Housing between home and accommodation? Strategies and perceptions of temporary migration for job reasons in Frankfurt, Germany

Transcription

1 Housing between home and accommodation? Strategies and perceptions of temporary migration for job reasons in Frankfurt, Germany, ILS Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development, Dortmund Conference Multilocality in the Global South and North: Factors, features and policy implications Workshop session: Features and strategies of multilocal households TU Dortmund University, 18/19 September 2014

2 Agenda Theoretical background Case study Frankfurt/Main, Germany Sample and research questions Perceptions of temporary migration Why strategies of coping? Strategies to cope with mobility and uncertainty Perceptions, strategies and the appropriation of new places Conclusions 2

3 Theoretical background Flexibilisation of work and organisation of work in projects (Boltanski/Chiapello 2007) end of project as a test of employability Uncertainties: Place of work and project duration two connected factors of uncertainty: paid work and place of living Coping with these uncertainties by the individual and also by the social network (Kels 2008) Multi-locality as the use of different offers of places (Weichhart 2009) or as a social practice of coping with mobility requirements Differentiation between migration and multi-locality (Weichhart 2009) 3 meanings and functions of housing: social (Home), symbolic (Residence) and functional (Accommodation) 3

4 Case study Frankfurt/Main, Germany inhabitants, employed persons Transit city: High proportion of inmigration as well as outmigration Headquarters of numerous companies (especially in finance) Global city (economic performance) Tight housing market 4

5 Sample and research questions 25 semi-structured interviews with temporary migrants (persons who moved for a limited time perspective because of job reasons) Mental Map of Frankfurt/Main Issues: Housing, mobility and work How do people who are occupationally mobile or live multi-locally experience their own mobility and multi-locality? Which strategies are developed when dealing with uncertainty, mobility and multi-locality? Which strategies or practices are employed for the appropriation of new places? Background factors: working arrangement and available resources 5

6 Perceptions of temporary migration and requirements of mobility Ambiguous perceptions in a continuum between deliberate choice and structural constraint Depends on the phase of stay Deliberate choice 1. Mobility as part of career strategies or normal working life 2. Enlargement of options in job and private life Structural constraint 3. No alternative because of labour market restrictions on the former place of living time limited contracts 4. Creating a new professional perspective 6

7 Why strategies of coping? Requirements of the labour market for flexibility and mobility stands in contrast to private needs End of project as a test of employability Continuous recurrence of a circulation of arrival and departure (new appropriation, new social contacts, new town) Uncertainty about professional and spatial perspectives need for a constant place of home or other factors that maintain personal stability Perception of temporary migration and requirements of mobility Strategies of dealing with mobility and uncertainty Strategies for the appropriation of new places Implications for housing 7

8 Strategies of coping with mobility and uncertainty Strategies to establish continuity and stability 1. Multi-locality as a strategy to maintain a place of home 2. Efficient arrangement of work and life market oriented lifestyle 3. Similar situations of housing 4. Creating a perspective to stay or pretending to stay Strategies for the appropriation of new places 1. Job centred lifestyle at the place of work, social life at the other place (or different places) 2. Residential multi-locality as deliberate appropriation of both places of work 3. Concentration on and deliberate appropriation of the place of work (no multi-locality) 4. No localisation 8

9 Strategy Efficient arrangement of work and life Max, Management Consultant, 35 years Place of work Housing area 9

10 Perceptions, strategies and appropriation of new places Perception Deliberate choice Structural constraint Mobility as a part of career strategies or working life Enlargement of options in job and private life Creating a new professional perspective No alternative Labour market restrictions on the former place of living Time limited contracts Strategies to establish continuity and stability Efficient arrangement of work and life Multi-locality as a strategy to maintain a place of home Similar situations of housing Creating a perspective to stay Multi-locality as a strategy to maintain a place of home No strategy Strategies of the appropriation of new places Job centred lifestyle Same relevance of both places Concentration on the place of work, no multi-locality Job centred lifestyle Concentration on the place of work, no multi-locality No localisation 10

11 Conclusion Uncertainty about professional and spatial perspectives need for a constant place of home or other factors that maintain personal stability In most cases a strategy to cope with mobility and uncertainty is established But the persons who see no alternative to temporary migration because of time limited labour contracts suffer the most in case of temporary mobility establish no strategies most vulnerable group in the sample In contrast very routinized forms of multi-locality multi-locality as a strategy of coping with temporary migration Dependent on the available resources 11

12 Thank you! Contact: Phone: 0231/