Unequal neighbours: coping with asymmetries

This article deals with asymmetrical relations on borders between current and future EU member states which may be seen as axes of several asymmetries. During the times of the Iron Curtain, these asymmetries could stay latent. Now, with more and more border liberalisation, old and new inequalities are re-surfacing, which might lead to future conflict. Our results, based on excerpts from interviews in which the informants formulated these asymmetries in different ways, show that there are various domains of asymmetries. People on both sides of the borders concerned use different perspectives to look at these asymmetrical relations and have several strategies for coping with them.