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ELASTIC MIGRATION: THE CASE OF DUTCH SHORT‐DISTANCE TRANSMIGRANTS IN BELGIAN AND GERMAN BORDERLANDS
Author(s) -
VAN HOUTUM HENK,
GIELIS RUBEN
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.766
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1467-9663
pISSN - 0040-747X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9663.2006.00512.x
Subject(s) - german , european union , economic geography , identity (music) , political science , geography , geographical distance , sociology , economy , demographic economics , demography , economics , population , archaeology , international trade , art , aesthetics
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.