Testing Borders: Covid-19 and the Management of (Im)mobility

The article investigates the implications of the global pandemic for the management of borders and for border crossing. The outbreak of the pandemic is interpreted as a mobility crisis and the management of the crisis takes therefore primarily the form of a governmental management of mobility. The article describes such management from the angle of human mobility (migration) and investigates the manifold measures of border reinforcement that were taken in different parts of the world. But it also focuses on the proliferation of internal borders particularly surrounding and steering the life and labor of "essential workers". The attention paid to human mobility is complemented in the second part of the article by an analysis of the impact of the pandemic on the mobility of "stuff" (meaning primarily commodities) and on the operations of logistics. A general question regarding the future organization of mobilities in the wake of Covid-19 concludes the article.