Understanding the Dutch-German cross-border labour market: are highly educated workers unwilling to move?

The willingness of highly educated workers from Germany and the Netherlands to enter the Dutch-German cross-border labour market is analysed by using survey data, The results of logit analyses show that individual predictors and factors concerning the neighbouring country are the most important determinants, Special attention is paid to the so-called 'soft' factors, which are differentiated according to the nationalities involved, These factors are usually excluded from political discussion in the European Union (EU), whereas obstacles such as taxation and social security are emphasised, The results of this exploratory paper are the first steps towards a socio-economic micro-theoretic foundation of cross-border labour market behaviour, and call for further theoretical and empirical research on the determinants of cross-border labour market interactions as well as on the relation between willingness and actual mobility.