Bordershift – City‑Led Pathways to Employment in Border and Peripheral Regions

Border and peripheral cities across Europe face structural challenges that directly affect job creation. Compared to central urban areas, they are more exposed to geopolitical instability, weak accessibility, labour shortages, outward migration, lower investor visibility and fragile visitor economies. These factors often result in smaller labour markets and the persistent outmigration of young and skilled people.

At the same time, many border and peripheral cities possess strong but under‑used assets, including universities and research institutions, specialised know‑how, niche industries, nature‑based economies and strong local identities. The core challenge is therefore not a lack of potential, but the limited capacity of cities to actively convert these local strengths into jobs using the tools they control.

BORDERSHIFT explores how border and peripheral cities across Europe can actively enable new job creation, even in contexts shaped by their challenges. The network focuses on innovative, city‑led soft actions that mobilise local assets, employers, education providers and talent through improved municipal coordination, services and partnerships.

The network brings together 6–8 border and peripheral cities that want to move from strategy to concrete action in supporting local employment. Through peer learning and URBACT Local Groups, partner cities will design and implement practical actions that connect local strengths to new employment pathways and test how municipal services, partnerships and governance can be used more effectively in challenging territorial contexts.

Overall objective: To strengthen the capacity of border and peripheral cities to actively enable new job creation through city‑led, soft actions that better connect local assets, employers and talent in challenging territorial contexts.