Paper Short Abstract:

This paper analyses the meaning of objects, practices, rituals, and emotions in the process of reimagining home within the group of Romanian truck drivers in Germany.

Paper Abstract:

Professional truck driving is a common job among Romanian migrants, particularly men, who pursue it to secure better economic opportunities for themselves and their families. This paper explores how objects, practices, rituals, and emotions contribute to the reimagining of home among Romanian truck drivers in Germany. Navigating the constant challenges of their profession, such as creating a safe and comfortable workspace while rebuilding a home away from home, truck drivers often view their 3-4 square meter cabins as extensions of their identities. Their trucks serve as significant markers of identity, aiding in the formation of new relationships, especially with fellow Romanians in the same profession. These drivers transform the empty space of the cabin into a liveable and living environment by engaging with their memories, sense of belonging, and recreating habitus. In highway parking lots, objects sacredly kept in their cabins become tools for connection. Items like cooking utensils, portable chairs and tables, gas cylinders, radios, and images of saints serve as links to their home country. Truck drivers also extend their experiences beyond their physical environment, sharing their rituals on social media through written stories, comments, pictures, and short videos. There is constant activity on Facebook groups depicting truckers’ constant need to build their identities on the go and belong to a growing group with the same particularities. Moreover, communal activities create a sense of belonging and familiarity within their diasporic community, as they cook, drink, and spend their mandatory breaks together, transforming narratives of loss into empowering stories.