Job Mobility and Subjective Well-being in Europe. Do Highly Mobile Workers Feel Worse?

  • Gerardo Meil Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
  • Pedro Romero-Balsas Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18543/ced-56-2017pp105-131
Keywords: work mobility, subjective well-being, stress because of work, work satisfaction, satisfaction with life

Abstract

One of the consequences of globalisation is an increase in the working population’s geographical mobility. This mobility can have important effects for individuals, both positively and negatively, on well-being. Based on both waves of the survey Job Mobilities and Family Life (2007 and 2011), we will discuss the impact of entering, leaving and staying in mobility compared to not being mobile on subjective well-being, controlling for other relevant transitions in life (partnership, parenthood, health and financial situation), as well as gender. As analytic strategy we will use OLS regression models of the changes between both waves of four SWB indicators. Results show that SWB indicators have changed for most of the interviewed persons during the period under observation. These changes are not all random, but are related in different degree with the variables under analysis. Whilst satisfaction with work is related with mobility transitions in the expected direction, in the case of life satisfaction the impact of spatial mobility operates mainly through its impact on job satisfaction, which in turn depends on the balance of advantages and cost derived from mobility. In the case of stress, no clear relationship with mobility patterns can be identified once controlled for other relevant variables.

Received: 04 February 2017
Accepted: 06. March 2017
Published online: 02 May 2017

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Author Biographies

Gerardo Meil, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
GERARDO MEIL (gerardo.meil@uam.es) is professor of sociology at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). Master Degree in economics and in political science, and PhD in Sociology at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in 1987. President of the European Society on Family Relations and member of several scientific associations. His research and publications focus on family sociology, gender violence, geographical mobility and social policy. He has implemented many research projects on these topics funded by public and private institutions at regional, national and European level. The current research project which he coordinates, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, focuses on the use of parental leave in Spain. In the field of geographical Mobility, he actively participated in the research project Job Mobilities and Family Lives (http://www.jobmob-and-famlives.eu). For a full vita see his web-page at http://www.uam.es/gerardo.meil
Pedro Romero-Balsas, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

PEDRO ROMERO BALSAS (pedro.romero@uam.es) is lecturer at the Department of Sociology at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). He holds a PhD in sociology (with distinction) by Autonomous University of Madrid, 2014. He has a bachelor in sociology (University of Alicante, 2008). He has a master's degree in social anthropology (University of Murcia, 2010) and a Master’s diploma in multivariate statistical techniques (UNED, 2009). He has been visiting research fellow at Thomas Coram Research Unit (University College London), at the Federal Institute for Population Research (Germany) and at the Department of Sociology and Political Science at the NTNU (Norway). He is a member of the research group "Analysis of family change" coordinated by Gerardo Meil. He is treasurer of the European Society on Family Relations and board member of the RN13 in the European Sociological Association. He has taught undergraduate subjects sociology, sociology of education and new social inequalities" at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. His research areas are sociology of families, parental leave, fatherhood, parenthood, multicultural families, job mobility and public policies.

Published
2017-04-30
How to Cite
Meil, Gerardo, and Pedro Romero-Balsas. 2017. “Job Mobility and Subjective Well-Being in Europe. Do Highly Mobile Workers Feel Worse?”. Deusto Journal of European Studies, no. 56 (April), 105-31. https://doi.org/10.18543/ced-56-2017pp105-131.
Issue
No. 56 (2017): Governing Mobility in Europe: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Section
Monographic Articles

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