Time and Family Life in Diplomatic Mobility: Temporal Experiences Under a Regular Mobile Work Regime
2025-11-04
This paper focuses on diplomatic families, a special group of privileged migrants who move regularly every 2−4 years, shaping family life through cyclical mobility patterns. Drawing on ethnography with four active‐duty diplomatic service families, which include diplomats, their accompanying partners, and children, it examines the families' temporal experiences under a regularly mobile work regime. By conceptualising migrant temporality, this paper argues that institutionalised mobility not only gives rise to temporal uncertainties and discontinuities, but also reinforces familial bonds and agency through structured rhythms. Besides, this paper points out that diplomatic infrastructures provide familiar living environments and a sense of temporal continuity. However, their high level of homogeneity also blurs families' perceptions of temporal and spatial transitions, often generating a sense of ‘unreal’ regarding time. This paper contributes to the literature on regular mobile work regimes, privileged migrants, and skilled migrants by emphasising the complex intersections of mobility's temporal experiences and family life, underscoring the importance of examining the interplay between temporality, family relations, and institutional arrangements in migration studies.