Employment-Related Mobility and the Health of Workers, Families, and Communities: The Canadian Context

Introduction

A new body of literature — mobility studies — argues that mobility is a ubiquitous, normal, ongoing, and patterned aspect of all human societies.¹ It treats mobility as socially produced, embodied, and mediated by class, gender, and ethnicity.² This research suggests that mobility is underpinned by ideological meanings and material realities including issues related to social citizenship, as well as inequalities in access to mobility, in conditions of mobility, and in its consequences, all of which vary across situations, social classes, and genders.³ Employment-related mobility is a pervasive feature of many occupations. In this research note, we are particularly interested in employment-related mobility in the Canadian context. We define employment-related mobility as situations where workers regularly and repeatedly cross municipal, provincial or national boundaries to get to and from their place of employment (sometimes working in multiple or transient worksites as with construction workers and home care workers), and work involving mobile workplaces such as cruise and cargo ships, planes, trains, trucks, and fishing vessels.

Although employment-related mobility has a lengthy history in Canada⁴ and globally,⁵ the current context of neo-liberal economic restructuring, associated policy changes, and industry rationalization⁶ means that for more and more Canadian workers and employers, employment-related mobility is an inherent part of working life.

This paper synthesizes results from existing Canadian and international research on the relationship between intra-national employment-related mobility and the health and well-being of workers, their families, and their communities. The key objectives of this research note are: a) to outline what is known about how employment-related mobility can affect workers' health and the health of their families and communities; and, b) to identify research opportunities and priorities for future Canadian research on the health consequences of short-term, repetitive intra-national employment-related mobility and employment in mobile workplaces.

The Spectrum of Employment-Related Mobility

There is a broad spectrum of different kinds of employment-related mobility. Temporally, the spectrum includes daily, overnight and prolonged regular, sporadic and sometimes even permanent movement away from one's usual place of residence,⁷ sometimes in association with employment in multiple or mobile work sites. Spatially, the spectrum of employment-related mobility ranges from relatively short commutes to nearby communities to the lengthy distances associated with international migrant work. Employment-related mobility can be a requirement of the job, as in work camp situations and mobile occupations such as trucking, or an economic necessity linked to limited employment opportunities in home communities caused by a range of factors including resource depletion, industry restructuring, capital mobility (including capital flight) and precarious work. Among workers and their families, a variety of motivations influence decisions to engage in employment-related mobility.⁸ For young people, seasonal work away from home might be a necessity given limited employment and training opportunities there, or as a rite of passage into adulthood, or both. For those with dependents, employment-related mobility can help resolve spatial disjunctures between work opportunities, family responsibilities, friendship networks, and leisure activities. It can exacerbate or improve work-life balance issues,⁹ and can create new child and elder care challenges by extending care-givers' time away from home and the distance between home and work.¹⁰ Moving to a rural area can provide growing families with access to more suitable lower-cost housing while they retain their urban jobs, but it may also separate them from social supports (such as grandparents). Whatever the origins of employment-related mobility, it has the potential to positively or negatively affect the physical, mental, emotional, and social health of workers and their family members, including spouses, children, and those in the extended family. Employment-related mobility can enhance community well-being by generating increased resources and opportunities, but it can also generate significant vulnerabilities within home and host communities. The remainder of this research note describes the search strategy we developed...