‘A Country on Wheels’: A Mobile Ethnography of Portuguese Lorry Drivers

Abstract

This paper revolves around the intersections of mobility and identity. In Europe mobility is often regarded as a producer of cultural proximity amongst European citizens and member states, bearing the potential to fabricate some kind of European identity. Many of the top-down policies of the European Union have been based on the assumption that the more we move, the more European we become. In this paper my intention is to contribute to this debate, bringing to the foreground a case of mobility in Europe that contradicts this vision: the mobile lives of Portuguese truck drivers, from a particular Portuguese company, within the Eurozone. Through an ethnographic account of these individuals, I show how mobility can be responsible for a reproduction of strong local identities. Rather than culturally transposing barriers, the drivers live their professional lives in a kind of nationalised nutshell on wheels. These findings present an opportunity to reflect on how the European free market requires a form of immobilised movement from many professionals in order to function smoothly. In fact, the freedom of many (European citizens) may entail the confinement of others.