Seminar: Fencing off Europe:

How Legal and Physical Infrastructures Suspend Asylum at the EU’s Eastern Borders

This seminar examines how access to asylum is being suspended at the EU’s eastern borders through the combined effects of new national legislation, physical border barriers, and the closure of border crossing points. Drawing on legal doctrinal analysis and on-site observations in Finland and Poland, the presentation explores how law and space co-constitute a securitized border regime in response to the so-called ‘instrumentalization of migration’ by Russia and Belarus.

The seminar argues that recent legal reforms and border infrastructures reinforce a restrictive security framework that undermines fundamental rights and facilitates unlawful pushbacks. It further addresses how the framing of migration as a security threat is used to justify exceptional measures across multiple levels of EU border governance – from fences and legislation to political discourse – thereby restricting rights that are otherwise considered absolute.

The seminar is based on an article-in-progress, and participants who would like to read the draft ahead of the seminar are very welcome to get in touch. Please contact kristina.wejstal@sh.se if you would like to receive a copy.