Gunnar Malmberg

1
Immobility rule or exception? Reflections on
mobility practices in Sweden

• Gunnar Malmberg
• Department of Social and Economic Geography,
• Centre for Population Studies, Umeå University,
  Sweden

2
Increasing mobility!
3
Trends for person transports Index Sweden, 1970 -
2005
Source SIKA 2007
4
International and domestic passengers at Swedish
airports 1985 2005 (millions)
Source SIKA 2007
5
Commuters as percentage of the working population
1985 - 2001
Source Elaborated from SCB
6
Notions of contemporary mobility

• Continuous process of increasing mobility
• The Age of Migration
• Increasing migration
• More long-distance migration
• Less importance for local networks and place
  attachment
• Key element in the globalisation process
• Yesterday we were immobile, but today we are
  mobile

7

• Contrast to the agricultural society
• Sedentism
• The immobile majority
• Short distance mobility
• Daily return
• Life-long residence
• But
• Mobility was also important in agricultural
  society
• Sedentism and immobility are still important

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Sedentism

• Sedentary populations form the basis for various
  institutions
• Especially in the welfare-state
• Rights
• Obligations
• . are based on long-term residence in
  territorial units

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How important is immobility in the contemporary
society?

• International migration
• 98 of the world population live in the country
  where they were born
• No major change during the last 100 years

10
Immigration and Emigration Sweden 1875-2001,
share of total population
Emigration
Immigration
Source Elaborated from SCB-data
11

• Internal migration
• In Sweden, 97,5 stay in the same region during
  one year
• 87 stay in the same region for 10 years
• About 70 stay in the same region for a life time

12
Age distribution and migration between counties
1968 and 1996
Source Elaborated from SCB-data
13
Migration between parishes 1900-2001 in
percentage of the population
Source Elaborated from SCB-data
14
Intercounty migration as percentage of all
interparish moves 1968 - 2001
Source Elaborated from SCB-data
15
Some features of mobility in contemporary Sweden

• Migration is not increasing
• Most moves are local
• People do not move over longer distances
• Most people are stayers
• A large share of the population is rooted in a
  regional context
• Local insiders

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Who are the local insiders?

• Low education
• Partner and children
• Employed
• Rooted
• Long duration of stay
• Long duration employment
• Local network
• Place-specific social capital

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Mobility paradox

• Increasing mobility
• Sedentism
• Long-term (life-long) residence
• Firmly rooted in a local context
• Frequent (daily) return

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Explanations to the paradox

• Life course differentiation
• Social division of mobilities (mobility classes)
• Emergence of other forms of mobility strategies
• Combinations of mobility and immobility
• Temporary mobilty as a substitution for migration

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• Increasing mobility results in
• More exits
• More returns
• The frequent returns enable combination of
• Long-distance mobility
• Maintaining place-specific social capital

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Temporary mobility

• Daily commuting
• Substitution for internal migration
• Second home owners ? retirement migration
• International circulation
• Returning immigrants
• Returning returnees
• Visting friends and relatives
• Virtual mobility (virtual co-presence)
• Floating migrant population

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• Place specific social capital ? Transnational
  social space
• (T. Faist 2000)
• Migration and temporary mobility form social and
  symbolic ties
• Ties structure the mobility patterns
• Unilocal ? Multi-local society

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Some conclusions

• Increasing mobility
• Sedentism is still strong
• Recognise the importance of (im-)mobility
  structures
• Important to focus on other forms of mobility
  than migration
• Interrelations between different forms of mobility