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.