ELASTIC MIGRATION: THE CASE OF DUTCH SHORT‐DISTANCE TRANSMIGRANTS IN BELGIAN AND GERMAN BORDERLANDS

Henk van Houtum and Ruben Gielis

Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 2006, vol. 97, issue 2, 195-202

Abstract: Along the Dutch‐Belgian and Dutch‐German border a new and interesting kind of transmigration is developing, that is migration over only a few kilometres across the border. The main characteristic of these Dutch short‐distance transmigrants is that they have their houses in Belgium/Germany, but their social and working life still takes place in the Netherlands. Their transmigration is hence very elastic. This elasticity invokes the interesting question: what kind of (trans)national identity these Dutch are displaying and to what extent the Dutch desire to be and/or are socially provoked to be integrated in the neighbouring Belgian/German society. These cross‐border spaces in which the short‐distance migrants have their residences could very well be interesting micro‐scale laboratories of the future of the nation‐state in the European Union.

Date: 2006
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