Contemporary migrations: Walls as a source of (in)security

Abstract

At the beginning, this paper firstly analyses the duality of borders, as a place of contact and a place of misunderstandings, tensions, and quite often, of open conflicts, and this is done from two points of view: social and security. The first one refers to social foundations of a border, widely accepted as mutual recognition of one's self and others, while the second dimension brings to the forefront the strong analogy between borders and walls. As the first aspect most often relates to wider social engagement, the second is closely tied to security element of border management, or the securing of the phenomenon and reacting to it using a range of repressive "tools". It is the second dimension of the observation of the problem that leads us to the world of contemporary walls in front of (and around) which different relations occur with pronounced (in)security. The focal issue of this paper is the extent to which the current walls are the factor of safety, and to what extent they generate instability. On the basis of the conducted research procedure, this paper concludes that walls reinforce the sovereignty claim of a state, but they cannot be an efficient security measure for the inhabitants of border areas and members of migrant population.