Cross-border Barrier and Cross-border Cooperation in Pandemic Crisis: The Case of the Öresund Region

Abstract: In the current European context, the cross-border cooperation ensures free movement, and barriers at borders would not hinder economic flows and citizen's mobility. The border regions featuring high levels of cooperation across the border line usually display decentralizations of national power as the local municipalities play a central role in decision making, which corresponds to the structure proposed in Multi-level Governance (MLG). However, the COVID-19 crisis has made the territorial borders dramatically more important in the pandemic. Based on the background, this study then aims at examining the extent to which cross-border barriers amid crises and cross-border cooperation have been affected. The aim is achieved by conducting a case study to investigate the research question of “How have the corona-related entry policies introduced by Denmark and Sweden affected the cross-border mobility in the "Öresund Region". The findings based on the empirical materials obtained from netnography and semi-structured interviews indicate that the cross-border barriers are reinforced during the pandemic. The imposition of the strict border controls and temporary border closure not only demonstrates the re-centralization of state powers, but also shows how fragile the initially stable and harmonious cooperation between Nordic countries is because of the respective unilateral and inward-looking national decision-making during the pandemic. Finally, we argue that the COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated the existing barriers in the Öresund Region and brought the two European countries back to the age of borders, which leads to a halt in free movement and a low point in Nordic cooperation, and ultimately created a high-level of uncertainty, confusion, and mistrust among residents in the region.