ABSTRACT
The vast majority of the workers in the European Union are still largely mobile
only within their own nationally bounded labour market. In this contribution
we wish to focus on the governance of cross-border labour mobility in order to
understand the non-existence of a borderless and integrated labour market. In
particular, the question that we wish to address is: Why is it that people when it
comes to cross-border labour mobility in the European Union are relatively
immobile? In scrutinizing this issue, this chapter hopes to contribute to a
growing debate on cross-border labour immobility by focusing on the nationally
socially constructed attitudes of workers who are supposed to become mobile
across national borders, according to the generally accepted goals and policies.
In doing so, we will specifically seek attention for the role borders play within
the EU as the state-centric confinements or markings of geographical
(id)entities.
