www.reminder-project.eu A Multitude of Mobilities: Cross-Border Practices in the Austrian-Hungarian and Austrian-Slovak Border Regions WORKING PAPER Authors: Bernhard Perchinig Veronika Horváth Dániel Molnár Lenka Ťavodová Published: September 2018 A Multitude of Mobilities: Cross-Border Practices in the Austrian- Hungarian and Austrian-Slovak Border Regions Authors: Bernhard Perchinig (principal author), with Veronika Horváth & Dániel Molnár, and Lenka Ťavodová Submitted: August 2018 Paper prepared as part of the REMINDER project www.reminder-project.eu Correspondence address: [email protected] International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) Gonzagagasse 1, A-1010 Vienna, Austria This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 727072 Contents Abstract......................................................................................................................................3 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................6 2. Migration and mobility – theoretical considerations........................................................8 International migration.......................................................................................................... 8 Commuting............................................................................................................................. 9 Commuting as gendered spatial practice ............................................................................ 10 Commuting and household rationalities ............................................................................. 12 Posting of workers ............................................................................................................... 12 International cross-border commuting ............................................................................... 14 Residential mobility ............................................................................................................. 15 International cross-border residential mobility................................................................... 16 Commuting, migration and the “centre of life”................................................................... 16 Cross-border practices and transnationalism...................................................................... 19 3. Migration and mobility in the border regions Austria-Hungary and Austria-Slovakia....23 Hungarian studies on migration and commuting in the Austrian-Hungarian border region23 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 23 Hungarian studies on migration ...................................................................................... 25 Data on Hungarian migration to Austria.......................................................................... 30 Slovak studies on migration and commuting from Slovakia to Austria............................... 36 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 36 Migration and cross-border commuting between Slovakia and Austria – literature overview........................................................................................................................... 37 Facilitating and constraining factors to cross-border mobility between Slovakia and Austria.............................................................................................................................. 42 Ways to find employment ............................................................................................... 42 Type of work conducted by cross-border commuters and migrants .............................. 43 Impact of migration and cross-border commuting on the sending countries ................ 43 Overview of migration related data from Slovak Statistical Office ................................. 45 Migration and mobility from Hungary and Slovakia to Austria – Austrian studies and data48 Labour market studies ..................................................................................................... 48 Working and living conditions and social integration of commuters and migrants ....... 52 Occupational mobility and job search – strategies ......................................................... 54 Commuting in the border region - data and figures........................................................ 56 1 4. The perception of mobility – expert views......................................................................58 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 58 General development of mobility in the border regions..................................................... 59 From unidirectional to bidirectional mobility?.................................................................... 61 The view of interview-partners from Slovakia................................................................. 61 The view of interview partners from Hungary ................................................................ 63 The view of interview partners from Austria................................................................... 65 Summary.......................................................................................................................... 65 Cross-border residential mobility and cross-border suburbanisation ................................ 66 Effects of mobility: The labour market................................................................................ 69 The view of interview partners from Slovakia................................................................. 69 The view of interview-partners from Hungary................................................................ 71 The view of interview-partners from Austria .................................................................. 72 Summary.......................................................................................................................... 76 Effects of mobility: The education sector............................................................................ 76 Mobility in post-secondary and tertiary education......................................................... 76 Mobility in primary education ......................................................................................... 77 Effects of mobility: society at large...................................................................................... 80 Language competency and mobility.................................................................................... 83 Future perspectives ............................................................................................................. 85 5. Summary and conclusions ...............................................................................................87 6. References .......................................................................................................................90 7. Annex .............................................................................................................................100 2 Abstract In the European Union, the status of Union Citizenship and Freedom of Movement have largely dissolved the distinction between nationals of another EU Member state and citizens. With the imposition of the Schengen regulations internal border controls between the Schengen countries have been abolished, thus the function of the border as a locus of control of entry has vanished. Nevertheless, crossing a border to another EU Member State still includes a move to different polity and a place with different legislation, and sometimes a different state language. While in the “old” EU Member States, the now largely defunct borders have separated areas with usually similar levels of economic development, this is not the case along the borders between the “old“ and the ”new” EU, where still sizeable differences in income levels and levels of economic performance persist on both sides of the borders. Cross-border commuting and other forms of economically based cross-border relations, e.g. posting of workers, thus have become relevant. This report analyses the perceptions of the effects of Eastern enlargement of the European Union in the Austrian-Hungarian and the Austrian-Slovak border regions by experts and civil servants involved in enlargement management, with a particular view on the labour market and the field of education. Following a theoretical discussion on the linkages between cross- border mobility and international migration, a thorough literature overview gives an impression about the perception of EU-enlargement among the scientific community of these three countries. The third part is made up by a qualitative study on the perception of cross-border mobility over the Austrian-Hungarian and Austrian-Slovak border and its effects by experts and institutional stakeholders in Austria, Hungary and Slovakia. As the report shows, the border regions are characterised by a multitude of mobilities, which are shaped by both persisting differences in employment opportunities and income levels and the specific regional economic and spatial opportunity structures.1 These 1 According to Galster & Sharke (2017, 7), the