Cross-Border Mobility: Not Only Goods and Information, Also People

Abstract

Globalisation leads not only to denser networks of value chains and information flows, but also to increasing flows of people. The spatial mobility of people is increasing in volume and becoming differentiated in terms of patterns and functions. This trend affects almost all levels of society — from the lower classes, who migrate as undocumented workers, to the jet set, which includes top managers, politicians and cosmopolitan artists. At an intermediate level, organisations are increasingly fostering the cross-border mobility of a variety of experts and specialists as expatriates and business travellers (Collings et al., 2007; Reiche and Harzing, 2011).