Spatial integration and geovisualisation: From trip chains to profiles of cross-border workers

The number of cross-border workers in Luxembourg has steadily increased for over twenty years. Cross-border workers have transnationals living spaces. Everyday, they cross the border between France, Germany and Belgium to perform their daily activities. However, in the collective imagination the cross-border workers come to the Grand Duchy just to work... The purpose of this article is to discuss this received wisdom with respect to the issue of the integration of cross-border workers in Luxembourg. By means of the concepts of social geography and Time Geography, it is possible to develop and analyse their living spaces according to the spatial and temporal organisation of their daily activities. The study of trip chains, synonymous with the organisation and sequence of the activities and their spatial distribution on both sides of the border, form the essential methodological and analytical support for this paper. The juxtaposition of these trip chains with the living spaces allows to identify and characterise the degree of integration of cross-border workers in Luxembourg. This paper suggests a new way of looking at the living spaces of cross-border workers.