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Cross-border
economic
development 66 Cross-cutting themes in cross-border economic development
Labour market, vocational
training, apprenticeships
and qualifications
The rise in daily cross-border movement (commuting) coupled with low
residential mobility (in Europe as a whole and France in particular due to
various cultural and housing rigidities) has increased the need to boost
fluidity in job reallocation between sectors within local employment
areas, mainly through vocational training. 106
Public action can therefore take cross-border territories into account
when this is relevant in terms of available job vacancies and the
appropriate fit of the skills of the workforce.
Ì Ì A recent study by INTERACT107 analysed issues of long-term
development in the integration of the European labour market
in two cross-border territories (the Greater Region and the Italy-
Slovenia border). Cross-border cooperation programmes have
made it possible to develop initiatives facilitating the mobility
of workers in these territories. Such initiatives notably improve
workers’ ability to take advantage of opportunities on the other
side of the border, and develop specific cooperation structures
that enhance the cross-border integration of the labour market.
Occupational flows and
movements
French cross-border territories are characterised by large-scale flows
of outgoing commuters, estimated at over 380,000 workers, i.e.
roughly 40% of all European flows of cross-border workers.
Commuters reside mostly along France’s northern and eastern borders:
170,000 on the border with Switzerland, 82,000 with Luxembourg,
49,000 with Germany and 39,000 with Belgium.
These figures have sharply increased over the last few decades due
to the strong demand for labour generated by the economic booms in
Luxembourg and Switzerland, coupled with the gradual deterioration
in the labour market in France’s border territories (decline of industry,
especially textiles, in the Nord-Pas de Calais Region, steel in Lorraine,
etc.), and the mobility facilitated by the free movement of people within
the European Union.
106 P Veltz, La grande transition, Seuil, 2008.
107 INTERACT, Study on Labour Market Integration Across Borders, February 2015,
While working in a neighbouring country may be the result of a choice
forced by high unemployment in the domestic market and a need for
labour on the other side of the border, this decision may also stem from
other motives such as workers calculating the opportunity offered by
cross-border commuting: wage differentials, attractive social benefits,
tax optimisation, lower cost of land and property, etc.
Cross-border mobility also gives employers access to workers who
are not available on the domestic labour market. Local populations
may find jobs without having to move, which helps to lower
unemployment rates in the areas concerned.
Ì Ì On the French-Swiss and French-Luxembourg borders , workers
move from other French regions to find a job without having to
leave the country.
Movements between home and work play a crucial role in local economies
due to the business and income they generate, as well as a more or less
efficient cross-border public transport network between the different
residential, productive, consumer and leisure areas (presential economy).
The development of transport infrastructure, adequacy
of information and advisory services, and also tax
agreements and legal convergence between countries,
knowledge of the language of the neighbouring country,
etc. are all factors that influence the fluidity of the
labour market (professional mobility) and the creation
of a genuine cross-border employment area.