Mobile Professionals and Families – A Symposium
January 18-19th, 2024, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland
Career expatriates, highly skilled (temporary) migrants, privileged migrants, mobile professionals, transnational corporate elites, or digital nomads: these are terms that have been used to describe highly educated professionals who move abroad voluntarily for career reasons. They are relatively well-paid professionals who do not necessarily stay in the destination permanently but move on after a few months or years.
While many countries welcome these skilled professionals, national immigration policies and multinational employers tend to focus on the worker as a detached and highly mobile individual whose talents and expertise are needed. Less attention has been paid to the fact that these experts are embedded in family relations and often have children and spouses/partners who either move abroad with them or stay behind. When the literature does center the expatriate worker’s family members, it does so with concepts like “Third Culture Kids” or “trailing spouses” that tend to frame mobility as a disruption that must be managed as opposed to considering how transnational mobility constitutes family life in particular ways.
This symposium focuses on the experiences of mobile professionals and their families. We seek fresh perspectives to explore new configurations of work, mobility, and family life through the prism of transnational movement and in the context of an uneven global economy. Contributions discussing the experiences and situations of internationally mobile children or partners and spouses are particularly welcome, as are reflections on the multiplicity and heterogeneity of the phenomenon.
We aim to address several questions in this symposium, including but not limited to:
- Who is privileged and in relation to whom, and how does this relate to the experiences of the accompanying or left-behind family members?
- How is family life performed through transnational mobility, and not just in spite of it?
- Who becomes an internationally mobile professional, for what reasons and what are the short- and long-term consequences of this for their families?
- How are mobile professionals and their families situated in the shifting arrangements of work in the aftermath of the pandemic and rise of platform capitalism?
- How do race, class, and gender intersect in the “doing” of family life as professional workers move abroad and across national borders?
- How are mobile and digital technologies affording new ways of parenting, shaping experiences of childhood, or enabling alternative performances of family life on the move? What are the limitations of such technologies with regard to family-making in transnationally mobile contexts?
- How do children and/or spouses/ partners experience the transnationally mobile lifestyles?
- What are the potential methodological dilemmas (and possible solutions to them) of studying families, including young children, on the move?
Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be sent to mari.korpela@tuni.fi by October 13th, 2023.
The symposium is free of charge but participants are required to pay for their own travel, accommodation and food.
The symposium consists of a keynote lecture, a presentation of the project “Expatriate Childhood” (by Mari Korpela), participants’ presentations and discussions.
The keynote lecture on Thursday January 18th will be given by Professor Jennie Germann Molz (College of the Holy Cross, USA). The title of her lecture is “Digital Nomad Families: From Worldschoolers to Mompreneurs”.
Further information: mari.korpela@tuni.fi
Mobile professionals and Families Symposium
Funded by Research Council of Finland and Tampere University
How to get there:
Flying to Tampere
Tampere-Pirkkala International Airport is located only 15 minutes from Tampere city centre. Since the airport is small and efficient, travellers can be at their hotel 30 minutes after landing.
The airport hosts one of airBaltic’s four bases, and the airline offers direct flights from Riga, Oslo, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Munich, Amsterdam, Rhodes and Malaga. SAS has direct flights from Stockholm, Finnair from Helsinki, and Ryanair from London Stansted.
Tampere-Pirkkala Airport is located 17 kilometres from the city centre. It’s easy to reach by public transport. Bus 103 is a fast connection to Tampere-Pirkkala Airport
The bus line 103 runs daily to Tampere-Pirkkala Airport. In the center of Tampere the route passes through train station and bus station. More information on public transport from the airport
More information on Tampere-Pirkkala Airport
Flying to Helsinki
Helsinki Airport is Finland’s international air travel hub; over 150 direct flights from all over the world land daily in Helsinki. The airport is served especially well from Asian and European cities. Trains and buses between Helsinki Airport and Tampere run frequently. Helsinki Airport is a two-hour drive away from Tampere.
More information on Helsinki Airport
Travelling to Tampere by land and sea
International travel options to Helsinki, Finland include ferries from Tallinn, Estonia (2 – 3 hours), Stockholm, Sweden (overnight) and Travemünde/Lübeck, Germany (27 hours). There are also daily ferries between Turku and Stockholm (10 – 12 hours). Buses and trains from Helsinki to Tampere take under two hours.
The easiest way to get to Finland without flying is by taking a train from central Europe to Stockholm via Copenhagen. From Stockholm the journey continues to Turku, Finland by ferry. Direct trains from Port of Turku to Tampere take around two hours. The overnight ferry from Stockholm to Turku operated by Viking Line’s Viking Grace runs on completely sulphur-free liquefied natural gas (LNG). The ship’s rotor sail saves fuel and reduces Emissions.
Travellng by train to Tampere
Tampere is easily accessible by train from all over Finland (1,5 h from Helsinki). You can catch the train from Helsinki airport to Tikkurila station where you change trains to come to Tampere.
Trains to Tampere are availble from Turku port. You do not have to make any changes.
There are good connections to all over the city from the Tampere railway station.
You can catch the local buses from Hämeenkatu (main street) and Rautatienkatu streets, and there’s also a taxi rank in front of the station building.
More information on tickets, timetables and routesCheck the train connections here
Travellng by bus to Tampere
Tampere is well connected to both Helsinki Airport and Turku port by regular bus services.
The long-distance buses operate to and from the Tampere bus station, address Hatanpään valtatie 5-7.
Long distance buses to Tampere are directly available from Helsinki Airport & Turku ferry port
More information on buses to Tampere, tickets, routes and timetablesCheck the bus connections here