Published 03:49 IST, November 5th 2019
Walls continue to rise 30 years after fall of Berlin Wall: Report
Walls continue to rise 30 years after the fall of Berlin Wall with Brexit and strict immigration laws in US leading to the construction of US-Mexico border wall
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Transnational Institute, an Amsterdam-based think-tank wrote in its "Building Walls" report in 2018 that walls, both real and imaginary are being constructed everywhere. While Berlin Wall physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989 following which it came down, barriers and isolationism have continued to state the report. US President Donald Trump's Mexico border wall is amongst the recent magnanimous examples of walls being built to separate nations which have set a wave of barriers from the West Bank's "separation barrier" to the anti-migrant fence in Hungary facing Serbia and Croatia. Though people rejoiced the fall of the Berlin wall and hoped to an end to isolationism, it seems the vision was short-lived, said Alexandra Novosseloff, a senior researcher at the International Peace Institute in New York in a statement to media. The recent strong instances of walls are that between the US and Mexico and the US' Government's anti-migrant policies, also Britain's exit from the European Union.
She added that walls have multiplied since the fall of the Berlin wall which occurred 30 years ago and they are all physical, political and legislative right now.
Globalization led to nationalism
Globalization too has fuelled nationalism claims Bruno Tertrais, deputy director of the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris in his statement. The rush of freedom made people rethink their national identity and that led to the 9/11 attacks, Tertrais added. The event was a major factor that led to the multiplication of further barriers in the US and created a barrier of fear and threat amongst all nations. There was a sense of paranoia and erosion of political freedoms post the incident, wrote Raphael Bossong of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin in a blog entitled "New Walls I: Militarizing Borders in Europe" for the Bertelsmann Stiftung research foundation. Economic shocks, rising inequality and a growing political backlash against globalization led to a resurgence of nationalism in the West, he added.
There are about 70 to 75 walls which are being built simultaneously across the world, told Elisabeth Vallet, a political analyst at Canada's Universite du Quebec a Montreal (UQAM) to the media.
People are now more vulnerable and seek more protection due to globalization claimed Former French diplomat Michel Foucher, author of "The Return of Borders". Foucher adds that at a time when populism is growing fast, a wall is a quick solution that a populist government can quickly exploit. According to the Transnational Institute, member states of the European Union and Schengen Area have constructed almost 1,000 km of walls, the equivalent of more than six times the total length of the Berlin Wall, since the nineties to prevent displaced people migrating into Europe. Yet they have not stopped any form of infiltration or smuggling.
Foucher said that the wall serves as a metaphor, it is supposed to calm our fears.
03:48 IST, November 5th 2019