30 Years of Schengen - Internal blessing, external curse?

The Schengen Agreement celebrated its 30th birthday on June 14. On this occasion Esther Ademmer, Toman Barsbai, Matthias Lücke and Tobias Stöhr, researchers at the Kiel Institute, take stock of the Agreement and argue that the stepwise reduction of border controls in Europe is a blessing for citizens in the Schengen area. But also non-Schengen-states profit from the Agreement, whenever borders are sufficiently permeable. The lack of an appropriately integrated asylum policy, however, increasingly challenges one of the greatest achievements of European integration.