Job-related Mobility Research Articles

The Mediating Role of Human Mobility in Temporal-Lagged Relationships Between Risk Perception and COVID-19 Dynamics in Taiwan: Statistical Modeling for Comparing the Pre-Omicron and Omicron Eras.

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted all aspects of human life for over 3 years. Understanding the evolution of public risk perception during these periods is crucial. Few studies explore the mechanisms for reducing disease transmission due to risk perception. Thus, we hypothesize that changes in human mobility play a mediating role between risk perception and the progression of the pandemic. The study aims to explore how various forms of human mobility, including essential, nonessential, and job-related behaviors, mediate the temporal relationships between risk perception and pandemic dynamics. We used distributed-lag linear structural equation models to compare the mediating impact of human mobility across different virus variant periods. These models examined the temporal dynamics and time-lagged effects among risk perception, changes in mobility, and virus transmission in Taiwan, focusing on two distinct periods: (1) April-August 2021 (pre-Omicron era) and (2) February-September 2022 (Omicron era). In the pre-Omicron era, our findings showed that an increase in public risk perception correlated with significant reductions in COVID-19 cases across various types of mobility within specific time frames. Specifically, we observed a decrease of 5.59 (95% CI -4.35 to -6.83) COVID-19 cases per million individuals after 7 weeks in nonessential mobility, while essential mobility demonstrated a reduction of 10.73 (95% CI -9.6030 to -11.8615) cases after 8 weeks. Additionally, job-related mobility resulted in a decrease of 3.96 (95% CI -3.5039 to -4.4254) cases after 11 weeks. However, during the Omicron era, these effects notably diminished. A reduction of 0.85 (95% CI -1.0046 to -0.6953) cases through nonessential mobility after 10 weeks and a decrease of 0.69 (95% CI -0.7827 to -0.6054) cases through essential mobility after 12 weeks were observed. This study confirms that changes in mobility serve as a mediating factor between heightened risk perception and pandemic mitigation in both pre-Omicron and Omicron periods. This suggests that elevating risk perception is notably effective in impeding virus progression, especially when vaccines are unavailable or their coverage remains limited. Our findings provide significant value for health authorities in devising policies to address the global threats posed by emerging infectious diseases.

The Tax Treatment of Commuting Expenses and Job-Related Mobility

The Tax Treatment of Commuting Expenses and Job-Related Mobility

БАГАТОМОВНІСТЬ У СУСПІЛЬСТВІ ТА ОСВІТНЬОМУ ПРОСТОРІ УКРАЇНИ

Due to migration and job-related mobility, the communicative effects of globalisation and multilingual societies have become the norm in Europe. Considering the need to respond to the diverse social groups on the educational level, the Council of Europe’s language policy goals are oriented toward plurilingual and pluricultural learner groups (Council of Europe, 2020). The purpose of this paper is to present a thematic literature analysis in order to establish the framework for the project titled «Insights from the CEFR: Multilingual Education and Assessment,» which received funding from the Volkswagen Foundation. The CEFR (Council of Europe 2001) and its Companion Volume (Council of Europe 2020) are cornerstones of this thematic literature analysis. This article aims to present our conceptual understanding of important terms, which will guide our future exploration. Additionally, it analyzes multilingualism in the Ukrainian context, taking into account its multilingual sociocultural realities and language education policy. The study examines the objectives of plurilingual education, with a specific focus on the Ukrainian context, and explores approaches that can be employed to incorporate plurilingual perspectives into language teaching. This progress report is intended to contribute to multilingual teacher education, making teachers aware of their learners’ linguistic resources and the approaches that promote (multi)plurilingualism.

Cultural differences in geographic mobility readiness among business management students in Germany and Spain ahead of graduation

Given the increased internationalization of organizations and economies of scale concentrated in urban centers, graduates are often expected to relocate for their first job. Based on Hofstede’s model and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), we examine the effects of cultural dimensions (individualism-collectivism and uncertainty tolerance) as well as subjective norms (parents’ and peers’ attitudes towards geographic mobility) on readiness for geographic job-related mobility in samples of German and Spanish business management students ahead of graduation from university. The study involved administering a survey questionnaire to 273 third- and fourth-year business management students of two large universities (one in Germany and another in Spain). Cross-cultural measurement invariance of the measures was confirmed, allowing for comparison of scores across the groups. We found that German students had generally a larger geographical mobility, whose readiness was predicted by parents’ and peers’ perceived attitude and uncertainty tolerance. Readiness for geographic mobility was also higher when social or material incentives are offered, yet geographic mobility readiness for career incentives and for social incentives was predicted by vertical individualism and horizontal collectivism, respectively. This study is one of the first to examine geographic mobility readiness among undergraduate management students in the two countries, who by nature of their training are expected to be mobile. The study also shows the differential effects of sub-dimensions of the Hofstede cultural dimensions.

Belastungen und Gefährdungen bei berufsbedingter Mobilität: eine Tagebuchstudie

Stresses and risks in job-related mobility: a diary study Goal: A quarter of full-time workers in Germany are mobile for their work (mobile jobs, weekend commuters and long-distance commuters), which is attributable among other things to the increasing need for a customer- and service-centred approach and to the demand for mobile care for the elderly. In 2012, 139 people died in road traffic whilst going about their business. The consequences of traffic accidents are considerably more serious than those of other occupational accidents and require more time off work. At the same time, they represent a particular challenge for prevention since they mostly happen outside company premises. Methods: The diary study was one of several data collection methods used within the scope of the DGUV-funded project “BestMobil: Work-related mobility – Identification and Testing of Prevention Approaches”. The diary was completed in the morning/before the shift and in the evening/after the shift. It contained questions about the expectations of the day, well-being (before/after), working and driving hours, break duration, psychological and physical stress, conflicts, supporting factors and the short-term consequences of psychological strain. Results: The analysis of the diary entries (pre-test) of n=36 participants from nine companies allows an insight into the daily routine of mobile workers. It provides information on very long working hours with rather short breaks, the most common conflicts, factors that make the day easier for mobile workers and the most frequent psychological and physical complaints. Conclusion: The results of the study show that good time management, which includes good preparation, scheduled breaks and times buffers, has high prevention potential. Keywords: psychological strain – job mobility – car accidents – stress – diary

Family, Work, and Spatial Mobility: The Influence of Commuting on the Subjective Well-Being of Couples

Previous research shows that commuting is often accompanied by increased stress, exhaustion and less time for partners and children. On the basis of the life course approach and work-life balance theory, we argue that these negative outcomes also influence the dynamics of the social relationships of individuals who live together in the same household. Most research has focused on the commuter, whereas less is known regarding how commuting affects the subjective well-being of other household members, in this case, the partner. Our paper contributes to this research gap by analysing the interdependencies of parents who commute in regard to their overall and domain-specific well-being. We use pooled data from three waves of the German Family Panel, which includes standardised information related to working conditions and job-related mobility as well as family dynamics from both parents’ perspectives. The resulting subsample has N = 2443 dyads in families. Our dyadic analysis shows negative spillover effects of commuting times on all included measures of subjective well-being, but only for mothers. Moreover, there are two crossover effects: a negative crossover effect from mothers commuting on fathers’ satisfaction with family life and a positive crossover effect of fathers commuting on mothers’ satisfaction with social contacts outside the family (i.e. friends). Overall, the findings indicate that mothers own commuting works as a more general burden, whereas fathers seem to suffer more from their partner’s commuting time than vice versa.

Job-related mobility and plant performance in Sweden

This paper uses a Swedish micro-dataset containing 2,696,909 hires during the period 2002–2006 to assess the impact of job-related mobility on plant-level performance. The analysis classifies new recruits according to their work experience and level of formal qualification, as well as by the region of origin and of destination. New hires are divided into graduates and experienced workers and between high- and low-educated. The results point towards the importance of acknowledging both the experience and the skills of new recruits. The greatest benefits are related to hiring new workers from outside the region where the plant is located. The analysis also stresses the importance of geography, with plants in metropolitan regions gaining the most from labour mobility, while the benefits of mobility for plants in smaller, more peripheral regions are more diverse and dependent on both the type and origin of new workers.

‘I don’t care about the city’: the role of connections in job-related mobility decisions of skilled professionals

Many cities in industrialized countries engage in competition for talent. While scholars have produced rich accounts of why some cities are better equipped than others in attracting skilled workers, the individual decision-making and agency of this group remains understudied. Contributing to this debate we examine how skilled professionals make their decisions in favour of locations. It focuses on the role of connections, which comprise social networks and take into account a range of professional, social and cultural ties between individuals and places. Our argument is based on empirical material from two qualitative case studies on work-related migration. The first studies professionals who moved to Frankfurt on a temporary basis from within Germany; the second focuses on high-skilled international migrants in Hamburg. We show that these supposedly privileged professionals often address limited job opportunities and personal constraints. Based on our findings and in addition to hard location factors, we argue that different forms of connections may further explain work-related moves. Despite similarities between the groups, internal migrants are more reliant on professional networks, while the international group is more likely to benefit from institutional connections. In our conclusion, we discuss how our research reveals inadequacies of current modes of urban policy-making.

Job-Related Circular Mobility and the Quality of Intimate Relationships

This paper addresses the influence of different types of spatial mobility on relationship quality. Although some studies have been carried out on this question, the existing empirical results remain contradictory. The paper tries to overcome some of these limitations by analysing to what extent mobility demands show direct as well as indirect effects. Spatial mobility could have impacts on crucial aspects of relationship dynamics, which are theoretically and empirically identified as significant for relationship satisfaction. The mediating variables used therefore include relatedness, autonomy, conflict and the perceived fairness with regard to the division of labour. The data support the stress hypothesis which assumes that job-related mobility has a negative effect on the relationship quality, but only for women and mothers. There are actually positive effects for men. In terms of indirect effects, the results show that spatial mobility does neither reduce relatedness in relationships nor increase conflict behaviour significantly. In fact, the opposite effect seems to come to play: There is empirical evidence, especially for women, that more demanding mobility increases the feeling of autonomy within a relationship. It also increases relatedness and reduces perceived conflicts, this in turn having a positive effect on relationship quality.

Moving to a Job: The Role of Home Equity, Debt, and Access to Credit

We use individual-level credit reports merged with loan-level mortgage data to estimate how home equity interacted with mobility in relatively weak and strong labor markets in the United States during the Great Recession. We construct a dynamic model of housing, consumption, employment, and relocation, which provides a structural interpretation of our empirical results and allows us to explore the role that foreclosure played in labor mobility. We find that negative home equity is not a significant barrier to job-related mobility because the benefits of accepting an out-of-area job outweigh the costs of moving. This pattern holds even if homeowners are not able to default on their mortgages. (JEL D14, G01, J61, R23, R31)

Qualitative media diaries: An instrument for doing research from a mobile media ethnographic perspective

This article outlines the benefits of qualitative media diaries as a methodological tool for empirical research on mediatization and mobility. If applied within the wider field of mobile media ethnography, diaries can contribute to the analysis of mediated interaction even in transit. The idea of this methodological approach is to receive detailed information about an individual’s communicative relationships and practices articulated via various (mobile) media technologies on an everyday basis. Providing a theoretical frame for mediatization and mobility, the authors summarize the development of mobile media ethnography and present an overview of the application of diaries in media and communication research. Drawing on empirical studies in two fields of inquiry – diasporic communities and job-related mobility – the central aspect of this article is to reflect on the workings of and experiences with the application of qualitative media diaries.

Social Tenants, Attachment to Place and Work in the Post-industrial Labour Market: Underlining the Limits of Housing-based Explanations of Labour Immobility?

Policy makers have increasingly highlighted the role of social housing in restricting the job-related mobility of tenants. This paper, drawing upon in-depth interviews with residents of the Manor estate in Sheffield, discusses the strength of housing-based explanations of worklessness. It finds that residents have responded to economic transformation by drawing on locally concentrated social networks and are unwilling to sever these close ties in order to access jobs that are frequently experienced as exploitative and demeaning. Consequently, their inertia can be viewed as a rational response to the low paid, chronically insecure jobs available in the post-industrial labour market. The author concludes that the significance of housing-based explanations of labour immobility is that they are simultaneously congruent with welfare reform that uses a compulsive strategy to enforce work habits and provide ammunition for those antagonistic to the principle of social housing.

Labour Market Outcomes of Spatially Mobile Coupled Women: Why is the locational context important?

Previous research on the labour market outcomes of spatially mobile couples has shown that mobility has serious detrimental effects on the employment situation of women. This has been largely attributed to their prevalence as secondary earners playing a minor role in job-related mobility decisions of the household. Yet the impact of regional opportunity structures in determining labour market outcomes of mobile coupled females has been neglected, although recent studies suggest the significance of this aspect. Using the SOEP 1992–2006 the following analysis investigates the consequences of mobility for women taking into account the economic structure of the destination region. <italic>JEL Classifications: D1, J16, J61, R23</italic>

Employment in adults with congenital heart disease.

To evaluate job participation, career-related problems, and actual job problems in adults with complex congenital heart disease (CHD) compared with adults with mild CHD and reference groups. Cross-sectional study. Patients were randomly selected from the archives of the Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands. In total, 76 patients with complex CHD and 80 with mild CHD (age range, 17-32 years) completed a self-reported questionnaire on employment and handicaps, with reference data available (response rate, 70%). In the study groups, 45 (59%) of 76 patients with complex CHD had a paid job compared with 61 (76%) of 80 patients with mild CHD. Patients older than 25 years with complex CHD had significantly lower job participation (64%) than the general population (83%). Multiple logistic regression showed that type of CHD and level of education were significantly and independently related to job participation (odds ratio, 4.8; 99% confidence interval, 1.2-19.6; and odds ratio, 4.7; 99% confidence interval, 1.3-17.2, respectively). Of the 76 patients with complex CHD, 42 (55%) experienced disease-related career problems, in contrast to only 1 patient with mild CHD. Both CHD groups had more job-related mobility handicaps than did the reference group. However, in the mild CHD group, handicaps could be attributed to additional noncardiac diseases. Patients with complex CHD have reduced job participation compared with patients with mild CHD and the general population. Many receive disability benefits or experience career problems or job handicaps. Career counseling focusing on physical abilities and level of education may help prevent or reduce these job-related problems.