Understaining and explaining cross-border mobility : a free will / predisposition approach

This dissertation investigates the drivers of cross-border mobility from a multidisciplinary perspective. Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies are used in order to understand and explain why workers cross borders. The major contribution of this dissertation is to highlight new determinants of cross-border mobility such as previous migration experience and health state. These drivers have been disregarded in the literature in the past. Moreover, this dissertation validates the motivations of the workers as a relevant driver of cross-border mobility and provides a state of play of the situation of the cross-border workers in Europe, with a specific focus on French cross- border workers. Firstly, this dissertation provides a review of the explanations of cross- border mobility in the existing literature. Secondly, this dissertation analyses the subjective drivers of cross-border mobility using a qualitative dataset composed of 30 interviews of French workers in Luxembourg collected between January 2018 and May 2019. Results highlight that cross-border workers motivate their decision to commute abroad with financial, professional and personal reasons. Furthermore, the motivations of the cross-border workers vary with respect to their socioeconomic profile. Based on these empirical findings, a model of cross-border labour supply was designed. Thirdly, this dissertation assesses the association between migration capital and cross-border mobility using the French part of the European Labour Force Survey called the Enquête Emploi between 2010 and 2018. Results indicate that migrants commute abroad more than non migrants and are also more likely to do so. Migrant children are more likely to commute abroad, suggesting that the capacity to deal with distance and borders can be transmitted throughout generations. The migration capital is a relevant predictor of commuting behaviour, since the higher the capital endowment, the higher the likelihood is to commute abroad. Additional findings can be mentioned. Internal migration does not increase the likelihood to commute abroad. The acquired migration experience is more useful than the inherited migration experience to be engaged in cross-border mobility. Fourthly, this dissertation examines health disparities between cross-border workers and non cross-border workers using the Enquête Emploi between 2013 and 2018. Results
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suggest a healthy cross-border phenomenon, the existence of major health disparities among cross-border workers and the rejection of the spillover phenomenon for this specific population. Finally, this dissertation concludes that cross-border mobility is a complex phenomenon still partially explained, probably because of the lack of harmonised dataset about cross-border workers within the EU. Further research on cross- border mobility is needed to better understand this population, especially in public health, where everything remains to be done.