Residential mobility in cross-border regions – an inter-urban discourse analysis

Effects of cross-border mobility resulting from uneven development in border regions can be perceived very differently by city councils or planners and the local population. This paper focuses on the consequences of the cross-border mobility in relation to housing markets in four cities in a transnational cross-border polycentric metropolitan region in Western Europe. It applies Clarke’s situational analysis and Keller’s sociology of knowledge approach to discourse, in order to represent the complexity and contradictions going along with this development. These approaches intend to supplement grounded theory (mainly based on Strauss) and include discourse analysis inspired by Foucault. Until now, the study of cross-border mobility focused mainly on the motives of citizens that left their country of origin to dwell in the close by border regions, while the related impacts on neighboring communities remain mostly unexplored. A quick review of recent media coverage could easily lead one to describe the situation as a sort of love-hate relationship. The demand-induced increase of the housing prices and the coexistence of old and new settlements lead to social tensions and new challenges of integration within the respective communities. At the same time, in urban development concepts, the increase of citizens is considered as an opportunity for the development of the cities. Analytic cartographies are employed to show that similar effects can be perceived quite differently.