Home and away: circular migration, mobile technology, and changing perceptions of home and community in deindustrial Cape Breton

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2018-04-30

Authors

McIntyre, Mark

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Abstract

This thesis engages deindustrialization as a lived process and applies the concepts of precarity as they relate to communities navigating processes of deindustrialization. Through ethnographic interviews and participant observation research conducted over the summer of 2017 I examine the lived experiences of circular migrant labourers and their significant others, who live in the former coal town of Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada, as they engage in strategies to keep their families in the community. I explore the continuities of industrialization, deindustrialization and labour; the history of work in the region; the present sacrifices that families make to stay in the communities; why families stay; and what they circular migrant labourers and their significant others imagine the future of the region will look like as they raise their children there. Further, as circular migrant labourers are away from home and their families for significant amounts of time, often at irregular schedules, I ask about the strategies that labourers and their families use to eke out a living in a marginalized community. I ask participants what it is like to have to leave the community for work; what it is like to stay behind while your significant other is away for work; what is it like to be home together; and what strategies are used to keep in touch. One such strategy is the use of internet communication technologies to negotiate physical and social distance. However, these technologies do not always necessarily make up for time spent away from loved ones.

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Keywords

Anthropology, Canada, Cape Breton, Circular Migration, Deindustrialization, Ethnography, Glace Bay, Internet Communication Technologies, Labour, Migration, Precarity

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