Borders resurgent: towards a post-Covid-19 global border regime?

Abstract

An immediate political geographic consequence of the global pandemic is the rapid imposition of national and subnational borders, particularly where cross-boundary openness and integration was prevalent. Borders are being reinvigorated as a strategy to contain the virus, which securitizes daily life beyond traditional border sites. We see this resurgence as indicating a new global border regime which is manifest at a variety of scales and will likely outlive the pandemic. Our discussion centers on several possible implications of this process, including further restrictions on immigration and movement, a heightened politics of regionalism, and an expansion of geographic tracking and surveillance.