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- Convenors:
-
Pihla Maria Siim
(University of Tartu)
Markus Idvall (Stockholm University)
Fredrik Nilsson (Åbo Akademi University)
Send message to Convenors
- Discussants:
-
Laura Assmuth
(University of Eastern Finland)
Elo-Hanna Seljamaa (University of Tartu)
- Formats:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Mobilities
- Sessions:
- Monday 21 June, -
Time zone: Europe/Helsinki
Short Abstract:
Borders, both as physical and symbolic entities, have regained power and importance since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The panel aims to trace both the long-term and short-term consequences this has for transnational everyday life, in European border regions and beyond.
Long Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed people's everyday life across the globe. Borders, both as physical and symbolic entities are back with us, having regained power and importance also for people we used to think of as mobile in a privileged way. Re-bordering has taken place also in regions such as the European Union where de-bordering had been going on for decades. The national governments handle the pandemic in their own national contexts, making borders contested areas. The abrupt measures taken by governments are thought of and meant to be short-term, but experience shows that their effects rather tend to be long-term. For those regularly crossing state borders the pandemic has brought a need to reorganise their life according to "new normality" and established restrictions.
This panel welcomes theoretical, empirical or methodological inquiries into the changing experiences of transnational everyday life. Papers can present ongoing work, and research ideas developing with the phases of the pandemic, addressing issues such as: experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic in border regions from an ethnographic viewpoint; inequalities and rule-breaking related to crossing of borders; bodies crossing or separated by the border; power in relation to spatial politics and practices; symbolic borders that have emerged or gained increased relevance in uncertain circumstances and under new kinds of border regimes, e.g. xenophobic attitudes towards migrants; the short-term or long-term consequences of the pandemic for transnational everyday life, e.g. return migration, new lifestyles, remote work, care.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Monday 21 June, 2021, -Kristina Toplak (Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Slovenian Migration Institute) Mojca Vah Jevšnik (ZRC SAZU)
Paper short abstract:
The paper presents ongoing research on the impact of changing border restrictions due to the Covid 19-pandemic on commuters and posted workers between Slovenia and Austria. It discusses the changes in people's everyday lives by focusing on the social, health and economic risks.
Paper long abstract:
The north-eastern regions of Slovenia have been economically, socially and culturally linked to the neighbouring Austria. In 2007, after Slovenia joined the Schengen area, the state border separating the regions has been completely abolished. The border dissolution influenced people's everyday practises, making everyday life more flexible and noticeably more transnational.
With the pandemic and the associated crisis strategies and policies of the governments of both countries, which were implemented in spring 2020, the border became again a physical obstacle that separates people and places and has severe consequences for people's everyday lives. Many cross-border commuters and posted workers from Slovenia have been put in a difficult situation due to restrictions, such as border controls, long waiting times, and different rules regarding safety measures, Covid-19 testing and quarantine applied in Slovenia and Austria. Many Slovenian residents employed in Austria also lost their jobs and needed social protection on their return. Their daily lives were reorganised by and because of the re-bordering.
The paper presents ongoing research on the effects of the changing border restrictions for commuters between Slovenia and Austria. It builds on the analysis of government policies and measures put in place to mitigate the negative effects associated with mobility restrictions, and on semi-structured interviews conducted with commuters, posted workers and return migrants. Building on the collected empirical data, the changes in people's everyday lives will be discussed, focusing on the social, health and economic risks faced by Slovenian residents who work in Austria as commuters and posted workers.
Katarina Šrimpf Vendramin (Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts)
Paper short abstract:
The measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic brought with it enhanced perception of various borders (state and regional borders, borders of our homes, of ourselves, etc.). The narratives about everyday life during this period shows that there was a sense of fear associated with all of them.
Paper long abstract:
The measures taken by the government during the COVID-19 epidemic brought with it feelings and perceptions of various borders that had previously been torn down and blurred, such as the borders of the state, the borders of the region and the borders of the municipality. But new or previously less perceived borders were also awakened, such as the borders of our homes, of ourselves, and our personal space. But even a brief analysis of the conversations between people and the stories about life during this period shows that the attitude towards these borders is often marked by feelings of fear and discomfort. This is not unusual, as the epidemic is a realization of one of the greatest fears of contemporary society and is literally the embodiment of Bauman's Liquid Fear (2006).
The paper will focus on the presentation of narratives about the everyday life of Slovenes living in the border area with Italy, which reveals various aspects of the perception of these borders and boundaries, also in connection with the creation of new body techniques and other related practices and rituals. But they also reveal the feeling of fear that became a constant and part of everyday life during the pandemic.
Pihla Maria Siim (University of Tartu)
Paper short abstract:
Drawing on interviews of Estonians who are living abroad or have recently returned to Estonia, the paper examines how the COVID-19 pandemic affected their intentions to return. In addition, their experiences of (non)belonging while living abroad and especially after returning to Estonia are touched.
Paper long abstract:
Drawing on face-to-face and online interviews, the paper examines experiences of return migrants, moving back to Estonia from different parts of the world (Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, US etc.). This paper has two aims. Firstly, to explore the ways the COVID-19 pandemic and restriction of the movement across the borders affected transnational everyday life of interviewees, and more specifically, their intentions to return. Some have stated that COVID-19 pandemic made them take time off and ponder over their future. Unemployment and uncertainty the pandemic brought along pushed some interviewees to make quick decisions regarding the return. However, many are ready to move again, if necessary.
Secondly, the paper discusses the experiences of (non)belonging interviewees had while living abroad and after returning to Estonia. In principle, returnees acknowledge positive developments that have taken place in Estonia during recent years. However, interviewees do compare Estonia and its mentality to the societies where they have spent the last years or decades, and do not necessarily feel at home in or welcomed to Estonia. Interviewees have described the ambivalence of identity positions forced on them – the ways they are positioned and valued by other members of the society, especially by their relevant networks. Sometimes returning is compared to arriving in a completely new country, including similar challenges and negotiations.
Laura Assmuth (University of Eastern Finland)
Paper short abstract:
The paper explores translocal lives of those from Estonia who have migrated to Finland or who commute for work between the two neighbouring countries, in light of changes caused or mechanisms revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Cross-border everyday lives of work and family have become vulnerable.
Paper long abstract:
The neighbouring countries Estonia and Finland have become so closely connected during the last 30 years that they form a transnational space with extensive mobility in all spheres of life and towards both directions. Work migration, however, is mainly from Estonia to Finland: tens of thousands of Estonians, individuals and families, have migrated to Finland, and tens of thousands commute for work between the two countries. There are Estonians of all ages and backgrounds in all parts of Finland, in all sectors of life. They are an 'invisible minority' whose work input Finland dearly needs but in ordinary circumstances fails to acknowledge. This extensive mobility has been greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic: people’s taken-for-granted liberty of movement as EU-citizens, their work contracts and income, their sense of security and feelings of embeddedness into two countries have been disrupted in multiple ways.
The paper explores such new (and ongoing) realities through materials collected by ‘catching up’ with research participants already known to the author from previous research and asks: How does one’s social position, educational level, status on the labour market, gender, age and linguistic background play out in producing new and unexpected sets of intersectional vulnerabilities in translocal everyday life? How do the participants deal with and try to overcome vulnerability? Finally the paper asks, whether the pandemic situation has in fact revealed hidden inequalities and mechanisms of exclusion and prejudice that were there all along, running along the borders between states.
Markus Idvall (Stockholm University)
Paper short abstract:
In 2020 everyday life culture was fundamentally changed. As an effect of the corona crisis, new trans/national bordering practices were established. In this paper, the analysis is focused on the bordering practices in a twofold way: quarantine rules and self-isolation performances.
Paper long abstract:
Nation-state borders and personal body boundaries were an outstanding preoccupation in the pandemic year of 2020. All over the world, the everyday life culture of borders and boundaries was fundamentally re-arranged and negotiated in similar but different ways due to the spread of the corona virus. In this paper, attention is directed towards a specific two-sided example of how “glocal” everyday life culture changed and was reset in different patterns as a consequence of the corona crisis: on the one hand the emergence of a new form of quarantine/security practices on the nation-state borders, and on the other hand the establishment of self-isolation performances and embodied boundarywork inside/outside the contested borders. In my paper a theoretical question will be addressed regarding how the field of border/mobility studies (Donnan & Wilson, Rumford) can be combined with practice-orientated body theories (Foucault, Merleau-Ponty). Based on material which was collected during the pandemic year and which includes newspaper articles, websites, auto-ethnographic notes, etc, the paper will start on the border and, with the Swedish example in focus, analyze phenomena such as quarantine rules and quarantine hotels in-between nation-states.