There and Back Again: How Labour Mobility Impacts Community Development in Source Communities

Abstract

Across Canada, mobile workers are involved in a variety of commute patterns,ranging from short, daily periods of travel by car, to longer commutes lasting an hour or more each way. Increased emphasis on labour mobility within the social sciences over the past two decades has led to new understandings of how the commute impacts workers and families, although there has been particularly little noted on how labour mobility impacts communities. Using Vale’s nickel processing facility in Long Harbour, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada as a case study, this research identifies how labour mobility impacts community development in source communities. Literature has suggested that people involved with extended daily commuting have less time to be actively involved in the communities where they reside (source communities). While there are exceptions, this research primarily supports these claims, and discusses how mobile workers that commute over 50km to their worksite are less involved in volunteering, community engagement, and charitable giving in their source communities.