Economic impact of cross-border work on the communes of residence : example at the french-luxembourgish border

The aim of this paper is to examine the economic impact of cross-border work on the communes of residence of the cross-border commuters. At the French-luxembourgish border, many people live in France and have a job in Luxembourg. For some communes of Lorraine, most of 80% of the employed population works abroad. The impacts of this cross-border activity not only on demographic evolution, but also on unemployment or economic activity are interesting to examine at the municipal level through quantitative datasets. What are the recent evolutions of the number of cross-border workers in the French communes? Is there an effect of the rise of cross-border commuters on unemployment or on economic activity near the borders? Finally, can the proximity of the borders be seen as an engine of regional development, or on the contrary as a disruptive element?
This exploratory analysis leads to interesting first results showing the interdependencies between France and Luxembourg regarding cross-border labour. The closer to the border the communes are, the higher the percentage of cross-border commuters is. Moreover, during the last five years, the rate of people working abroad particularly rose in the communes near the borders, but also in farther communes with an easy access to Luxembourg (by road or train). But on the other hand, despite their proximity to the border, and their high rate of cross-border commuters, some communes have high unemployment rates. One part of the population doesn’t match the needs of the labour market, and especially the Luxembourgish one that requires now more and more specific and highly qualified profiles.
The 2011 and 2006 census data from INSEE available at the municipal level will be used to build maps, and conduct multivariate analysis. This quantitative analysis will be completed by a focus on the French commune of Longwy, interesting by its geographic position (in the immediate vicinity of the border) and economic situation (formerly one of the main steel-industry areas of France).