Individual profiles and migration trajectories of third country national cross-border workers the case of Luxembourg

In the case of Luxembourg, the number of CBW continuously increased throughout the years and accounted to almost 42% of the domestic labour force in 2010 . Moreover and for the same reference year, Luxembourg’s nationals represented a share of 29% of the total labour force . Concretely, for 100 jobs available on the labour market, 27 were taken up by foreign residents, 29 occupied by Luxembourgers and 44 by CBWs .
The present study focuses on TCN-CBWs. Indeed, if CBWs in general have been the subject of a range of studies due to their importance for the labour market in particular, TCN-CBWs have largely been ignored in public debates so far.
Taking both a quantitative and a qualitative approach, the present study tries to shed some light on the main characteristics composing the profiles of TCN-CBWs.
Thus, TCN-CBWs provide on average for the youngest labour force on the national labour market, the large majority are wage earners under permanent contract and highly skilled.
On their motivations to work in Luxembourg, TCN-CBWs put forward in descendent order a) salary, b) possibilities for career development, c) job opportunities in Luxembourg, d) the international working context and e) the professional network . The study also enquires on their integration, migration trajectories and discrimination aspects and leads us to the conclusion that migration histories are eclectic and individual. Even if some traits can be common, such as being highly skilled, their live paths differ in many ways.