The police officer, armed, stops the car. “Where are you going? Where does it come from? Identify yourself.” He checks the passport and after a glance at the vehicle, orders: “Continue.” This is one of Germany’s border controls with Austria. It is located on the A-3 motorway, which leads into German territory from the small Austrian town of Schärding, in the northwest of the country. Border inspection should not exist because both countries are members of the Schengen area in the EU, but the immigration debate once again raises barriers between the Twenty-seven. The Government of Berlin, faced with the rise of the far-right AfD and the latest terrorist attacks, has expanded controls to all its borders to stop irregular immigration. “Austria will not accept people who are returned from Germany. There is no room for maneuver,” the Austrian Interior Minister, the conservative Gerhard Karner, reacted angrily upon learning of the measure, which came into force on September 16.
In reality, German inspections at that border are nothing new. They have been carried out since the wave of refugees in 2015. But Karner’s party, the ÖVP, in the Government, also wants to show firmness. A new Parliament is elected on Sunday, and the Austrian ultras, with their rejection of migration and asylum as their flag, are ahead of the popular ones as first in the polls.
“I rarely go to the German side, so I don’t notice anything about the controls, but I have customers who complain that there are traffic jams on the highway,” says Daniela Piereder, 48, in the clothing store where she He works in Schärding (about 5,500 inhabitants), in a postcard-perfect main square with its colorful facades and baroque architecture, which these days of good weather is full of day-trippers.
From there you cannot see any border control, and if you go down to the Inn River promenade, through whose waters the border passes on maps, only the bridges that cross it and lead to the German Neuhaus am Inn are visible. The inhabitants of the area use them to avoid the traffic jams of German control. There is apparently no surveillance, but the German police claim that they do not always move around in uniform. “It doesn’t mean we’re not there,” explains Passau police spokesman Daniel Gibis, in a conversation at the motorway checkpoint.
In a Eurobarometer last July on the EU’s priorities, Austrians ranked irregular immigration as the Union’s biggest challenge, above average. The country registered between 2015 and 2023 some 408,000 asylum requests (data from the Ministry of the Interior), with Syrians and Afghans as the largest groups; The Russian invasion brought 120,000 fled Ukrainians who have European protected status. Austria is thus among the EU members with the most reception in relation to its population, of about nine million inhabitants.
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Concern about migration and integration problems also emerges in conversations with residents of Schärding, with opinions ranging from favorable to skeptical about the usefulness of the controls. “I see them well, you have to know who comes and goes, and not only to fight against human trafficking,” says Martina Zauner, a 40-year-old administrator in the Schärding center. Passengers are also inspected on trains that cross from Austria to Germany and Stephanie Lehner, 36, who is traveling with two of her four children, approves of it “if it serves to increase security.” “They should have done controls before to avoid endless immigration. It was obvious that there would be problems. I used to live in Vienna, where it is more noticeable. I am not against asylum, but many are economic migrants,” explains this woman, a yoga trainer who does not trust that the next Government will solve anything. That’s why he says he has decided not to vote.
The recipes of the popular Austrians to reduce migratory pressure include more expulsions when asylum is denied, centers outside the EU for processing and conditions for access to social services. And strict compliance with the EU migration pact, which the Government defends is restrictive thanks to pressure from countries like Austria. Perhaps as a nod to the toughest members on migration policy, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has chosen the Austrian Magnus Brunner as commissioner of the portfolio.
The program of the ultras of the Freedom Party (FPÖ) increases several degrees in toughness and does not stop in the face of possible breaches of international law. The party wants to at least temporarily suspend the right to asylum, erect fences along stretches of the border and reduce health care for protection seekers to the basics. Their measures especially reject Muslims, who do not fit their idea of a “homogeneous” population and who they associate with terrorism and crime.
Mostafa Shiraz, a 40-year-old Syrian Kurd, runs up a slope behind the main square in Schärding. You are in a hurry to extend your parking payment, you are worried about breaking the rules. He has lived in this small town in Upper Austria for seven years. He received asylum after fleeing the war in Syria, is married and has twins aged three years and four months. He works in the kitchen of a restaurant and is sympathetic to the rejection of some Austrians. “I understand the debate, there are many wars and people fleeing. It’s not easy for them, but if you work, they respect you. Here the majority is friendly,” he says in German, which for him “has been the most difficult thing to learn.”
The social democrats, the Greens and, in part, the liberals have an impact on the need to offer more language classes and faster access to the labor market to promote integration. Seeing asylum seekers “idling” in parks because they do not have work permits makes people angry, Social Democratic candidate Andreas Babler has said.
The immigration debate has intensified again in the electoral campaign. But at the border in Schärding it is less noticeable. The Austrian police do not monitor the border with Germany, vehicles come and go without restrictions. Despite issuing warnings against Berlin due to possible returns of migrants, the Austrian Ministry of the Interior also takes measures and has long secured its border with Hungary. Now he is proud of the “drastic decline” in irregular entries and arrests of alleged human traffickers. He considers that the “strict control” in front of Hungary has diverted irregular entry routes, which means that fewer migrants arrive in Germany through Austrian soil, according to a spokesperson. The German police defend that their controls are also useful. “Every day we have cases. Our main task is to prevent the illegal entry of migrants, but people with arrest warrants for other matters also enter the controls,” explains spokesperson Gibis. Germany has returned around 30,000 people to Poland, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Austria since October 2023.
Schärding City Council does not keep statistics on how many foreigners or refugees live in its area. At the national level, 27.2% of the nine million inhabitants have migrant origins, according to 2023 statistics from the Austrian Integration Fund, and 19.7% are foreigners. Followed by Romanians, Turks and Serbs, the largest foreign group is Germans.
This is seen in the streets of Schärding, where Germans walk through the historic center or do their shopping. Like Marlene and Christoph Schröder, 72 and 75 years old, respectively. They have crossed from Germany along secondary roads to buy clothes and consider that the controls have to do with the attempt to weaken the strength of the extreme right and that this does not work. “Schengen was a success and it is very sad that we are taking steps backwards,” he says. His wife elaborates: “Those who live on the border don’t want borders.”
Fritz Gächner, 55, on the other hand, believes that “in general, it is good that it is controlled,” but he would like to see more collaboration between EU members so that this surveillance “takes place at the external border” of the Union. . The controls arrived a long time ago and will remain in place for now. Migrants will also continue to arrive. “The debate is everywhere, not just Austria. We have to work in the places of origin, because in the face of inequality, people look for improvement elsewhere,” says Gächner, a Schärding police officer.
