As part of a study on employment dynamics in the SaarLorLux Greater Region, this article analyses the employment and unemployment situation there and highlights the phenomenon of cross-border working that is rife there. As unemployment is high in certain areas in the region, exchanges have developed between countries in the form of cross-border working, which, although it creates jobs, raises complex issues on the taxation and social fronts.
The collection approaches the question of cross-border work from different methodological and disciplinary angles, in order to provide an overview of the research on the subject and to analyze the stakes involved in and ways of seeing this activity. The first section describes the configurations, evolution, and scope of cross-border work. The linguistic practices, displacements, and profiles of cross-border workers are elicited in order that these workers may, in the second section of the collection, be compared to others in such regions as the Upper Rhineland and the Canton of Geneva. Rather more analytical, the third section then deals with the dynamic effects of cross-border work on the development of economies, urbanization, physical spaces, and governance. Finally, the fourth and final section raises the question of the social construction of the status of cross-border workers, by way of regulations, conventions, and socio-political representations, etc.).
