Abstract
How do people on the move—with the ambivalence of being here and there, form belonging experiences? Trondheim, the largest city in the Trøndelag region of Norway, has seen rapid urban and industrial growth. This has resulted in an increase in developmental projects, which in turn has created a demand for labor. We focus on the construction industry in Trondheim where labour requirements are temporary and contract-based and has therefore been dependent on foreign workers due to their flexibility, reduced costs, and mass availability. These foreign workers from central and eastern European countries, especially Poland and Lithuania, come to Trondheim with temporary contracts to work in secondary positions. Once hired, their housing and period of stay in Trondheim are largely undocumented, quantitatively, and qualitatively. In this paper, we adopt an interdisciplinary approach to analyse how the use of narrative enquiry, as a tool to explore the experiences of foreign workers, ultimately revealed that housing cannot only be viewed as a physical structure but needs to be understood as a complex concept that is an evolving sum of non-physical experiences, goals, and social capital of the labour migrants. The paper interweaves narratives shared by participants that reflect an ongoing, recurring, and unending transition that requires them to constantly acquire new skills and knowledge, and renegotiate their perception of self and their sense of belonging. Ultimately the paper aims to contribute to the ethnographic practise of narratives and its use to reveal interactional dynamics amongst minority communities for researchers working towards social inclusion.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Migration, Narratives, Workers, Housing
