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Refugees played a central role in public discourse in the past decade, however, self-representations were marginal. In this article, I analyze the documentary My Escape / Meine Flucht, which portrays the flight of 15 people based on footage from their mobile phones on their journey and interviews. Starting from Foucault's concept of the heterotopia, I approach the Mediterranean Sea as a place in which different power regimes intersect, engage and compete. The self-representation of border-crossing makes the enacted power on refugees visible and challenges common framings of refugees and border-crossing. I pick up the argument that the rise in migration in 2015 offers a healing potential which could mirror the reality in the "Global South" to a European Union (EU) public. I argue that self-representations in media reveal the contradictions in the self-imagination of the EU and its reality. Yet their impact remains limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-border cooperation, border regions, soft spaces? This special issue approaches cross-border informal planning processes in cross-border regions by analysing them from a perspective that combines networks, governance and territorialization. Such a relational perspective will be developed by papers which deal with a variety of European cross-border regions and empirical evidence related to the nexus of networks, governance and territorialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate on border concept or on the dimension and meaning of the border has been regained in the light of the increasing transnational migration, and the national malaise derived from the scarce results of the commercial globalization. The text addresses these issues in a context of notorious political and economic tensions in both Europe and North America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on theories of bordering and mediated witnessing to examine a documentary film that mediates migrants' experiences of bordering in Europe. My analysis of Under den samme himmel/Days of Hope shows how the film captures the multiplicity of bordering practices, from geographical to socio-cultural borderings. The analysis is informed by watching and discussing the film in an immigrant detention facility in Finland with people who experienced and eye-witnessed experiences similar to those depicted in the film. This creates a sense of co-presence of the experiential landscapes in the border zones, and the film invites viewers to consider borders not as lines in the landscape, but as zones and as a form of practice that has consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the cross-border mobility practices of eastern European immigrants across and within European Union (EU) borders, taking into account the changes in the patterns of the EU border regime, which have affected mobility in the last 20 years. Drawing on empirical research with references to in-depth qualitative interviews of eastern immigrants in Spain, this article highlights the ways in which the emerging models of cross-border mobility management are producing new geographies of the EU border. On the one hand,(re)borderingmakes human mobility difficult, while, on the other hand,networked borderingfacilitates mobility. The conclusions confirm that the flexibility of the European border allows the mobility of people, and also indicate that, while crossing borders, eastern Europeans learn about mobility and practice it as citizens of Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Finland's security is integrally linked with its immediate surroundings, Europe, and global development. Given that Finland considers Russia to be one of the main challenges to its security, cross-border security cooperation with it is limited. Over the years the Finnish border authorities have, nevertheless, developed effective joint working practices with their Russian counterparts which provide a unique communication channel, even in the present geopolitical climate. The present paper address the Finnish-Russia security cooperation, and its lack, within a wider European frame and pits the practical experiences against ongoing theoretical discussion on security and threat perceptions. It argues that despite the more multifaceted understandings of borders and the EUropeanised rhetoric, the Finnish-Russian border is still very much a classic state border guarded by two states from their respective perspectives. In the Finnish-Russian case the content of cooperation has more to do with border management than with more coherent border security, as the former is build on a more common ground than the latter. Increased cooperation and Russian convergence with EU models of border security and management would certainly be of benefit, but Russia's willingness to cooperate seems half-hearted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a critical examination of the development of border management in Finland and the Schengen Area, the point of departure being that contemporary performances of border enforcement and security cannot be understood as distinct from the process of neoliberalization. The particular case which is examined is that of the Finnish Border Guard (FBG) service. Border management in Finland provides an interesting case not only because Finland is responsible for controlling the Schengen, European Union-Russian border but also because since Finnish state reforms in the early 1990s, neoliberal rationales have increasingly provided the guidelines for how to calculate and optimize border security. This paper emphasizes that the rationales of border management should be made transparent and opened for public debate. The analysis is structured around the themes of internationalization, competitiveness, risk prevention and the functioning of society, all of which are regarded as the key rationales of neoliberalized border governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Now that we publish the 10th issue of Eurolimes, the editors of the journal intend to sum up the contribution of Eurolimes to the examination of the notion of boundary corresponding to the border-limit in correlation with the notion of border as state boundary. Our journal also aims at showing the way in which the meaning of internal frontiers changes evolving from the national perspective to the community one. On the other hand, we seek to define the future editorial initiatives of the journal towards more punctual topics through the question "Eurolimes, where to?": EU position in an international context with strong mutations after 2010; the impact of policy on the construction of a formal or informal border; the impact of different types of borders on identities; the process of evolution of social borders within the EU Member States, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The image of the European culture is given by the association of the concepts people - culture - history - territory, which provides certain local features. From this relation, we identify a cultural area with local, regional and national features beyond a certain European culture. Thus, we identify at least two cultural identity constructions on the European level: a culture of cultures, that is a cultural area with a particular, local, regional and national strong identity, or a cultural archipelago, that is a common yet disrupted cultural area. Whatever the perspective, the existence of a European cultural area cannot be denied, although one may speak of diversity or of "disrupted continuity". The paper is a survey on the European cultural space in two aspects: 1. Europe with internal cultural border areas; 2. Europe as external cultural-identity border area. From a methodological point of view, we have to point out that despite the two-levelled approach the two conceptual constructions do not exclude each other: the concept of "culture of cultures" designs both a particular and a general identity area. The specific of the European culture is provided precisely by diversity and multiculturalism as means of expression on local, regional, or national levels. Consequently, the European cultural area is an area with a strong identity on both particular and general levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the relationship between fiction narratives and endorsement of multiculturalism and how reading of foreign authors can enrich the reader `s experience and help crossing mental or opinional borders of people. In other words, the aim of this paper is to support reading in general. Education (usually understood as factual information) is commonly used to prevent or eliminate negative effects of xenophobia, racism or any other conflicts between groups of people. Existing work in this field advocates mentioned idea but they do not stress enough emotional side of the problem. Education holds very important role in representation of multiculturalism, on the other hand it very often lacks the emotional aspect of educating which can be found in fiction. The aim of this paper is to display various ways of how (narrative) literature or prose can be useful in bringing nations closer to each other. Literature combines both aesthetic and informative functions and thus explains the cultural background of its author. To know something about a certain entity is only a step to understanding it. Today's Europe needs to function on this kind of principle, it needs to understand Besides political, economical, sociological etc. cooperation, the cultural one represents a very interesting way of how to open borders for our geographical neighbours. The borders that are usually the most difficult to open are those mental ones. Subsequently, all the other questions or conflicts can be dealt with much more easily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By definition border areas are at the margins of the nation-states. In addition to the geographical marginality, people living there are often also marginalised politically, socially and economically. In some of the European border regions, 'unwanted' people, minorities (Sinti, Roma), the disabled, or expatriates have been settled there. In others, 'confident' citizens have been positioned and isolated along the borderline. We focus on the strategies people in the border areas deploy to cope with their marginality and the question of whether they should stay or leave. In contrast to much existing research about migrants, we investigate this issue from the viewpoint of those who have remained and how they legitimise their decision to stay. Their main arguments are: love of the country/home; moral obligation; lack of alternatives. We also explore their view on those who have left. Here, too, their reasoning can have different dimensions, such as: emigration to escape from the poverty of the periphery (economic marginalisation); refuge from political marginalisation; migration for educational or professional reasons. We differentiate between the views of different generations, genders, and the specific visions and contexts of the different communities east and west of the former Iron Curtain. Finally, we study the strategies people use when talking about their future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]