Type: Project Other Data - June 20, 2022, 3:01 p.m.
The main purpose of the study is to present a detailed analysis of flows of population (workers, tourists, students) across the Polish-Ukrainian and Polish-Belarusian borders, which are the external borders of the EU and of the Schengen area. Cross-border movements are presented against the background of economic, political and other developments which may modify cross-border traffic volumes. Flows during the COVID-19 pandemic are treated in a special way.
The Polish eastern border is a perfect place to observe dynamic processes related to changes in the functions of borders: from a completely closed border, freedom of movement at times of political and economic transformations, then restoration of restrictions in connection with the process of accession to the EU and later to the Schengen area, another liberalisation of flows (visa-free regime for Ukrainians), to restrictions related to the pandemic and the associated migration crisis. In addition, flows across the external border of the EU are driven by other de-terminants than those relevant for internal flows. They are primarily political and geopolitical factors (e.g. embargos, the conflict in Ukraine, political crisis in Belarus).
The influence of the above factors is reflected by fluctuations in the size of population flows and shifts in the structure of these flows. When border permeability declines, the volume of border traffic decreases or the structure of crossings by nationality changes. The factors with the strongest impact on the changes in the volume of traffic across the Polish eastern border have included the tightening of the visa regime and the associated difficulties in obtaining vi-sas for Belarusians and Ukrainians, administrative and legislative aspects (e.g. new legislation in Ukraine on duty-free import of goods), and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic has constrained population flows on an unprecedented scale. In the early period of the pandemic, border traffic almost completely died out. The subsequent increases in the number of crossings represented only a small proportion of the pre-pandemic traffic (traffic on the Polish-Ukrainian border has decreased by 2/3, and that on the Polish-Belarusian border by 3/4). The pandemic has had a greater impact on broadly defined tourism flows (shopping tour-ism, small-scale cross-border trade, etc.) than on the movement of workers or students (the latter category even saw an increase in 2019-2020).
The research conducted confirm indirectly the working hypothesis about the interdependence between movements of people across the EU’s external border and the spatial structure of internal flows (especially in the case of migration). This is an important hint for future research into flows, which should not be limited to the borders of the EU and the ESPON space.
Keywords
Migration, cross-border flows, Polish-Ukrainian border, Polish-Belarusian border