What is Borderlines?
Borderlines is an audio-first, multimedia podcast series of 6-8 stories based on the personal narratives of people living along the borders separating different European countries from each other. In a continent increasingly shaped by hardening nationalisms, these stories explore the places where different European identities meet, merge and mix.

Editor’s brief 
The June 2024 European parliamentary elections mark a decisive moment for Europe. With polls predicting that far-right, nationalist and Eurosceptic parties will gain seats at the expense of centrist groups, the future of Europe is at risk of fragmentation, nationalism and hardening borders.  Nationalist narratives often define themselves in opposition to European identity. But just what is “European identity”, exactly? Does it really exist at all? And, if it does exist, is it really in conflict with national and regional identities, or is it connected to them in some way?

If there are answers to these questions, then where better to look for them than in the places where different identities — national, cultural, linguistic and imagined — meet, mix and merge? Places shaped by movement and exchange, by romance and relationships, by history and trauma, by shared hopes and a common sense of the future.

From the waters of the Mediterranean to the invisible Irish border, from the transnational Sápmi territory to the Istrian peninsula — Borderlines explores Europe through the eyes of people living in the in-between spaces where countries and cultures meet. These in-between spaces reveal borders — and identity — to be changeable and porous.

Together, these stories build up a rich mosaic of possible tomorrows for a continent in flux.

We call these places, Borderlines. 

Borderlines is a multimedia project by Inside Europe, the flagship European Current Affairs podcast from DW, Germany’s international broadcaster in collaboration with Are We Europe end ENTR.