ABSTRACT
Certainly, privilege does capture the overtones of some of the most salient features of various forms of work-related mobility that the high-skilled workers experience, in that it can contribute to and/or help consolidate the cultural, social, human, and nancial capital of the mover. Travel has its charms. Particularly at the beginning of careers, when most workers did not have substantial family responsibilities, they were rather unanimously enthusiastic about an opportunity: “to see dierent places and experience dierent cultures.” Among workers from branch oces in developing countries, even those from middle-class backgrounds, overseas travel per se tended to be a novelty, but the generally well-traveled Northern Europeans also appreciated assignments that took them around the world, especially to uncommon destinations they would not have seen as tourists. Business travel – stays of typically up to a month – also oers nancial benets to business travel, with daily allowances (though relatively modest) adding up particularly because workers trips come bundled up with overowing agendas, not leaving much time for spending and with basic needs already reimbursed. For many interviewees, the “extra cash” added up, especially since, during the dizzying mobile telecommunications boom, so many were on business trips so often. Mobility also contributed to social capital, helping extend one’s professional network inside the organization globally. Connections rst established during business trips often proved critical to securing further, more desirable forms of mobility or in fact in the pursuit of posts that secured desired forms (and locations) of permanence.
