Time and family on the move: ‘Accompanying partners’ in geographical mobility

Introduction

Under conditions of contemporary global economy, geographical mobility becomes an ‘imperative’ for many professionals and their families (Bilecen and Mol, 2017). International organizations, multinational corporations, and institutions in academia, science and medical fields, among others, now attract a growing number of professional workers on a global scale. At times, these people move with their families. Some need to relocate across different countries as part of their career trajectories. The relocation to a new country can entail rupturing changes for the whole family, in particular for the accompanying partner, who can experience a more pronounced alteration of the working life. While the working partner generally continues to rely on the workplace as institutional framework and anchorage in the new environment (Ravasi et al., 2013), the relocation appears to be more challenging for the accompanying partner. The change in the experience can be very profound, especially for those people who used to be employed before migration, with a transition from being a full-time professional to being a full-time homemaker and taking care of the household and children.

The present article aims to explore the interplay between time and family in the context of the geographical mobility of the ‘accompanying partners’, also known in the literature as ‘trailing spouses’ (Slobodin, 2018), ‘secondary movers’ (Tissot, 2016) or ‘tied migrants’ (Ledin et al., 2007). It asks how these people experience and practice time as a result of the relocation with their family, as well as how family life affects the way these individuals make sense of time. We draw upon two studies conducted both with men and women accompanying their professional partners respectively in China and Switzerland. Whereas experienced time for the contracted partner can be highly structured by the employers, a more ambivalent mixture of personal desire, family relations, gendered and cultural values and social expectations seem to affect the subjective experience of time for the accompanying partner. The conditions of geographical mobility, in other words, put these individuals in a rupturing situation in which the time previously marked and scheduled by their working life is now modified, often decelerated, and lived in a context outside of the labour market and the social time of work (Jeffrey, 2010). By feeling like having ‘surplus time’ (Jeffrey, 2008) to spend and feeling ‘stuck’ in an endless present (Cangià, 2017, in press; Hage, 2009), these people experience new rhythms in their everyday life. At the same time, as our analysis shows, accompanying partners can experience and practice time in new ways, based on their intimate relations, personal desires as well as new meanings associated with gender and family life.

In what follows, we first introduce current research on the mobility of professionals and their families, our theoretical and conceptual background, as well as the contribution of our study. Then, after presenting the contexts and methods of research, we analyse representative extracts from interviews. We conclude with some theoretical implications.

The mobility of professionals and their families

We draw upon a ‘mobility lens’ to the study of migration, which theorizes various forms of spatial movement under the rubric of ‘mobility’ (Cresswell, 2006). We follow a critical approach to human mobility, which considers not only the physical movement characterizing mobility, but also the various meanings and practices that make mobility a complex experience (Cresswell, 2006; Kaufmann, 2002; Salazar and Jayaram, 2016). In the context of mobility and migration studies, growing research has specifically explored the experience of mobile professionals’ families (Cangià and Zittoun, 2018; Coles and Fechter, 2012; Levitan et al., 2018; Zittoun et al., 2018; Ryan and Mulholland, 2014a; Suter, 2019), with a focus on the accompanying partners (Cangià, 2017, 2018; Fechter, 2007; Ryan and Mulholland, 2014b; Walsh, 2007). Some scholars, in particular, have challenged the image of ‘privilege’ associated with these migrants, and framed this form of migration within the context of the precarization of the world of work (Cangià, 2018; Cooper, 2014; Pugh, 2015). These professionals and their families can face precarious conditions based on a perceived risk and sense of insecurity of job loss (Bourdieu, 1999; Doogan, 2015), on employment and job flexibility and temporariness, as well as a constant change of work destination (Cangià, 2018). Moreover, studies have explored the gendered dimension of professionals’ mobility: while recognizing the increasing presence of ‘dual career couples’, where both partners negotiate their work trajectories in order to continue their careers on the move (Coles and Fechter, 2012; Ravasi et al., 2013), these studies have identified the ‘imperative of mobility’ as an important factor contributing to the maintenance of gender inequality in some professional sectors (e.g., academia) (Ackers, 2004; Jöns, 2011; Schaer et al., 2017).

It is in this context that we aim to understand how the experience of time intertwines with family life and the geographical mobility of these people. In particular, this article aims to contribute to research exploring the temporal dimension and immobilities characterizing the experience of mobility (e.g., Cwerner, 2001; Griffiths, 2014; Griffiths et al., 2013). Studies have already explored the conditions of immobility, stasis and deceleration that can characterize irregular migration and international mobility (Donnan et al., 2017; Suter, in press). Others explored the imaginative, potential and future-oriented character of mobility (Boccagni, 2017; Cangià, 2018; Cangià and Zittoun, in press; Kaufmann, 2002; Salazar, 2014). Some scholars have specifically explored how the experience of time shapes female accompanying partners’ identity making in migration (Slobodin, 2018).

The (relative) short-term, temporary and at times repeated migration of professionals and their families, can offer a unique context of study to better understand the temporalities of mobility (Levitan, 2019; Slobodin, 2018). We explore the geographical mobility of accompanying partners and the social and professional immobility resulting from it – exemplified by the deceleration in their everyday, family and working life – as a specific case of the temporal and material constraints affecting mobility (Cangià, in press).

Time, family and geographical mobility

We draw upon approaches of social theory that have examined time both as social and subjective, as embedded in social and cultural life, in people’s experiences and everyday practices (e.g., Adam, 1995). The experience of social time is undeniably connected to the experience of personal time and the shaping of identities (Daly, 1996; Slobodin, 2018). Time also plays an important role in family life, as ‘a central organizing feature of family activities’ (Daly, 1996: 2): ‘in contemporary families, paid work schedules are juggled, housework and child care are negotiated and free time is haggled over. Time has become the dominant currency in families’ (Daly, 1996: 7). In family life, the organization of time reveals underlying values pertaining to gender, age, and work. However, the experience of time can be challenged by the experience of change in a family, such as, for example, the birth of a child, the unemployment of one of the partners, retirement or migration (Wolanik Boström et al., 2018).

We follow a constructivist gender perspective (Butler, 2015), according to which gender is socially and relationally constructed and can be transformed (Lutz, 2010). Accompanying partners can reproduce gender norms from which they can be highly affected. Yet they can also challenge gendered meanings and re-interpret the notion of family and work (Cangià et al., 2019), on the basis of their intimate relations, their personal experience and the surrounding environment. These individuals do not passively experience time structure, but can re-appropriate and remake sense of it. They can re-interpret the temporariness of mobility, which puts into question their professional, gender and personal identities, as a liminal and transformative space, on the basis of their personal interests, desires and need to take care of the family (Cangià, 2018, in press). This liminal experience is marked by a passage towards work conditions that are not yet in place and may be uncertain. While being at times characterized by a sense of social, professional and physical immobility (especially in the case of partners who are not engaged in professional work, cannot find employment and spend a long time in their house during the day) (Cangià, 2018), this experience can also be understood as a time of exception: as an experience of time marked by temporariness and exceptional status (Zittoun et al., 2012); by the sense of security when returning to a reintegration stage (e.g., going back to previous life, finding a new job, going back to being a working parent); and by the creative possibilities that a liminal experience can bring about (Turner, 1969). As such, we consider time of exception, which the majority of the respondents implicitly referred to, as more than just a descriptive notion, but as a semiotic work (Salvatore and Zittoun, 2011), a meaning making device that people use to make sense of their experience and to sustain their relationships in order to re-appropriate control over their time and re-interpret gendered meanings about moving with the family. The temporariness associated with this form of migration, and with the possibility to either go back to their previous life or to finally find a job, represents a quality that makes these people better deal with the difficulties of being unemployed (Slobodin, 2018).

Contexts of research

The relocation to China and Switzerland and the access to the local labour markets entail both similarities and differences. The very fundamental commonality is that in both countries access to the labour market for accompanying partners is not automatic. In order to find employment, the partners need a work permit for which a company has to apply on their behalf. This is often experienced as a lengthy, sometimes protracted, and overly bureaucratic process. Similarly, starting a business is not perceived to be easy. Some also found that their qualifications are not easily recognized in their new labour market.

Some of the more pronounced differences between the two contexts include the availability of part-time contracts (more widespread in Switzerland). In China, professional work (for example, as an engineer or economist) is mostly on a full-time basis and often requires substantial (family) flexibility. Consequently, some people fear that family life would suffer too much from both parents engaging in such jobs, and only very few continue their ‘dual career’ model. Most partners in Switzerland look for professional jobs in their qualified field of expertise, but often experience problems, such as recognition of qualification, skill mismatch and language barriers. Some also believe that employers in Switzerland prefer hiring citizens and younger people. In general, families in Switzerland tend to follow a general gender configuration typical amongst resident couples with children in this country, with the man working full-time and the woman working part-time and taking care of children (OFS, 2014; Schaer et al., 2017).

As stated above, in China, many accompanying partners (especially parents of school-age children) settle for being temporarily out of employment. Many engage in some kind of voluntary work instead (for example, at the international schools and in orphanages), or engage in further education of some sort. In contrast, in Switzerland partners engage in volunteering jobs only as a way of integrating into the labour market, as a transition so to speak, and not as a merit in itself. Another noteworthy difference is the expectations these people usually have before migration regarding their new country of residence: many are motivated to accompany their partner to China as they consider it to be an ‘adventure’ for the family (Suter, 2019). They see migration as strictly short-term and exceeding professional expectations. In contrast, many respondents choose Switzerland very consciously as an ideal place for family relocation due to the assumed ease in which the partner would find a job. Many people also express their willingness to stay in the country long-term as they deem family life standards to be high, and the work opportunities for the accompanying partners to be positive.

Methods

The article draws upon two studies conducted between 2015 and 2018 with families of various nationalities composed of heterosexual couples, temporarily living in China and Switzerland for the international assignment of one of the partners. These studies were conducted in the context of two separate research programs. For one project (BS), ¹ in-depth interviews and participant observation were conducted with 35 accompanying partners of intra-corporate assignees originating from several European countries. Twenty-nine interviews were conducted in Shanghai, and six were conducted with individuals that returned to their country of origin after spending several years in either Shanghai or Beijing (in total 29 women and 6 men). All but five respondents had children as part of the family migration, aged one to seventeen. Generally, intra-corporate contracts are signed for two years, with the possibility for prolongation. Respondents had been living in China for between one and fourteen years. Participants were contacted in some cases through relevant social media platforms and contact to national associations, but the overwhelming majority were contacted through a snowballing technique.

For the second project (FC), ² in-depth interviews and participant observation were conducted in the Western part of Switzerland with 15 individuals (seven women and eight men) of various nationalities across Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia, who had been living there temporarily to work in academia, international organizations, multinational corporations and scientific research. While some of the participants planned to live in Switzerland for the length of their contracts (between three and five years), others also planned to stay longer. Depending on the availability of the participants, some of the respondents were interviewed a second time after one year, in order to follow their trajectories and observe the changes that occurred during the year of settling in. All participants had children (aged between one and fourteen) who moved with them to Switzerland. Participants were contacted through several spousal associations, through the Migration-Mobility Survey 2016 (Steiner and Wanner, 2015) and snowballing sampling.

In both projects, at the time of the interviews, most respondents were unemployed, both voluntarily and involuntarily; a few were working for a reduced work time compared to their life before migration, while others were involved temporarily in non-remunerated volunteering jobs; finally some had just started a new job after a substantial period of unemployment. Before the relocation, all the respondents – except for two who were already full-time home makers before migration – used to be fully or temporarily employed in a job corresponding to their level of education (mostly graduate and post-graduate levels) and expertise. The respondents can largely be divided into two groups: those who invested a lot in their own professional development, and often used to engage in full-time or part-time professional work before migration, and those who – irrespective of the weekly hours they used to spend at work before migration – did not care much about their professional trajectory. Yet, the large majority of the accompanying partners were in salaried employment before migration, and thus the families fall into the category of ‘dual career couples’.

In both fieldwork settings, the interviews usually lasted between one or two hours. They were held at a time and place chosen by participants (often their home, a coffee place or a restaurant), recorded and subsequently transcribed for anonymity. Participants were asked about their everyday life (social networks, work situation, everyday activities), trajectory of family migration (reasons for moving, relocation process, previous experiences of migration and future plans), as well as their feelings and opinions relating to these past and current experiences. Interviews were inspired by a reflexive and ethnographic approach (Ellis, 2003; Hockey and Forsey, 2012), through which the researchers participate in the narration of the person’s life, and were conducted in ways that enabled people to freely propose new topics. Meanings and thoughts about the issue of time emerged on several occasions, including people’s sense of ‘time-pass’ (Jeffrey, 2010), plans or concerns about the future. Both researchers share the specific experience of being migrants and working in a context (academia) commonly recognized in Europe as being precarious (Lempiäinen, 2015). This helped on various occasions to share perspectives with the interlocutors, as well as to reflect about the implications (both at the individual and at family level) of job insecurity and of remaking work trajectories in mobility.

We analysed all interviews transversally through an interpretative, phenomenological and ethnographic approach, by giving special attention to when and how people explicitly or implicitly refer to the issue of time, the way they give meaning to it in relation to family life and gender roles, and how they narrate the experience of change in their everyday life as a result of migration. In what follows, we present some interview extracts that are representative for both cases (China and Switzerland). We introduce our analysis by structuring the discussion around three thematic clusters, referring respectively to how people experience, make sense of, and practice time as a result of the move. First, we briefly discuss the gendered and other implications of this form of mobility. Then, we explore our thematic clusters in turn, and discuss issues pertaining to the two different contexts of research when important for our analysis.

Gender, age and migratory trajectories

Among respondents, the views on and experiences of gender and gender equality varied strongly. Among our respondents, there were some that were shown to be highly affected by the image of a ‘traditional family’ with the roles of a male breadwinner and a female homemaker. However, a substantial number of people expressed strong preference for recreating a ‘dual career couple model’, where both partners negotiate their migratory trajectories while pursuing their career plans. This ‘dual career model’ has an impact on how people value their own time at work or with family and household care. Gender represents an important categorical dimension defining the experiences of time for these people, both women and men. Mobility both (re-)produces gender inequalities and is shaped by pre-existing gender relations within the household (Kofman and Raghuram, 2005). Gender differences still often characterize the career and family arrangements of these couples, with a relative high proportion of female partners abandoning their work plans for family ties (Riaño and Baghdadi, 2007). Other times, accompanying partners can be confronted with a change in the previous couple arrangements and try to reconfigure gender patterns (Schaer et al., 2017). Studies have also shown how male and female partners can relate to the move differently (Anderson, 2001; Davoine et al., 2013; Ravasi et al., 2013). Male partners can face both stronger feelings of isolation and challenges concerning the change of their status, especially when they are confronted with a larger population of working men among expatriates, like in the case of Switzerland and China. Male accompanying partners sometimes find it difficult to build up a social network in a situation where the overwhelming majority of accompanying partners are women (Ravasi et al., 2013). Likewise, some were concerned with how they are seen by others to a greater extent than female accompanying partners. However, according to respondents, gender norms appear to be relatively flexible in the urban spaces of both Switzerland and China. Male partners thus are able to interact with the local population in Switzerland, and with the broader foreigner, and sometimes also Chinese, population in China’s metropolises. Their relative small presence can even play out as a form of ‘exotic bonus’ (Davoine et al., 2013), with a particular consideration and treatments that can at times facilitate their interaction with the locality.

The quality of temporariness associated with being relocated as an accompanying partner and out of work is often affected by gender, family roles and expectations (Shaw, 1992), and can in turn affect the subjective experience of parenthood. While often concerned with their professional life and the possible gaps in their career trajectories, many women interpret the temporary experience of becoming a mother as a socially accepted reason to stop working, to be ‘out of work’, to follow their partner and take care of children, a way through which they can also find a better work–family balance (Rubin, 2013). In contrast to male partners, many mothers who face difficulties in integrating into the local job market choose to focus on children (Yeoh et al., 2005), especially in the case of Switzerland where finding a space in childcare institutions is not always easy and affordable (Tissot, 2016). Male partners demonstrate to be confronted more with the social pressure to find employment.

Age differences seem to be another important variable when considering the experiences of accompanying partners. Those who are non-employed and are in their 50s or 60s more often expressed the appreciation of the increase of free time that mobility enabled (Suter, in press), with a reference to their age and their long employment years. They were also generally aware of decreased normative social expectations towards them. As Ludwig (1998: 173) similarly observes, society’s construction of norms and ‘expectations regarding one’s use of time’ is based on ‘chronological age’, as ‘older adults (…) are retired from social expectation for speed and efficiency in occupations’.

Finally, different migratory trajectories, with an orientation towards the future, can also play a role in the way these people experience time of work as a time of exception: those who are sure to go back home and to their working life at the end of the expatriation, could rely better on the exceptionality of this time off. On the contrary, those who are to move again to unknown destinations with no job at hand, demonstrated themselves to be more uncertain and anxious concerning their job-search and this time of unemployment.

Conclusion

This article aimed at understanding the experience and practice of time in the context of geographical mobility of accompanying partners in those families where both partners negotiate their career plans and trajectories in order to stay mobile together. The two research settings that we combine arguably present very different geographical contexts. However – and this is one point we would like to stress – our participants refer mostly to an ‘international’, ‘expat’ network of people. The kind of cultural values and norms they relate to is all but homogeneous also with regard to gender relations and family arrangements in mobility. Despite the diversity of the local contexts these people encounter in their migration, similar experiences, strategies of sense-making, and practices of time in geographical mobility with the family seem to emerge. As our research showed, these people often make sense of the new time resulting from the move as exceptional. While being at times difficult to accept with regard to a change in professional working life, it can be – and is – however recognized as a valuable moment for increasing relational and family life and household work. This becomes an important practice to accept time out of the labour market, and the vastly different organization of time that comes along with it. The liminal position of these individuals, describing a passage from a past working life to a new work condition that is not yet in place, is significant for understanding the various ambivalent and complex implications of mobility on the human experience of time (Cangià, in press).

Our research partly shows how the ‘imperative of mobility’ in some professional sectors where international (and repeated) relocation becomes an imperative for career success can reinforce gendered inequality and norms about family life. However, we also showed how people, through their experience of being out of professional work and their surplus time, can also find a way to reinterpret these very norms, as well as the socio-cultural meanings of family and work. We showed how what counts as work for these partners can at times be redefined on the basis of more personal and family-based experiences, ³ and of the social value of being an accompanying partner (Cangià et al., 2019). Contrary to what they might be used to before the move (especially those in professional life with a strong wish to develop further their career), these people can start valuing a time that is not structured by labour but that acquires meaning through family and intimate relations. As our studies show, the desire for further intimacy and relations of care as well as for time spent for personal interests, are woven into the acceptance of temporal change in their time allocation, as well as a work–life balance disrupted by migration. This clearly shows how the experience of family and time can intertwine in the context of mobility.

Let us now take one step back and ask what stands behind these individuals’ anxiety and ambivalence about their (temporarily) non-working condition. While one explanation can be found in cultural norms dictating employment as part of gender or even citizen roles (Johansson Heinö, 2009), we would like to go beyond this explanation. After all, the ambivalence was experienced by the majority of the participants coming from all kinds of cultural and national backgrounds. Instead, turning to scholars of time (Adam, 1995, 2002, 2006; Daly, 1996; Flaherty, 2010), we would like to embed our findings in larger socio-economic transformations. Market and capitalist economy now operates through every moment of our day, affecting the fabric of our everyday life, of our personal and family time. It puts people into the condition of staying active all the time. In this context, it has become extremely important to reflect on the blurred boundaries between professional, family and personal time for workers in the capitalist labour market. Free time (i.e., time away from work)

exists only in relation to the time of markets and employment … this means that outside the framework of economic time the idea of ‘free time’ must remain relatively meaningless since its very definition is tied to the history of labour and paid employment (Adam, 1995: 96).