Crossing Borders: Mobility of Goods, Capital and People in the Central European Region

Abstract: This paper looks at the circulation of goods, capital and people between the 'buffer zone' consisting of Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary and Western Europe (Germany and Austria) on the one side, Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Russia, Belarus) on the other side. It is argued in the paper that in order to understand these economic relations between the different countries, we have to consider the historical and cultural links which existed already between them. Migrants and businesspeople tend to use existing social networks, often embedded within ethnic, linguistic and familial ties, so that these act as conduits for economic activity between countries. In addition the political control of borders through closing, opening or moving them also tends to create opportunties for cross-border traffic and concourse (and also to prevent them). This argument is situated within the literature on globalization. It argues that what we see can be better seen as a new regionalisation in economic relations rather than globalisation at a world-wide level. The research is based upon 350 interviews collected since 1993 in the countries under consideration in the 'buffer zone', anthropological field work in markets on each side of the border and the collection of general economic and social statistics for the countries in question.;