Almost paradise: a floating sense of place through transient mobility among Romanians in the Canary Islands (Spain)

Abstract

This article contributes to the innovative literature on human mobility, highlighting the sense of place linked to transient mobility among people who live on an island. Drawing on 40 in-depth interviews with Romanians living in the Canary Islands, this paper introduces the concept of a ‘floating sense of place’ and advances understandings on how people of different generations use their experiences of mobility in time and space to construct and interpret their sense of place on the move. How is floating sense of place created and how does mobility affect the sense of belonging of people who live transiently on an island? I highlight that the socio-economic circumstances of mobile people together with the particular conditions of the island–especially the presence of the ocean–create corporeal and sensorial predispositions that contribute to the creation of the ‘floating sense of place’. I argue that mobility articulates multiple practices and imaginaries that connect people with the ocean–as both a real and symbolic element. In turn, this helps them bond with various places in their transitory movement, and influences the construction of a floating sense of place: a) living in a floating ‘paradise’ and moving for work or business; b) in-between floating; and c) on-the-move floating: between drift and search of place and future aspirations.