.eu/estonia-news/estonia-installs-gates-and-barriers-at-narva-border-bridge/ #borderstudies
Remote sensing has become one of the most powerful tools for shaping borders, without setting foot on land. From space, a single image can legitimise a claim, expose a trespass, or erase a village from view. Visibility itself becomes a form of control. 🛰️
As our project enters its final stretch, we’re shifting the conversation from papers and reports to real voices. “Borders and Beyond” is our new interview series - unfiltered, unhurried, and grounded in the realities of those who live and work at the edge of borders, policy, and power.⚡
Borders and Beyond - Episode 1
YouTube video by Eur-Asian Border Lab
youtu.be
The "big bad wolf"🐺 has returned to the Alps after a century, and Border Lab Summer School participant Dr Claire Galloni d'Istria is documenting what happens next. Full spotlight👇 borderlab.eu/blog/the-big... #eurasianborderlab #borderstudies #visualanthropology
#BRIT2025 brought global border scholars to a living borderland in Cyprus. Eur-Asian Border Lab’s Karin Dean & Jussi Laine joined the final roundtable on border scholarship and societal impact. 📸 Karin Dean with one of the conference organisers and an old schoolmate, Professor Eiki Berg.
At the heart of division: Eur-Asian Border Lab at BRIT XVII in Cyprus - Eur-Asian BorderLab
Karin Dean and Jussi P. Laine from the Eur-Asian Border Lab participated in the “Border Regions in Transition XVII" conference held from 25-30 May 2025 at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) ...
borderlab.eu
In our latest blog, Leonie Arendt, anthropologist & intern at EUREGIO, shares reflections from the Dutch-German borderlands. Her piece offers a glimpse into how cross-border cooperation operates... in the quiet negotiations of administration, education, and daily life. 👇 borderlab.eu/blog/belongi...
Belonging without borders: Reflections from an anthropologist interning at the EUREGIO - Eur-Asian BorderLab
By Leonie Arendt BA Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology, University of Amsterdam As an anthropologist, […]
borderlab.eu
New publication alert!🧭 Eur-Asian Border Lab core member Jussi P. Laine has contributed to a newly published Geopolitical Forum in the journal #Geopolitics, alongside 12 scholars from around the globe. 📖Dive in: borderlab.eu/news/geopoli... #eurasianborderlab #borderstudies
Forty years after the signing of the Schengen Agreement🔗, what began as a bold experiment in dismantling internal European borders now stands as both a triumph of integration and a mirror to its contradictions.
When people hear “opium,” it’s often through the lens of crime, addiction, or distant colonial history. But in Southeast Asia’s highland border regions, particularly in northern #Myanmar, opium isn’t just a drug crop🌿. It’s a political tool, an economic lifeline, and a survival strategy.
@frontex.bsky.social, the EU’s Border and Coast Guard Agency, is considering establishing a regional command centre in Narva-Jõesuu, a move that would send both symbolic and strategic signals.
A research sprint. A border-themed bingo. Deep questions over dinner in a yurt.✨And it’s only Wednesday. What a time we are having! #eurasianborderlab #borderlabsummerschool #Bishkek2025
Bishkek backdrop?✅ Global thinkers in one room?✅ Conversations that push boundaries? Double✅ The Border Lab Summer School 2025 is officially underway in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan! We'll keep you updated.😉 🔗https://borderlab.eu/border-lab-summer-school-2025/ #eurasianborderlab #borderlabsummerschool
Borders might feel permanent, but they’re not. They shift, dissolve, and reappear... Here are a few recent examples. 🔹 Sudan & South Sudan (2011): After two brutal civil wars and a landmark peace deal, South Sudan became the world’s newest independent country in 2011.
📣Eur-Asia Border Lab Foorum!!! 📅 9. mail kl 14.30-16 📍Tallinna Ülikoolis, ruum M-649 Osaluse eelregistreerimine 5.mai 2025 SIIN.👇 //https://borderlab.eu/events/eur-asia-border-lab-foorum-kiirenenud-muutused-piirid-ja-loodetud-tulevikud-energiaturvalisuses/ #eurasianborderlab #borderstudies
Last week, the Eur-Asian Border Lab hosted a full-day workshop at Tallinn University, exploring inter- and intra-ethnic connectivities in boundless Southeast Asia. Dive into our recap.✨ 🔗 borderlab.eu/news/explori... #eurasianborderlab #borderstudies #southeastasia #tallinnuniversity
Call for essays on volumetric borders and bordering!🚨 From the depths of the seas to outer space, from the Arctic’s changing landscape to cyberspace, the space we inhabit is expanding. Now, we must rethink the very foundations of how we understand borders.
