The introduction explores the main theoretical positions taken in this book. Contrary to twentieth-century neoliberal or nineteenth-century wage fund theories, it starts from the assumption that trade unions are a necessary and integral part of the functioning of labour markets in societies...

A common explanation for the incidence and development of cross-border labor are cross-border economic disparities and uneven economic developments: in border regions with high levels of cross-border labor, important growth poles with high wages and employment opportunities at a short distance...

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...