Hardi Tamás - Tóth Károly (szerk.): Határaink mentén. A szlovák-magyar határtérség társadalmi-gazdasági vizsgálata (2008) (Somorja, 2009)
Esettanulmányok
SUMMARY (ANGOL NYELVŰ ÖSSZEFOGLALÓ) INTRODUCTION Our study features the findings of a research conducted in the Slovak-Hungarian border region, implemented in the framework of the Hungary-Slovakia-Ukraine Neighbourhood Programme, co-financed by the European Union and the Republic of Hungary. Two institutions participated in the research: the West Hungarian Research Institute of the Centre for Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Győr) and the Forum Institute in Slovakia (Somorja). The aim of the research was to study the everyday movements of the population living in the border region. We assumed that the accession to the Union and the Schengen Zone would promote the integration of the border region, the development and expansion of the cross-border interactions, and in the end the birth of cross-border regions in the areas in good positions. Along the internal borders of the European Union it is an ever more important issue whether the integration of the states will bring about the integration of the cross-border regions as well. The possibility is given, the borders can be crossed without any problem, the movements of the citizens and the businesses are free from any obstacles. The issue of integration is of special importance in the border regions: the other state and its citizens are “physically close”; a single space built on geographical logics can be created in the everyday life. It is a question, however, how the border affects the lives of the citizens in the border region. Do they actually use the other side of the border? Can the border region of the neighbour state become part of their everyday lives? In the use of workplaces and economic opportunities which factor will be stronger: the nation state traditions or the logics of the geographical proximity? The answers to the questions above are different in all various border regions. Integration is influenced by the historical past, the ethnic and geographical conditions, the economic development and the differences of this, and not last the disparities in the political, administrative and public services systems of the neighbour states. Travelling in Europe we experience that border regions do exist, we see existing and formalised relations, but the “wall” between the two border regions are still there, despite the physically non-existing borders (.Paasi- Prokkola, 2008), the number and content of the interactions do not increase to the extent that is expected. In other places the inhabitants of the border regions have a rich system of relations with those on the other side of the border, irrespective of the relationship of the two states and the officially created crossborder organisations. Our research conducted in 2007 and 2008 was focused on the Slovak-Hungarian border region. The research area was usually the 20- kilometre stripe along the border, extended in accordance with our experiences in some places with settlements and areas that functionally can be taken as border settlements or regions. Our research area is thus a functional area, home to approximately 2 million people, which cannot be designated by adminis
