With the free movement of individuals within the EU, political instability and global inequality, more and more people have been crossing borders in recent decades, either as refugees, regular migrants or as daily transnational commuters. These cross-border movements generate important challenges for EU countries, and has particularly strong implications for its labour market, public finances, social cohesion and regional governance around border areas. In this context, it is important to have tools to monitor, analyse and improve the understanding of causes and consequences of these flows - a prerequisite for relevant advice to policy-makers. 

The cross-departmental Research Programme on ‘Crossing Borders’ seeks to coordinate, develop and contribute to the Cross-Border work carried out within and across the any of the three departments of LISER. 

The Research Program on Crossing Borders has specific objectives:

(i)      Assess the size and structure of historical and recent cross-border flows, and understand their root drivers.

(ii)     Use innovative sources of data to study the interplay between different forms of mobility.

(iii)   Analyse the economic and societal consequences of these flows for all parties concerned.

(iv)   Build projection tools to anticipate future movements.

(v)     Develop tools to help policy decision-makers to maximise the gains and/or minimise the cost of current and future movements for European countries in general, and for the Luxembourg society in particular.

(vi)   Provide stakeholders and the civil society with databases and expert analyses that help them
understanding the forces at work and the consequences of policy actions.

(vii) Contribute to the training of PhD researchers on these topics.

XingB (Crossing Borders) Blog