THE RURAL RESCUE: WORK MIGRANTS IN PLACE
Marit AURE, Anniken FØRDE & Tone MAGNUSSEN
Arctic University of Norway / NORUT, Norway, marit.aure@uit.no & anniken.forde@uit.no
Nordland Research Institute, Norway
Labour migrants from Eastern Europe have recently arrived at Herøy, a small coastal
municipality in Northern-Norway, to work in the fish processing industry. What they
meet is not just a new work place, but a complex and changing rural landscape.
Herøy is one of many rural communities in the north experiencing new growth due to
in-migration. After years of dramatic decline in the population, they could in 2011
celebrate an augmenting number of inhabitants. This is a result of increased
recruitment of international labour migrants in the fishing industry, and a thorough
work by the municipality to make these workers settle. This paper addresses the
ambiguities of constructing stability and consolidation by flows and fluidity. We focus
on experiences of place and landscape both for those on the move and those
‘staying put’ in Herøy, and how they interrelate. The complex relations between
migrants’ economic practices and processes of social integration are emphasised.
Inspired by relational and performative perspectives on place and landscape, we are
concerned with the continuous processes of negotiation and change, but also the
processes of stabilization. Studying interaction, encounters and lack of encounters,
we analyse how mobilities, fluidity and consolidation are negotiated in Herøy. We
argue that place and landscape must be conceived as on going and unfinished
stories, entailing a network of people and relations, materialities.