Roughly 40,000 people relocate to another Nordic country every year and 49,000 commute to a job in another Nordic country. Photo: Josh Wilburne

Mobility in the Nordic labour market has been one of the cornerstones of Nordic co-operation since the introduction of the Passport Union in 1952 and the free movement of labour which was facilitated by the joint labour market introduced in 1954. Mobility has been substantial since the 1950s (Pedersen, Røed and Wadensjö, 2008). However, in recent years this mobility has faced challenges due to border restrictions imposed to curb the influx of refugees and to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper sheds some light on the current situation of cross-border labour market mobility in the Nordic Region.

The term ‘labour market mobility’ in this paper covers both migration and commuting: migration in the sense of relocating to take up a job in another Nordic country, commuting in the sense of travelling to work in another Nordic country on a daily or weekly basis.

Despite efforts by the Nordic Council of Ministers and other bodies to facilitate cross-border mobility, such as the Info Norden information service for people wishing to live, study or work in another Nordic country and the Freedom of Movement Council set up in 2014 to remove legal and administrative obstacles to cross-border mobility – many such obstacles seem to remain.

It is also a reasonable assumption that mobility in the Nordic labour market will play a key role in achieving the Nordic vision of becoming the most integrated region in the world by 2030 (Nordic Council of Ministers, 2020). However, to date, the figures for migration and commuting between the Nordic countries remain modest. According to available statistics, of a total Nordic population of 27.2 million, roughly 40,000 people relocate to another Nordic country every year and 49,000 commute to a job in another Nordic country (Lundgren & Wøien Meijer, 2022).