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In the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, borders have become relevant (again) in political action and in people's everyday lives within a very short time. This was especially true for the inhabitants of border regions, whose cross-border life worlds were suddenly irritated by closed borders and police controls. However, the COVID-19 pandemic also led to an increased evidence of social, cultural, economic, health and mobility boundaries beyond national borders, which raised pressing questions about social inequalities. The authors shed light on these dynamics from the perspective of territorial borders, social boundaries and (dis)continuities in border regions through a variety of thematic and spatial approaches. The critical observations and scientific comments were made during the lockdown in April and May 2020 and provide insights into the events during the global pandemic.
The Covid-19 pandemic and the related border restrictions have had numerous social, economic and political consequences for border regions. The temporary border closures impacted not only the lives of borderlanders whose everyday practices are embedded in cross-border spaces, but also the func-tioning of institutional actors involved in cross-border activities. The aim here is to investigate the communication surrounding the pandemic and the reactions and (new) strategies of cross-border insti-tutional actors in the context of (re)bordering. Applying the concept of resilience, this paper explores coping mechanisms and modes of adaptation as well as strategies developed to adjust to new circum-stances. Against this backdrop, factors that enhanced or hindered the adaptation process were identi-fied. The German-Polish borderland serves here as a case study, although it will be situated within a wider European context.
The global spread of the coronavirus pandemic has particularly dramatic consequences for the lives of migrants and refugees living in already marginalised and restricted conditions, whose ongoing crisis is at risk of being overlooked. But refugees are not only extremely vulnerable and at risk of infection, as several reports show, quickly develop their own protection measures like the production of hygienic products, the publication of their situation and calls for action and help. Therefore, this paper aims to research the effects of the coronavirus crisis on refugees in camp settings with a special ethnographic focus on how refugees actively deal with this crisis and if they, through already developed resilience, are capable of adapting to the restrictions as well as inventing strategies to cope with the difficult situation. To account for the variety of refugee camps as well as the different living conditions due to their locality, history and national asylum politics, we will look at three different locations, namely refugee asylum homes in Germany, hotspots on the Greek islands as well as one refugee camp in Kenya. The main questions will be how, under structurally and institutionally framed conditions of power and victimisation in refugee camps, forms of agency are established, made possible or limited. The goal is to show which strategies refugees apply to cope with the enhanced restrictions and exclusion, how they act to protect themselves and others from the virus and how they present and reflect their situation during the coronavirus pandemic. Finally, this discussion offers a new perspective to consider refugees not only as vulnerable victims, but also as actively engaged individuals.