Job Mobilities and Family lives in Europe. Modern Mobile Living and its Relation to Quality of Life

Duration:February 2006 to February 2009

Research team:(for Spain)Gerardo Meil, Luis Ayuso (Department of Sociology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) and Ramón Mahía (Department of Econometrics, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)

Cooperating institutions: University of Mainz (Germany) (Project Leader: Prof. Norbert Schneider), Facultés Universitaires Saint Louis - Brussel (Belgium), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France), Bundeswehr University, Munich (Germany), University of Warsaw (Poland), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne - Laboratoire de Sociologie Urbaine (Switzerland), Université de Lausanne (Switzerland), University of Applied Sciences, Nuremberg (Germany).

Funding: Commission of the European Union. Sixth Framework Program Priority 7- STREP, Contract no. 028349

Abstract:

The considerable rate of global social, economic, political and demographic changes leads to increasing demands on mobility and flexibility of persons and institutions. As a consequence, new patterns of contingency and constancy, movement and integration, work and family are emerging. An extended mobility of employees is considered as both a requirement and a precondition of the knowledge-based society and essential for social and territorial cohesion in Europe.One of the key challenges Europe faces in this situation is to understand how to encourage the flow of people and ideas across Europe without creating impairments regarding family formation, social integration, and individual well-being.To improve this understanding is the main objective of this comparative research, covering six comprehensively selected European countries (Belgium, Germany, France, Poland, Spain, and Switzerland): both old and new EU members, and an associated country, representing varying levels of economic development, demographic potential, social environments, and cultural traditions.

The study is targeted at:

  • mapping the demands and potentials of job mobility across selected regions, and identifying the barriers and triggers influencing the readiness to become mobile
  • identifying the consequences of job mobility for family formation (marriage, fertility, divorce), family relations (child care, coping, conflict management, division of labour), social integration and individual well-being
  • assessing the gender-specific issues in the field of mobility with a special focus on women, as our previous research suggests the costs of job mobility are higher for women
  • developing suggestions for adequate political measures to advance quality of life of mobile employees and their families in Europe, and balancing demands against readiness to move.

The theoretical conception will be based on a dynamic social-structural approach on the macro-level, combined with a rational-choice approach and health and stress theories on the micro-level of acting people.

Research questions:

The study in hand focuses on job-related spatial mobility and its possible influences on the physical and psychological well-being and the process of family development. The constellations occurring to combine family and work by mobility can be labelled as mobile living arrangements. Research carried out by the members of the consortium shows that there are quite different types of mobile living: forms of regular and irregular recurring mobility (e.g. commuting or seasonal work), and types of non-recurring mobility (e.g. migration or moving). The analysis of the diversity of mobile living is object of this project.

Three main research areas are in the centre of the projected survey:

Main research area 1:Mobility requirements, phenomenology of realised job mobility in Europe, spread, and description of persons who are affected.

First, we will collect representative data that will provide information about the spread of job-related mobility requirements and about the frequencies of the different kinds of mobile living. Interviewed persons will be asked if they encountered mobility requirements according to one or more types of mobile living within the last three years. Of interest are individually perceived occupational mobility demands, while this is independent of whether or not one succumbs to these demands. Labour force will be included as well as presently non-employed persons. Furthermore, we will describe who is confronted with mobility requirements and who is not. The role of personal characteristics, features of persons’ social situations and the features of the labour market are to be analysed. Due to the comprehensive sample, analyses will give insights into the question of how often persons employed within different branches encounter mobility requirements but also regarding the question of how frequently jobless people or unemployed partners of mobile persons perceive job chances affording mobility. Of particular interest is the question of the importance of regional and structural features to the mobility requirements, which people encounter.

Correspondingly, we will develop a differentiated phenomenology of mobile living in the six European countries. The survey will be supplemented by analyses of existing data on the structure of the labour market, the transportation and communication infrastructure, and the “mobility culture” in the different countries.

Main research area 2:People’s mobility decisions and the analyses of barriers and triggers to become mobile against the background of the social mobility capacity and the individual willingness to be mobile

In the centre of this research area lies the analysis of the factors that determine whether a perceived mobility requirement becomes accepted, which mobile living arrangement is chosen and which mobile living arrangements are changed or stopped. Under the dictum of mobility and flexibility of post-modern societies, sociological theorists such as Sennett developed the thesis that individuals experience themselves more as driven by circumstances than as designers of their own fate. Deriving from these assumptions, the question is to be addressed as to how the individuals evaluate their own decision behaviour. Do they take the position of an active-framing (“self-determined individual” as the winner of individualisation) or passive-reactive part (“over-directed individual”) as the loser of individualisation?

Main research area 3:Consequences of Mobile Living: Burdens and advantages of mobile living and its impact on quality of life, family development, job career, and individual well-being

The study at hand will analyse the consequences of job mobility on health related well-being. The main research topics are in this context specific strains and disadvantages as well as advantages and resources of mobile living arrangements. Against this background, also detailed information about the preconditions under which mobile living arrangements are adhered to or given up can be submitted. Furthermore, the survey’s participants will be asked about the perceived consequences of their living arrangements with regard to their satisfaction with their partnership, family functioning, family development, and social integration. To control the consequences of mobile living, non-mobile people are included in the analyses as a comparison group.

In terms of this research area it will be asked also, how much mobility is reasonable for working people, especially for those, who want to arrange job, mobility, and family. The analyses of these questions is in particular important, because increased mobility requirements can have, due to the current state of research, negative consequences on family development and social integration just as on physical and psychological well- being of the individuals.

With the current state of research, it is to assume that men and women react in different ways on job-related mobility requirements. The potential of being mobile is different in case of men and women in some respect too. This is true, for instance, if they have to take care of children or not. In addition, the consequences of job-related mobility are unequal for men and women also. These assumptions will be critical reviewed during the analysis. Thus, most research questions will be analysed with regard to gender aspects.

For more information:

Publications:

Norbert F. Schneider & Gerardo Meil (Eds.): Mobile Living Across Europe I. Relevance and Diversity of Job-Related Spatial Mobility in Six European Countries. Opladen & Farmington Hills: Barbara Budrich, 2008.

From the Contents:

• Ruth Limmer & Norbert Schneider: Studying job-related Spatial mobility in Europe

• Philippe Huynen, Bertrand Montulet, Michel Hubert, Detlev Lück & Renaud Orain: Survey Design and Methods

• Estelle Bonnet, Beate Collet, Cristina Dragus, Béatrice Maurines & Renaud Orain: France – Job Mobility Bridges Regions in a Centralised Country

• Norbert Schneider, Silvia Ruppenthal, Detlev Lück, Heiko Rüger & Andrea Dauber: Germany – A Country of Locally Attached but Highly Mobile People

• Gerardo Meil, Luis Ayuso & Ramón Mahía: Spain – Recurring Mobility rather than Relocation

• Gil Viry, Vincent Kaufmann & Eric Widmer: Switzerland – Mobility: a Life Stage Issue?

• Anna Giza-Poleszczuk & Magdalena Stec: Poland – The Unfulfilled Mobility Potential

• Bertrand Montulet, Philippe Huynen & Michel Hubert: Belgium – A Society of Commuters

• Gerardo Meil: Summary – Job Mobility in Europe: Greater Differences among Social Groups than among Countries

Norbert F. Schneider & Beate Collet (Eds.): Mobile Living Across Europe II. Causes and Consequences in Cross-cultural Perspective. Opladen & Farmington Hills: Barbara Budrich, 2010.

Press release:

Europeans are sedentary, but highly mobile as commuters and on business trips

First representative study on job-related spatial mobility in Europe shows:
One in two people working for pay has experiences with mobility.

(Mainz, October 17th 2008, lei) Even in times of rising demands to become mobile people in Europe prove themselves to be surprisingly sedentary: They rarely relocate over large distances and they hardly migrate. But Europeans do develop manifold strategies to meet the mobility requirements anyway: They commute daily or weekly over long distances, they maintain long distance relationships, they go on foreign assignments or frequently on long business trips. Almost one in two people working for pay has experiences with job-related spatial mobility. The most frequent way of being mobile is, by far, long distance commuting: Among the mobiles 41 percent are long distance commuters and spend at least two hours each day on their way to and from work. Another 29 percent of the mobiles spend at least 60 overnights far from home – for example on business trips, as weekend commuters, or as seasonal workers. 14 percent of the job-related mobility are relocations within one country. Migration and foreign assignments only play a marginal role with 4 percent all together. 12 percent of mobile people are even mobile in more than one way.

These results are based on the first representative study on the spread, causes, and consequences of job-related spatial mobility in Europe. The study titled „Job Mobilities and Family Lives in Europe“ is funded by the Sixth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development of the European Commission, carried out in France, Germany, Spain, Poland, Switzerland and Belgium, and coordinated by the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. For this research project all in all 7,220 people aged 25 to 54 years have been interviewed. 16 percent of the people working for pay are currently mobile; another 32 percent have made experiences with mobility in the past. All in all, the differences in the extent of current mobility between the countries are small. Germany shows the highest ratio with 18 percent mobiles among people working for pay, Switzerland the lowest with 13 percent.

The study also shows an increase in the demands to become professionally mobile over the last 20 years. “The people aged 30 today have already more experiences with mobility than the ones aged 50“ concludes the project coordinator, Prof. Dr. Norbert Schneider from Mainz University, from the findings on change in mobility.

Despite the common experience of job-related spatial mobility, the potential for further mobility must be considered as rather small, so the authors of the study. Among the currently non-mobile people working for pay 53 percent are reluctant to become mobile or ready only under strong restrictions. Especially the idea of relocating and leaving the accustomed main place of residence is rejected by a large majority. Rather than that Europeans can imagine commuting to a distant workplace. This preference, which corresponds to the actual distribution of the ways in which people are mobile, indicates that people are searching for compromises between distinct emotional ties to their home region and the labour market’s requirement to become mobile.

The experience of mobility of Europeans strongly varies by sex, age, and education. Men are more mobile than women, young people more than elder ones, people with a university degree more than those without. Also the size of the company matters. Employees of international enterprises are more mobile than small and medium-sized firms. Further differences are related to the way of being mobile. Whereas young people and those with a university degree tend to relocate, the elder ones and those without university education prefer to commute.

The causes of the increase in mobility demands have not only to do with the changing labour market; also the rising labour market participation of women leads to more mobility. Weekend commuting, for example, for many couples is the only way of reconciling their partnership with both of their occupations.

Today mobility is obtaining a more and more ambivalent character: For some, it provides new opportunities and fosters social advancement. For others, mobility is the only way of avoiding unemployment and social descent. Prof. Dr. Anna Giza-Poleszczuk from Warsaw University points out the relevance of mobility as survival strategy: “For one in four mobiles, mobility is the last possibility to secure their existence.”

The consequences of mobility range from subjective well-being over health and social ties to family life. Mobility, for example, fosters a traditional division of responsibilities between women and men regarding child care: While mobile men are further released from their responsibilities by their female partners this is true for mobile women much more rarely. This aggravates the problem of reconciling family, job, and mobility especially for women. Furthermore mobility inhibits the family development in particular for mobile women: Unlike mobile men, they tend to remain childless and even without a partner. In return, being a parent clearly reduces the readiness to become mobile, for men and especially for women.

Mobility does not necessarily have negative consequences for well-being and satisfaction. It matters in what way people are mobile. Especially weekend commuting and daily long distance commuting often come with considerable strains whereas the strains of relocation are rather small. Other than that the level of stress mainly depends on the working conditions and on the circumstances under which the people concerned have become mobile. “In particular when mobility is experienced as a constraint, as unforeseen, or unwanted people feel especially burdened by it,” emphasizes Prof. Dr. Gerardo Meil from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

“In times of rising demands to become professionally mobile politics and economy are called to develop new strategies of, at the same time, encouraging Europeans’ mobility and minimising the negative consequences of enhanced mobility,” concludes Prof. Dr. Norbert Schneider from the research results. The contribution of employers could be to offer more flexibility regarding work hours, to allow employees to work at home more often, to take over a share of the financial costs of mobility, and to reduce the need of being mobile.