It certainly sounds like a long way to walk, but the flood of migrants – both actual asylum seekers from Syria or Iraq and “economic migrants” from other places – is no longer confined to just Germany and its immediate neighbors. Concerns are being raised as some of the often unwelcome new neighbors are arriving in Norway and the northernmost reaches of the continent. This has Norway’s Prime Minister setting her teeth on edge and calling for stricter border control for the Schengen region. (Yahoo News)

Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg on Saturday said she feared for Europe’s borderless Schengen zone and urged countries to shore up their external frontiers in the face of the migrant crisis.

“The challenge for the Nordic region is not an internal one, but the fact that Schengen’s outer borders have broken down,” Solberg said.

“We must now make sure that the outer borders work,” she added as Europe struggles to cope with its worst refugee crisis since World War II.

Solberg makes a number of references to “Schengen’s borders” in her comments, but that’s just the broader term for the “Schengen Region” as established in the Schengen Agreement. It’s the vast portion of Europe which essentially has open, internal borders and operates under a single visa agreement. (Pictured below in blue)

The Schengen question is looming larger these days, particularly in countries that aren’t exactly thrilled with the possibility of tens of thousands of new mouths to feed on the dole, possibly including some terrorists tossed into the mix just for additional excitement. Solberg is the head of the Conservative Party in Norway and her government coalition is in partnership with the Progress Party, a group noted for being opposed to expanded immigration of any sort. The Prime Minister’s warning came with a threat, saying that if the countries on the outer edge of the area of agreement couldn’t shore up the barricades and get control of who was coming in, it “it will be the end of Schengen.”

Economic cooperation is one thing, but this crisis is highlighting another weakness in this entire experiment in a blended Europe. Forcing everyone to move onto the same currency has been pretty much a disaster, but the border control question should have been a much bigger red flag. We have far too many people on the Left, both here in the US and in Europe, who are now using the word “nationalism” as if it’s an insult. But the fact remains that nationalist feelings can and do run strong in the ancestral blood and Norway is no exception. Solberg’s threatening to reinstate their own border control if that’s what it takes to hold back the human flood.

All things considered, who could blame her?