Paper short abstract:

The paper argues that cross border residential migration in the Greater Region can be seen as variably extended dwelling. By adopting a perspective that is not caught in the conceptual nexus of border and mobility, it tries to enhance our understanding of processes of regional identification.

Paper long abstract:

Relocating the home to the other side of a national border is a practice of border crossing that is often interpreted as being linked to processes of globalization leading to the emergence of transnational relationships and identities. In the paper, residential migration from Luxembourg to German border villages, although seen as part of a multifaceted state of mobility, will be analyzed as a local phenomenon connected with specific local processes of identification. By adopting a perspective that is not caught in the conceptual nexus of border and mobility, the paper tries to enhance our understanding of processes of regional identification.

In recent years there has been some scholarly work on dwelling issues that goes along with a renewed interest in a broad understanding of dwelling. This renewed interest is related to the general turn to mobility in the social sciences and humanities. One can argue that dwelling is especially important to those who are travelling, and that in an era of "thinned out places" home becomes more important. At the same time there is also growing interest in the forms of mobile dwelling in the literal sense and in poly-topical or multi-local residence. The paper proposes a view on dwelling practices that are related to cross border residential migration. It is argued that by analyzing individual "migration histories" and the intermingling of various practices of dwelling this form of mobility can be seen as a process of variably extended dwelling.