Changing Border Regimes, Mining, and Cross-border Labor in the Dutch-Belgian-German Borderlands, 1900-1973

Abstract in this article the incidence of cross-border commuting to the mining districts in the belgian–dutch–german borderlands, known today as the euregion meuse-rhine, will be related to the impact of state borders in different periods. Cross-border labor was closely related to changing border regimes based on uneven economic development, (un)familiarity, and the policy impact of powerful institutions like the state and the church. The main argument is that after the first world war in dutch limburg a conscious policy to control the labor force and bind them to mining in the region was relatively successful. Discrepancies in wages and employment opportunities led to border-crossing during restricted periods and for specific groups of workers only.