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How were things before the EU and Schengen area were formed? Has it always been legal to cross Dutch-Belgian border in this town, or did people get in trouble f

How were things before the EU and Schengen area were formed? Has it always been legal to cross Dutch-Belgian border in this town, or did people get in trouble for walking into the wrong street? Lack of border wall does not mean lack of border. There was a big story here in Canada a couple of months ago about a French woman accidently crossing the border between Canada and the US and having to spend two weeks in detention. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/jogger-who-accidentally-crossed-u-s-border-from-b-c-detained-for-2-weeks-1.4717060 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/jogger-who-a...

toolslive 8y ago
the EU grew out of the BENELUX (BElgium-NEderland-LUXemburg) Crossing the borders was always pretty straight forward, except for the period during WWI when Belgium was occupied and The Netherlands were neutral. So the Germans installed barbwire and guarded the border.
labster 8y ago
The fact that we don't have an open border between the U.S. and Canada is a real shame. Just a waste of everyone's time to indulge the U.S. border paranoia. I'm not really worried about the US being flooded with poutine and hockey. Or even better, a sort of super-Schengen area including the EU, the US, Canada, and Japan. Yeah, I know I'm dreaming, but it's not like this set of countries would produce mass migration or security issues that would cause problems beyond the economic benefit of a free migration. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17382400 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17382400
- pcrh 8y ago
  You need to add the UK to your super-Schengen list :-/
- eloisant 8y ago
  I think the reason why US wants a border with Canada is that the immigration policies of those 2 countries are widely different.
  - smnrchrds 8y ago
    And one of the main reasons Canada wants a border with the US is that gun control policies between our countries are widely different. But EU countries also have widely different immigration and gun control policies, yet somehow they managed to form a union. I am sure these are not irreconcilable differences.
    - petre 8y ago
      ...and now quarrel among themselves after several waves of refugees want to become immigrants. So the union tried to distribute the refugees somewhat evenly, which led to further quarrels. It's just as if me and my girlfriend and all of our neighbours have to accept refugees into our apartments, after our senior neighbour, crazy refugee lady, invited them over. The refugees all want to stay in my girlfriend's room because it's nicer, but most our neighbours collectively decided that we should split them between ourselves according to room size. My girlfriend reluctantly agrees, but I'm quarelling with her and the neighbours over the refugee issue. This can only lead to one thing: breakup.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
tnolet 8y ago
Before the EU and Schengen etc. we (Dutch people) could officially be asked for our passports at the Belgium border. In practice you didn't really notice crossing the border while driving on the highway. No checks, no cops, no customs. Only the roads got worse. (this is a ancient joke between Dutchies and Belgians). Same applied to (then) West Germany. No border controls really. Now, East Germany (where coincidentally I live now) was a whole different story.
- smnrchrds 8y ago
  > (this is a ancient joke between Dutchies and Belgians) It might be universal. People here (in the province of Alberta) always joke about roads in the neighbouring province of Saskatchewan. But it also might be because there are more than 1 million Canadians of Dutch origin :)
- wjdp 8y ago
  Re. the roads here is one often quoted photo. A very extreme example but interesting nevertheless. https://i.imgur.com/adoMWRh.jpg https://i.imgur.com/adoMWRh.jpg
  - Scarblac 8y ago
    This is the cliche photo of the Belgian / Dutch border: https://www.blikopnieuws.nl/sites/default/files/styles/nieuws-full-tn/public/artikel/snelweg2-blikopnieuws_0.jpg?itok=JG_UkyqW https://www.blikopnieuws.nl/sites/default/files/styles/nieuw...

toolslive 8y ago

the EU grew out of the BENELUX (BElgium-NEderland-LUXemburg) Crossing the borders was always pretty straight forward, except for the period during WWI when Belgium was occupied and The Netherlands were neutral. So the Germans installed barbwire and guarded the border.

labster 8y ago

The fact that we don't have an open border between the U.S. and Canada is a real shame. Just a waste of everyone's time to indulge the U.S. border paranoia. I'm not really worried about the US being flooded with poutine and hockey. Or even better, a sort of super-Schengen area including the EU, the US, Canada, and Japan. Yeah, I know I'm dreaming, but it's not like this set of countries would produce mass migration or security issues that would cause problems beyond the economic benefit of a free migration. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17382400 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17382400

pcrh 8y ago
You need to add the UK to your super-Schengen list :-/
eloisant 8y ago
I think the reason why US wants a border with Canada is that the immigration policies of those 2 countries are widely different.
- smnrchrds 8y ago
  And one of the main reasons Canada wants a border with the US is that gun control policies between our countries are widely different. But EU countries also have widely different immigration and gun control policies, yet somehow they managed to form a union. I am sure these are not irreconcilable differences.
  - petre 8y ago
    ...and now quarrel among themselves after several waves of refugees want to become immigrants. So the union tried to distribute the refugees somewhat evenly, which led to further quarrels. It's just as if me and my girlfriend and all of our neighbours have to accept refugees into our apartments, after our senior neighbour, crazy refugee lady, invited them over. The refugees all want to stay in my girlfriend's room because it's nicer, but most our neighbours collectively decided that we should split them between ourselves according to room size. My girlfriend reluctantly agrees, but I'm quarelling with her and the neighbours over the refugee issue. This can only lead to one thing: breakup.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

tnolet 8y ago

Before the EU and Schengen etc. we (Dutch people) could officially be asked for our passports at the Belgium border. In practice you didn't really notice crossing the border while driving on the highway. No checks, no cops, no customs. Only the roads got worse. (this is a ancient joke between Dutchies and Belgians). Same applied to (then) West Germany. No border controls really. Now, East Germany (where coincidentally I live now) was a whole different story.

smnrchrds 8y ago
> (this is a ancient joke between Dutchies and Belgians) It might be universal. People here (in the province of Alberta) always joke about roads in the neighbouring province of Saskatchewan. But it also might be because there are more than 1 million Canadians of Dutch origin :)
wjdp 8y ago
Re. the roads here is one often quoted photo. A very extreme example but interesting nevertheless. https://i.imgur.com/adoMWRh.jpg https://i.imgur.com/adoMWRh.jpg
- Scarblac 8y ago
  This is the cliche photo of the Belgian / Dutch border: https://www.blikopnieuws.nl/sites/default/files/styles/nieuws-full-tn/public/artikel/snelweg2-blikopnieuws_0.jpg?itok=JG_UkyqW https://www.blikopnieuws.nl/sites/default/files/styles/nieuw...