The commercial role of the border area

Transcription

1 The commercial role of the border area The case of La Jonquera Laura Bąkowska Carles Puig Natalia Smela Katarzyna Nawracała Miia Kaartinen Tiina Juntunen Girona,

2 Content 1 Introduction Theoretical background Border as opportunity Borderlands in the economic geography point of view Data and methods Results How the landscape has changed over last 50 years from the commercial point of view Survey results People visiting and working in el Portùs Opinions about the infrastructure and landscape Car observation Tendencies in buying goods Conclusions References Appendix 1 2

3 1 Introduction La Jonquera region is located in the French and Spanish border, in North Catalonia and Western Pyrénées. The area is surrounded by Pyrénées which are one of the highest mountain ranges in Europe. Due to its localization La Jonquera lies close to many protected areas, such as natural area of Albera. The city lies in 110 meters above sea level thus it makes up a border passage between mountainous regions. The most of this region is covered in forests, crops occupy a few percent of this area and productive space take up also only couple of percents. (Cabezas & Cufí, 2013.) In historical times during Spanish Civil War and Second World War this border area was strictly guarded. In 1986 Spain joined the European Union (EU), and from that time the situation in this border area has rapidly changed. The border was opened in 1993 and as a result La Jonquera suffered a big economic crisis in consequence of decreasing role of industry. In the beginning companies did not want to invest in this region but it has changed in a short time. After few years, the commercial role of the city was more visible and nowadays it is one of the most important shopping and communication area in this border. (Cabezas & Cufí, 2013.) The economy has changed since last 20 years and has been specializing in services to carriers that use the road axis. The establishment of this road service center has been very important and generated an increase of jobs in La Jonquera. As a result in La Jonquera there are over 300 shops, 16 supermarkets and 6 smoke shops which are important for the economic situation of inhabitants and workers. As a result of the growing commercial role of the area the number of inhabitants has grown. The cause of this growth is the accelerated immigration form Africa and South America. (Cabezas & Cufí, 2013.) The aim of the research is to show the commercial role of the border area. It will answer the questions how the commercial infrastructure in La Jonquera influates the landscape and how the landscape has changed over the last 50 years due to developing 3

4 commercial area. This research will also focus on people visiting and living in this region, who are they, why they are coming here and how this commercial area affects people s everyday life. Research questions are following: How does infrastructure influate the landscape of La Jonqera? How has the landscape changed over last 50 years from the commercial point of view? Who are the people who visit the area and why do they come to La Jonquera? How do the commercial area affect to the everyday life of the people? 4

5 2 Theoretical background 2.1. Border as opportunity Border studies have a long history from the study of hard territorial line separating states to the contemporary study that focuses on the process of bordering, border territories and people affected by a border (Newman 2003, 13). In the field of modern border studies it is widely accepted that borders are institutions and not simply lines on the map (Paasi 1998, according Newman, 14). All institutions have their own rules and laws borders are not an exception. Because the essence of a border is to separate self from the other, one function of border institution is to limit trans-boundary movement. In other words, the process of bordering has a major role in the ordering of the society. (Newman 2003, ) Nowadays, due to globalization the borders with barriers become bridges. For example in the European Union (EU) borders between countries had been removed in order to cohesion policy to connect people in EU. In the whole world, the roles of the border do not become less important. (Anderson 2001, 1.) By the words of Newman (2003, 18) the area in closest geographic proximity to the state border within which spatial development is affected by the existence of the boundary is called frontier or borderland. When the borders are open, and the crossing of border is easy, it is common that trans-border activity is taken place (Newman 2003, 18). It means that trans-boundary regions may develop. The physical meaning of the border becomes less important and the social meaning of the border more important. The old idea of a border as a barrier changes to an idea where borders function as meeting places Borderlands in the economic geography point of view Traditionally, borders between different countries have been seen as barriers to free market areas. Especially, in case of impermeable borders, cross-border flows of for example people and capital may be difficult. That is why borderlands are often consid- 5

6 ered as national peripheries in economic terms. (van Houtum 2000, 60.) Because an impermeable border may cut the market area in two separate pieces, enterprises do not always consider borderlands as potential locations (Niebuhr & Stiller 2002, 5 6). As a result of the creation of the common European market the border between Spain and France is nowadays permeable to the flows of for example trade, people and labour. According to Niebuhr and Stiller international co-operation makes the border areas more attractive in the economic sense. When an impermeable border changes to a permeable border and when there are no political barriers, it is possible to join two national market areas to one common market area on the borderland. Joining the market areas increases for example the customer volume. As an effect on the bigger market area it may be possible to offer new services and products in the area, which was not possible the time, when there were two small market areas. (Niebuhr & Stiller 2002, 7 and ) However, when creating a common market area on the borderland, it is not only about bigger market areas and permeable borders. Anderson and Wever say that functioning of the economic interaction on the border has also to do with cultural and linguistic differences. Differences between the different sides of the borders can effect negatively to the cross-border interaction, but also have positive consequences. Especially, if the labour costs and prices are lower on the other side of the border, it makes the border area more attractive to the firms and customers. (Anderson & Wever 2003, 27.) 6

7 3 Data and methods To carry out the research about the commercial role of the border area the group used a standardized interview. The interview was made to customers who are visiting el Portús in the La Jonquera area and sellers who are working in this district. The questions to customers are following: 1) Where do you come from? 2) How far do you live? How long was the trip to the city? 3) How often do you come here? 4) Why are you coming here? Are you coming somewhere else? 5) What do you buy usually? 6) How did you arrive here? 7) What do you think about the landscape in La Jonquera? Questions for sellers are following: 1) Where do you come from? 2) What do you think about the expanding infrastructure? 3) How many languages do you speak? What languages? 4) Do you live here? If yes, how long? If no, where? 5) What do you think about the landscape in La Jonquera? The goal was to question a minimum 20 of customer and sellers in the equal proportions. By virtue of extensive language environment the interview questions were translated into Catalan, English and French. The second part of the research was to take the photographs of productive area in el Portús. We took the photos of car numbers, shops and products. From the photographs can be seen the type of shops existing in the city. Moreover the photographs of the most bought goods were taken to show which good prevails. The cars were also photographed to find out from which countries and regions are the most of the people who visit La Jonquera. There is a region code in the vehicle registration plate that shows the starting point of the car. The origins of the cars were also gathered by pencil and paper. The country code and region code were written down and counted afterwards 7

8 (see appendix 1). On the basis of photographs, which were taken, tables of cars were made. As the third part of the research the digital map was created based on the gathered data in order to show from which region of France the people come to La Jonquera. And lastly we used aerial photographs of el Portús, La Jonquera from 1956 and 2012 to compare the changes of commercial area, such as roads and supermarkets. The aerial maps were found on the webpage of the Instutut Cartogràfic de Catalunya ( The field work was done 14 th May, 2013 in el Portús, a part of La Jonquera. In order to improve effectiveness of the research, the group was divided in two teams. One team was doing the survey with the customers and sellers. The second team was taking photographs of the city and commercial places and also counted the car numbers to analyze it. 8

9 4 Results 4.1. How the landscape has changed over last 50 years from the commercial point of view Maps 1 and 2. The aerial photographs of el Portús. Source: Above we can see two aerial photographs of La Jonquera. The first photograph was taken in 1956 and the other in We can see visible differences in how the town had changed over past 50 years. Looking at the photographs from the commercial point of view we can see the increase of infrastructure. The main change is the highway which was opened in December 2010 due to increasing commercial role of the area (Adif, 2013). The other change is the growth of the service area, for example supermarkets, shops with perfumes and cigarettes and restaurants. 9

10 4.2. Survey results People visiting and working in el Portùs One part of the research was to interview people visiting (the customers) and working (the sellers) in el Portùs, La Jonquera. There were ten interviewees visiting the district and ten interviewees working in el Portùs (see table 1). Six of the customers were from France and four from Spain. The Spanish customers interviewed were mostly from Catalonia. Three out of four said that they are from Figueres and only one customer came further away. None of the interviewed customers were from other countries. The origin of the sellers was more diverse. Four of the interviewees were from Spain, from whom only one was from La Jonquera, and two interviewees were from France. Five of the interviewed sellers come originally outside Spain or France. Two of the foreign sellers come from other Spanish-speaking countries (Ecuador and Colombia) and the others from Morocco, Romania and Senegal. At the moment half of the sellers live in Figures. Only two of the sellers live actually in La Jonquera. Two of the sellers live in France (Perpignan and Le Bolou) and one interviewee did not tell his/her hometown. Customers Sellers Female 4 7 Male 3 3 Couple 2 Group of three 1 Table 1. Interviewees. The sellers were also asked which languages they can speak. All the interviewed seller are able to speak Spanish and French and five of them can also speak Catalan. Other mentioned languages were native languages of the foreign sellers (Romanian, Wolof and Moroccan), but none of the sellers told that she or he can speak English. Considering that all the interviewed customers were French or Spanish and comparing that to the language knowledge of the sellers, it seems that the shopping area of el Portùs is firstly indicated to Spanish and French customers. However, when observing the cars, it was noticed that there were some visitors in el Portùs from outside France and Spain (see 4.3 Car observation). 10

11 Mentionings French 10 Spanish 10 Catalan 5 Romanian 1 Wolof 1 Moroccan 1 Table 2. The language knowledge of the sellers. For customers there were different reasons to come to el Portùs (table 3). It is possible to distinguish five main groups. Firstly, the most common reason to come to el Portús was that the people interviewed were on holiday. Three of the five holidaymakers said that they will also visit the other districts nearby and for one of them el Portùs was the only destination of the holiday. In the light of the answers of the people on holiday, el Portùs is seen as a touristic attraction, too. The second most common reason to come to el Portùs was to buy some goods. The most popular goods to buy were tobacco, alcohol and clothes (table 4). Mentionings Holiday and visiting the area 5 Shopping 3 Spending time 2 Looking for a job 1 Table 3. The reasons customers mentioned, when they were asked, why they came to el Portùs. Mentionings Alcohol 5 Clothes 2 Tabacco 2 Food 1 Nothing specific 5 Table 4. The most common goods to buy among the interviewed csutomers. The rest of the answerers had various reasons to come to el Portùs. Two persons were just spending time in el Portùs (visiting the area, just walking around) and one of 11

12 the customers worked in the district and had stayed in el Portùs to shop after work. One of the interviewees was looking for a job in el Portùs, while the interview was done Opinions about the infrastructure and landscape The question `what do you think about the infrastructure?` was asked to the ten sellers in el Portùs. The answers were different. A couple of sellers said that the expanding infrastructure is a good occurrence and it does not bother them. Several sellers said the infrastructure, especially roads, should be improved due to a lot of tourists in the summer, but in the other parts of the year everything is abandoned. One seller said that infrastructure in parts of city differs in La Jonquera. She finds it better than in el Portùs. On the other hand, one person said that the infrastructure in el Portùs is better than in near regions. Due to its localization the area to expand the infrastructure is limited and that is why the district seems overcrowded to some of the interviewees. They also complained about the government s lack of intention to improve the infrastructure. According to people s opinions traffics during the weekends and in summer are causing the collapse the main road. Interviewees claim that they need more space to live more comfortably with people visiting the district. Overall people tend to compare infrastructure in La Jonquera and el Portús. They claim that La Jonquera has better infrastructure and has more room for shopping malls, supermarkets and parking for cars and trucks, but in el Portús people can visit many shops in a shorter time. The clients themselves decide where to go since both emerged simultaneously. In el Portús we can find different types of customers: those living around (up to 120 km away) and those come from farther. Furthermore, we can distinguish those who come regularly and those, who came for the first time. This is why we find different views on both natural and urban landscape. Customers, who came a long way considered the landscape different from the landscape in the place that they are living. They think the landscape is very beautiful 12

13 however, those who live close to el Portús claim that the landscape is degraded. Moreover the lack of space complicates the smoothness of traffic and walking around the centre. However, el Portùs workers have a different perception of the landscape. Since some of them have lived in el Portùs for more than 10 years, they know perfectly what the environmental problems in the area are. The natural environment was destroyed by a fire on 22 July 2012 where a total of 13,000 acres burned and that changed the perception of the landscape (BBC 2012). That is why in opinion of some of the sellers and customers the landscape in the town is destroyed and air is polluted Car observation In this study there are used photographs of cars numbers. The number on the right side of the registration inform about the region from which the car is. The letter on the left side of the registration informs the country of the car (see picture 1). Picture1. Vehicle registration plate showing the region and country of the car. Source: personal photographs. After counting all the data of cars we found out that the most of the cars (80 %) in La Jounquera are from France (see table 2). 18 % of the cars were from Spain and only five cars (2%) were from other countries. 13

14 France 171 Spain 40 Germany 2 Great Britain 1 Romania 1 Belgium 1 Total 216 Table 5. The origin country of the cars. On the basis of the table in the appendix 1, the following map was created. Map 3. Origin department of the French cars spotted in el Portùs. Source: Own elaboration based on: Looking at the map, we can say that the most of cars in La Jonquera are from Pyrénées-Orientales. In the second place is Aude region. In the third place are: Nord, 14

15 Auvergene, Gard and Hérault. Only one car was for example from Tarn and Loire. According to Giband (2013), the Mediterranean cost of France is quite a popular district among French to spend their holidays. That can explain, why there were arrivals from almost all over France. Giband (2013) also mentioned that several retired people from Northern France move to Southern France to spend their retirement due to cheaper estates and milder climate Tendencies in buying goods 15

16 In the base of the interviews, photographs and visual observation people visiting La Jonquera are mostly French, the prices compare to those in France are much lower. In result mostly purchased goods are: alcohol, cigarettes, perfumes, clothes and food. 16

17 5 Conclusions Due to its border localization the commercial role of La Jonquera district is extremely important to the development of the town. It is shown in former researches that it is typical that in permeable borderlands, where there is a lot of international interaction, that commercial areas are founded (Niebuhr & Stiller 2002, 7; Newman 2003, 18). Over the past 50 years the commercial infrastructure of la Jonquera has developed - for example a new highway and a lot of shopping centers are built to accomplish the needs of people visiting the area. Standardized questionnaire shows that nationalities of the people visiting and working in el Portùs vary. Most are from France and Spain, but we can also meet especially workers from other countries. None of interviewed persons declared the knowledge of English but however, every seller knows French and Spanish. In the light of the interviews, it seems that el Portùs has a positive effect on the employment rate, not only in La Jonquera, but also to the nearby districts. Many workers commute from Figueres or from other near located towns. Based on the results of the interviews, the main reason for customers to visit La Jonquera is spending a holiday. Furthermore, some of them visited the district to buy specific products, such as tobacco and alcohol. It seems that thanks to the shopping opportunities, el Portùs is also a tourist attraction. Also the question about the condition of the landscape was asked. There was no clear pattern of the opinions about the landscape. There is little to say about the landscape because the opinions of the interviewees were so diverse. More was said about the infrastructure. Some found the downtown outdated and ugly and three of the ten customers found traffic was badly organized or even catastrophic. The opinion of sellers about the infrastructure differs. Some of them say that the state of infrastructure is good and it does not need to be improved. The other part of seller said that the situation of commercial infrastructure needs to be improved. Car observation shows that most of the people visiting La Jonquera are from Pyrénées-Orientales and Aude regions, situated near to the border. Although some peo- 17

18 ple came from northern and central part of France, they are supposedly mostly retired people who want to rest near the sea. To sum up the report explains different aspects of commercial role in a border region, La Jonquera. This paper researches such important aspects as development of commercial infrastructure, the rotation of people from different countries and their opinion about the landscape in this region. Moreover, in this report we showed the shopping tendencies in this district. The report shows that the commercial role of the border area in La Jonquera is very important. Without the closeness of the French-Spanish border the commercial area of La Jonquera would not have been developed. As we noticed that many workers come outside La Jonquera, it would be interesting to make a research about the commuting area of el Portús. Further research application could also be the question about the correlation between the income level of people visiting the area and the frequency how often people from different social classes visit La Jounquera. Answering the question whether the widening of the infrastructure has achieved the saturation point could be interesting. 18

19 References Adif (2013). Infraestructuras y Estaciones. cidad.shtml read on 16 th May Anderson, Joan & Egbert Wever (2003). Borders, border regions and economic integration: One world, ready or not. Journal of Borderlands Studies 18:1, BBC (2012). Spain wildfires: four killed in Catalonia. read on 16 th May Cabezas, Jordi & Andreas Cufí (2013). Border landscapes around Europe: La Jonquera. Presentation held on 14 th May 2013 in La Jonquera. Giband, David (2013). Geography of Pyrénées Orientales (France). Presentation held on 14 th May 2013 in La Jonquera. Newman, David (2003). On Borders and Power: A theoretical Framework. Journal of Borderland Studies 18:1, Niebuhr, Annekatrin & Silvia Stiller (2002). Integration effects in border regions : a survey of economic theory and empirical studies. HWWA Discussion Paper, No Avaible on internet: van Houtum, Henk (2000). III European perspectives on borderlands. Journal of Borderlands Studies 15:1,

20 Appendix 1 Country and region Number France, Pyrénées-Orientales (66) 70 France, Aude (11) 15 France, Nord (59) 5 France, Hérault (34) 5 France, Puy-de-Dôme (63) 5 France, Gard (30) 5 France, Haute-Garonne (31) 3 France, Meuse (55) 3 France, Savoie, (73) 3 France, Yvelines (78) 2 France, Oise (60) 2 France, Vaucluse (84) 2 France, Haute-Vienne (87) 2 France, Seine-Maritime (76) 2 France, Paris, (75) 2 France, Somme (80) 2 France, Tarn-et-Garonne (82) 2 France, Bouches-du-Rhône (13) 2 France, Cher (18) 2 France, Eure (27) 2 France, Overseas departments 2 France, Vendée (85) 2 France, Seine-et-Marne (77) 2 France, Isère (38) 2 France, Var (83) 2 France, Landes (40) 2 France, Saône-et-Loire (71) 1 France, Loiret (45) 1 France, Ille-et-Vilaine (35) 1 France, Loir-et-Cher (41) 1 France, Côte-d'Or (21) 1 France, Ardennes (08) 1 France, Finistère (29) 1 France, Corrèze (19) 1 France, Val-de-Marne (94) 1 France, Indre-et-Loire (37) 1 France, Loire-Atlantique (44) 1 France, Allier (03) 1 France, Ain (01) 1 France, Charente-Maritime (17) 1 France, Tarn (81) 1 France, Côtes-d'Armor (22) 1 20

21 France, Rhône (69) 1 France, Haut-Rhin (68) 1 France, Val-d'Oise (95) 1 France, Deux-Sèvres (79) 1 France, Moselle (57) 1 France, Loire (42) 1 France, Seine-Saint-Denis (93) 1 Spain 40 Belgium 1 Romania 1 Great Britain 1 Germany 2 Total