Migration and Long-Distance Commuting Histories and Their Links to Career Achievement in Germany: A Sequence Analysis

Gil Viry, Heiko Rüger and Thomas Skora

Sociological Research Online, 2014, vol. 19, issue 1, 78-94

Abstract: Moving and travelling extensively for job reasons is often seen as a way to achieve a successful career. Yet, evidence based on longitudinal data is limited. In this paper, we use a sequence analysis to study typical histories of intensive forms of work-related spatial mobility, i.e. migration, daily and weekly long-distance commuting and overnight business travel (called below ‘high mobility’), and their links to career achievement. Using retrospective survey data from Germany, we show that a variety of high mobility histories coexist. While migrations occur mainly in the first years of the professional life, the chances of experiencing long-distance daily or weekly commuting and frequent overnight business trips remain stable over the career. Some evidence was found that long-lasting high mobility is associated with better incomes. Nevertheless, having repeated experiences of high mobility has no positive impact, per se , on managerial responsibilities or socio-economic status. These findings suggest that high mobility has become a ‘usual’ feature in many job careers and is often a way of combining a distant job with a local attachment to a place, home or community, rather than a way of achieving upward career mobility. This study points out that, besides migration, long-distance commuting and frequent travel for job reasons should receive more attention in longitudinal research on spatial mobility.

Keywords: Mobility; Mobility Histories; Commuting; Business Travel; Career Achievement; Socio-Economic Status; Life Course; Sequence Analysis; Optimal Matching (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socres:v:19:y:2014:i:1:p:78-94

DOI: 10.5153/sro.3263

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