Thirty years ago this month, my family migrated west from Sri Lanka, through East Germany and then past the Berlin Wall. Like thousands of refugees from the Global South — especially those from Non-Aligned Movement states — they sought asylum in the West.

Five years later, the wall fell. West Germany absorbed East Germany, and the border’s most visible manifestations — the wall, guard towers, and barbed fences — were quickly dismantled. Much of the remnants were given to other countries, relics to be displayed and remembered.

The dismantling of the wall was taken as both a symbol and expression of the commitment, first under the auspices of the European Economic Community and then the European Union (EU), to seamlessly integrate the continent. Getting rid of a single wall, however, never challenged the concept of borders themselves.