Border regions and trans-border mobility: Slovakia in economic transition

This paper analyses the reproduction of border region inequalities in Slova kia, between the later period of state socialism and the post 1989 transiti on. The 'winners' and 'losers' are largely determined by changing patterns of national and international trade, investment and labour migration in Slo vakia after 1989. The paper considers the extent to which regions and house holds can contest their position within these trajectories through trans-bo rder personal mobility. It analyses the double-faced nature of borders whic h constitute both economic opportunities and barriers for border regions. I n particular, it considers how trans-border arbitrage practices and labour flows benefit individuals and regions. While these may modify border region disparities, their overall impacts are limited and differentiated, and ten d to reinforce the economic dynamism of the western regions. In part, such trans-border economic relationships are constrained by the uneven and incom plete institutional and market reforms in Central and Eastern Europe. Trans -border co-operation projects have had little success in overcoming the bar riers to trans-border economic relationships based on personal mobility due to the enduring problems of weak market regulation and institutions. The p aper, therefore, stresses the need to examine both the practices and the in stitutions of border region economies.