ABSTRACT
In scholarship, however, a more complex understanding of borders and their functioning has evolved in recent decades, relativizing the optimistic expectation of the gradual disappearance of borders. Borders do not disappear – not even in a XQL¿HG DQG SUHGRPLQDQWO\ SHDFHIXO (XURSH ± EXW FKDQJH UHDSSHDU EHFRPH varied, and in a certain sense become mobile, and thus they are a part of everyday OLIHIRUPRUHSHRSOHWKDQHYHUEHIRUH1HZPDQ%DOLEDU)XUWKHUPRUH Fredrik Barth’s insight formulated with respect to ethnic groups has become widely accepted: borders do not just hinder communication and the formation of UHODWLRQVKLSVWKH\DOVRFKDQQHODQGSUH¿JXUHWKHPLQDSRVLWLYHZD\%DUWK 1HZPDQDQG3DDVL 2¶'RZG7KLVPRUHGL൵HUHQWLDWHG DSSURDFK which owes much to the integration of concepts and methods from social sciences VRFLRORJ\ VRFLDO DQWKURSRORJ\ HWF DOVR KHOSV UHVHDUFKHUV WR LQYHVWLJDWH XQH[SHFWHGGHYHORSPHQWVDQGWRSURGXFHUHODWHGK\SRWKHVHV2QHVXFKXQH[SHFWHG phenomenon is the often-observed relative stagnation in the cross-border mobility of people after the opening of borders, especially after the Schengen agreements, as for example on the Dutch-German border.2
