Exploring Cross-Border Labor Commuting as a Practice of Tactical Mobility

Mobility is a global megatrend in our contemporary world as people are constantly crossing nation-state borders for migration, tourism, work and due to mobile transnational lives. Cross-border practices contribute to (re)produce functional border regions between different countries. The current amount of information on the geographies of cross-border mobilities of people, the creation of functional cross-border regions and how these regions change over time is inadequate. As transnational phenomena are fragile to global disruptions and prone to ‘rebordering’ in times of emergency, we lack knowledge of how the COVID-19 crisis affected border practices and functioning regions. We consider mobility to be a tool for understanding society and used big data to examine cross-border mobilities between the five Nordic countries: when and where borders were crossed, how mobilities captured functional border regions, and evaluated the influence of COVID-19 on mobilities and functional border regions from a spatio-temporal perspective. The feasibility of the proposed methodology for monitoring cross-border mobilities and border regions to improve planning and development of border regions and decision-making in future crises is discussed. We studied a 4-year Twitter dataset, including the first year of the pandemic until February 2021. We found that overall cross-border mobility decreased by 68% due to the pandemic, yet with geographical and temporal variations. We showed how the influence of the pandemic on the spatial extent of functional border regions varies for a range of reasons for cross-border mobility. We discuss the feasibility of the proposed approach for monitoring cross-border interactions as the proof-of-concept for capturing functional border regions to improve planning and development of border regions and decision-making in future crises. Finally, we highlight future avenues in enhancing our proposed methodology to improve information on cross-border mobilities derived from social media data such as Twitter.

This chapter investigates the everyday practices of cross-border mobility of Romanian citizens in the light of the concept of ‘space-set’ (Recchi 2013 and 2015). Using mixed methods, we distinguish between stayers, movers and returnees and examine the role of frequency, reason for travel, destinations and personal significance. Findings show that Romanians’ long-term mobility, motivated especially by work, is amplified by more short-term mobility in the form of holidays, trips or visits to friends and families abroad. However, not all benefit from the rise in international mobility: two thirds of the stayers did not cross the border in the past two years. This finding suggests that first, mobile Romanians are pioneers of everyday European integration (Recchi and Favell 2009) and, second, long-term mobility has a ‘sticky’ nature and predicts short-term mobility irrespective of individual socio-economic resources. These insights counter stereotypes of Romanians, and also question what we call the ‘migratisation of mobilities’ where all forms of mobility are assimilated to a migration paradigm.

Cross-border mobility (CBM) to visit social network members or for everyday activities is an important part of daily life for citizens in border regions, including the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion (EMR: neighboring regions from the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany). We assessed changes in CBM during the COVID-19 pandemic and how participants experienced border restrictions. Impact of COVID-19 on the EMR' is a longitudinal study using comparative cross-border data collection. In 2021, a random sample of the EMR-population was invited for participation in online surveys to assess current and pre-pandemic CBM. Changes in CBM, experience of border restrictions, and associated factors were analyzed using multinomial and multivariable logistic regression analysis. Pre-pandemic, 82% of all 3,543 participants reported any CBM: 31% for social contacts and 79% for everyday activities. Among these, 26% decreased social CBM and 35% decreased CBM for everyday activities by autumn 2021. Negative experience of border restrictions was reported by 45% of participants with pre-pandemic CBM, and was higher (p < 0.05) in Dutch participants (compared to Belgian; aOR= 1.4), cross-border [work] commuters (aOR= 2.2), participants with cross-border social networks of friends, family or acquaintances (aOR= 1.3), and those finding the measures 'limit group size' (aOR= 1.5) and 'minimalize travel' (aOR= 2.0) difficult to adhere to and finding 'minimalize travel' (aOR= 1.6) useless. CBM for social contacts and everyday activities was substantial in EMR-citizens, but decreased during the pandemic. Border restrictions were valued as negative by a considerable portion of EMR-citizens, especially when having family or friends across the border. When designing future pandemic control strategies, policy makers should account for the negative impact of CBM restrictions on their citizens.

During the Coronavirus pandemic, internal European borders were temporarily re-established with the argument to mitigate the outbreak. Also in the border region between the Netherlands, North-Rhine Westphalia and Belgium (EMR). Existing evidence on the effectiveness of border control for infectious disease control (IDC) has been dominated by studies that focused on scenarios within countries with limited attention to border regions. To address this gap, we analysed the experiences of public health professionals working in European border regions. We conducted three studies: 1. seroprevalence and questionnaire study among 10.001 Dutch persons with and without cross border mobility, 2. analyses of incidence data in municipalities in 4 cross border regions to analyse cross border differences, and 3. we conducted 27 semi-structured interviews with public health professionals in the EMR. Participants were asked about their perspectives on border controls and the spread of Covid-19. Four key-results: First, border regions are characterised by dynamic social life and cross-border movements. Incidence was mainly determined by country policy, Second, the impact of border control and closing on local infectious disease epidemics is likely marginal. Third, due to the dynamic social life, border control measures cannot be fully implemented in border regions, and thus their effectiveness is even more questionable. Fourth, border control measures may harm the social fabric of border regions more than they do in in-countries territories. Our study results highlighted the ineffective role of border control measures for regional infectious disease control. Sustainable cross-border collaboration is crucial to ensure effective pandemic management in border regions. The results of our study impacted on policy makers, to be much more reluctant with closing borders.

BackgroundThe sudden emergence of COVID-19 in 2020 demonstrated that Europe was not prepared for a public health crisis like this pandemic. In the European Union, matters of health have remained primarily under the jurisdiction of individual Member States. However, certain events, such as the Kohll-Decker ruling on free mobility of health services and the COVID-19 pandemic, compelled the EU to address health matters in border regions. This study examines how EU policies address public health in border regions. To that end, we have drawn from border studies, a field that provides insight into the fluidity and complexity of borders in everyday life. Besides that we used constructivist policy studies as a lens for the analysis of EU policy documents.MethodsA policy discourse analysis was conducted to explore how European policy addresses the development of a transnational, European public health in border regions. Key European policy documents published between 2002 and 2027 were analysed to understand how policies are constructed and problems are framed. The analysis was guided by research questions and the theoretical approach.ResultsThe analysis reveals that, while having limited competences in the field of health care, the EU is slowly developing a rationale and a knowledge base to increase its competences in health care. It also shows that in the field of public health, the EU argues for addressing health determinants and promoting healthy lifestyles, though it does not address health promotion in border regions. The EU’s authority in public health in border regions revolves primarily around addressing physical, biological and chemical threats rather than social health problems.ConclusionThough the EU has carefully developed a transnational perspective on health care, the EU has not developed any authority with respect to transnational public health. Though public health and health promotion in border regions have been confronted with specific challenges, neither specific Member States nor the EU have a transnational collaborative perspective that does justice to the characteristics of border regions. When it comes to public health in border regions, there is no European mindset as yet.

This article analyzes the changes in the clandestine component of various cross-border mobility strategies of the population in three cities on the Mexico-United States border: Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, and Matamoros. The clandestine component results not just from a lack of documents but also from the rules for their use and people's reasons for crossing, producing its own social hierarchization in this border space. Border residents, like those who travel long distances to cross the border to find work, also cross employing subterfuge in order to use their tourist visas to work or move drugs. The context of violence in which these movements occur affects people's lives as the violence of the state and that of criminal actors involved in the smuggling of drugs and people intersect. This work provides a broad panorama of clandestine practices in the border region, demonstrating that alliances of, and coordinated actions by activists, policymakers, and governments are needed to minimize the impact of migrati...

This article investigates how cross-border mobility in the European shipbuilding industry affected the employment security of workers on standard and non-standard contracts in sending and receiving countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. It draws on qualitative findings from Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland and Romania, where shipbuilding production is integrated into transnational networks, leading to high cross-border mobility. Despite restrictions and a reduction of shipbuilding activities, the east-west labour mobility continued during the pandemic contributing to employment security in the east and addressing labour shortages in the west. The findings show that the type of employment contract, national employment protections and workers’ mobility status (e.g. posted or self-initiated) influence workers’ vulnerability. Specifically, the mobile workers with the most secure employment were also better protected by government measures than those in less secure employment during the pandemic, resulting in hierarchised groups of cross-border labour. Workers engaging in circular migration across Europe were the least protected.

Mobility and transport patterns in border regions are highly relevant topics, as these regions still tend to be areas of limited accessibility, embedded in complex political settings of transport policy. Moreover, the contemporary call for a transition to sustainable mobility applies also to border regions. Nevertheless, limited data availability and harmonization across borders hamper the debate. In this paper, we develop a methodological approach that builds on open-source data and allows for comparative analysis and visualization of cross-border mobility and accessibility. The key elements are “space-time-lines’, combined with an indexation approach. Our study aims to position the different means of transportation in border regions. More concretely speaking, we seek to answer three main questions: In which regional settings are rail or road connections quicker? Can we identify categories of accessibility patterns? How do domestic und cross-border accessibility relate? We respond to these questions with a rail and road accessibility analysis of German border regions from a comparative perspective. Our results show that (a) the catch-up process for cross-border accessibility is not yet complete and that (b) some regions show tunnel effects, as cross-border infrastructure improvements can bypass the border region in the local sense.

ObjectivesDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, internal European borders were temporarily re-established to mitigate the outbreak. Much research on pandemic border control measures has focused on quantifying their effectiveness for infectious disease control as well as on their social consequences for cross-border life in the European Union. However, little attention has been paid to the impacts for the practice and organisation of cross-border public health. To address this gap, the present study analysed the experiences and perspectives of public health professionals working in European border regions regarding border control measures in the pandemic. Study designQualitative interview-based study. MethodsIn total, 27 semistructured interviews with public health professionals were conducted in the border regions between Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. Participants were asked about their perspectives on border control and the spread of COVID-19 in the region. Interviews were performed between December 2020 and April 2021 and carried out in German, English, Dutch and French. ResultsBefore the COVID-19 pandemic, borders had become largely invisible with extensive cross-border social life and mobility. Participants were sceptical about the role of cross-border mobility as a pandemic driver and consequently the effectiveness of enforcing border control for reducing the spread of COVID-19 in their border regions. At the same time, participants raised concerns about the negative consequences for the social fabric and provision of cross-border public health. ConclusionsPublic health professionals highlighted the uncertain role of border control measures for regional infectious disease control in border regions. Rather than border control, sustainable cross-border communication and collaboration is crucial to ensure effective pandemic management in border regions.

In addition to permanent migration, different forms of cross-border mobility were on the rise before the COVID-19 pandemic, ranging from tourism to job-related commuting. In this paper ethno-linguistic differences in cross-border mobility using the activity space framework are considered. New segregation theories emphasise that segregation in one part of the activity space (e.g. in residential neighbourhood) affects the segregation in other parts of the activity space (e.g. in workplace), and that spatial mobility between activity locations is equally important in the production and reproduction of ethnic inequalities. Until now, segregation in activity spaces has been studied by focusing on daily activities inside one country. In reality, an increasing number of people pursue their activities across different countries, so that their activity spaces extend beyond state borders, which can have important implications for the functioning of ethno-linguistic communities and the transfer of inequalities from one country to another. This study takes advantage of mobility data based on mobile phone use, and the new avenues provided for the study of ethno-linguistic differences in temporary cross-border mobility. Such data allow the study of different cross-border visitor groups—tourists, commuters, transnationals, long-term stayers—by providing the means to measure the frequency of visits and time spent abroad, and to link together the travel of each person over several years. Results show that members of the ethno-linguistic minority population in Estonia make more trips than members of the ethno-linguistic majority, and they also have higher probability of being tourists and cross-border commuters than the majority population, paying frequent visits to their ancestral homelands. The connections between ethno-linguistic background and temporary cross-border mobility outlined in this study allows for future discussion on how (in)equalities can emerge in transnational activity space and what implications it has for segregation.

ABSTRACTBased on a qualitative study, this article explores post-migration mobility practices developed by Somali women and men who have settled in Europe. It focuses on the ‘politics of mobility’, considering cross-border mobility an unequally distributed resource through which people access different forms of capital, and thus an element of social differentiation. The article reveals that respondents invest resources in places other than those where they acquired them, benefiting from a favourable symbolic exchange rate between the different places. Furthermore, while a significant part of the economic, social and cultural capital of these migrants is acquired within ethnically diversified contexts, it is mostly reinvested in networks and places where their Somali ethnicity becomes an asset—either in ethnically homogeneous networks or in activities that address Somali people's needs. Cross-border mobility, transnationality and ethnicity become core resources that enable these migrants to mobilise their capital where it can be valued most highly and to access advantageous social positions, thus fostering upward social mobility. The article argues that these strategies are less the result of an identity-based ethnic preference than a compensatory mechanism implemented by people who have few prospects of having their assets valued within the wider networks in their country of residence.

Understanding barriers to modal shift in Malta: A practice-theoretical perspective of everyday mobility

This paper engages with the thesis of the mobile border and the growing interest in cross-border mobilities and practices to understand how borders provide a raison d’être for the organization of everyday life for people living in China’s Southwest borderlands. Through a conversation between the literatures on cross-border mobilities, practices and livelihoods, this study moves beyond the mobile border thesis’s lopsided focus on diffused and dispersed practices that strengthen state sovereignty and border security, but instead emphasizes the kaleidoscopic everyday practices asserting and erasing borders at the same time, the plural rationalities of state governance, and grassroots actors’ agencies and skills in appropriating or transgressing borders. In sum, this study re-appropriates the mobile border thesis to argue that borders are mobile because of their permeation into the textures of everyday life. The empirical study elucidates this argument by investigating two border regions in China, Hekou, and Ruili in Yunnan Province. Specifically, it unpacks four sets of cross-border practices – cross-border socialities and kinship ties, cross-border marriage, labor mobilities, and everyday spaces of exchange – to reveal how what is possible at the everyday level is overdetermined by official territorialities, bottom-up negotiations, and the flexibility of state governance.

HIV Phylogeographic Analyses and Their Application in Prevention and Early Detection Programmes: The Case of the Tijuana–San Diego Border Region

Interpretative tools for identifying mobility practices in the contemporary cities are needed, not only for the limitations of conventional data sources1, but also because new forms of mobility are emerging, describing new city dynamics and timevariations in the use of urban spaces by temporary populations.These mobility practices result from the combination of physical and virtual mobility, leading to new, mixed forms of daily, residential, and travel mobility (Flamm & Kaufmann 2006).The transformations to practices of mobility question the available sources and open up toward operative challenges: the analysis of the space-time variability of mobility practices, while offering a representation of various urban rhythms2 and identifying different mobile populations, remains difficult to achieve with traditional data sources. In this perspective, an interesting contribution may be provided by mobile phone network data as a tool for real-time monitoring of urban dynamics and mobile practices. In recent years, several research projects focused on the potentiality of mobile phone traffic data as promising sources for the analysis, visualization and interpretation of people’s presence and movements in urban spaces. The contribution that may come from mobile phone network data for the analysis and description of urban practices, seems of great interest, due to its fine spatial and temporal resolution.As tested in several studies (Ratti et al. 2006; Ahas & Mark 2005; Soto & Frías-Martínez 2011a,b; Reades et al. 2007; Gonzalez et al. 2008), passive monitoring of anonymous telephone traffic represents a valuable alternative to traditional methods, because it can simultaneously overcome the limitations of the detection latency time typical of traditional data sources and take advantage of the ubiquity of mobile phone networks and the pervasive diffusion of mobile devices.3 Among different survey methodologies4, the researches that focused on the analysis of aggregated mobile phone data are characterized by two different profiles and purposes: mapping mobile phone activity in urban contexts (Ratti et al. 2006; Sevtsuk & Ratti, 2010), and visualizing urban metabolism (Wolman, 1965; Acebillo & Martinelli, 2012; Brunner, 2007).The first approach, named Mobile landscape approach, focuses on the relationships between mobile phone measures and people’s daily activities in cities (Ratti et al., 2006; Sevtsuk & Ratti, 2010). The aim is to understand patterns of daily life in the city, using a variety of sensing systems (mobile phone traffic intensity, location-based data as GPS devices, wireless sensor network) and to illustrate and to confirm the significant differences in the distribution of urban activities at different hours, days and weeks. Graphic representations of the intensity of urban activities and their evolution through space and time, based on the geographical mapping of mobile phone usage at different times of the day (Ratti et al., 2006), are the main output of the Mobile Landscape approach.The approach based on handsets’movements studies the relationships between location coordinates of mobile phones and the social identification of the people carrying them (as Social Positioning Method and its possible applications in the organization and planning of public life proposed by Rein Ahas and Ülar Mark, 2005).In this framework an interesting issue regards the classification of urban spaces according to their users’ practices and behaviors in the use of cell phones (Soto & Frías-Martínez, 2011a).According to Soto and Frías-Martínez (2011a, 2011b) city areas are generally not characterized by just one specific use, and for this reason they introduce the use of c-means, a fuzzy unsupervised clustering technique for land use classification, which returns for each area a certain grade of membership to each class.Even if, from a technical point of view, both the aforementioned approaches are based on the analysis of aggregated data and traffic volume detected on towers of the network, the loss of the traces of the origins and destinations of individual movements does not appear relevant for estimate the distribution patterns of the population in different time slots considered for the survey.Using mobile phone data for monitoring urban practices, both approaches show that phone calls are closely related to population density in urban areas (Ratti et al. 2006; Sevtsuk & Ratti, 2010; Ahas & Mark, 2005; Reades et al., 2007), even if additional evidence is needed to specify how mobile network signals can be used to characterize and map different urban domains and their occupants and how this tool could support urban planning and policy.According to this background, our research focused on mapping and visualizing the changing city by means of these new sources, characterized by a high temporal and spatial resolution.KeywordsMobile Phone DataMilan UrbanMobility PracticesTraditional Data SourcesErlang DataThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.