<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>In the present article I discuss the migration of work from the West towards the East, making direct references to this kind of work relocation between the Netherlands and Romania. More specifically, this article focuses on the Dutch language based activities relocated or outsourced to Romania, a situation which puts customers in contact with “brains without bodies” or “invisible work-migrants”. In order to highlight the trend of migrating jobs I take a look at the evolution of job advertisements for Dutch speakers in Romania. Then, I investigate the impact that the international relocation of back-office and front-office business activities has both on the employees who take over the activity and on the customer’s satisfaction. Factors such as linguistic similarity, cultural practices, and attitudes towards customers’ complaints shape the outcomes of such relocations. Given that the otherness between employees and customers can be faster noticed in the direct, “voice-to-voice” interaction, the situation of call-centres deserves special attention for the analysis. Call-centres clearly feature the characteristics of non-places, where the employee must assume a similar identity to that of the customer.</p></abstract>

In the present article I discuss the migration of work from the West towards the East, making direct references to this kind of work relocation between the Netherlands and Romania. More specifically, this article focuses on the Dutch language based activities relocated or outsourced to Romania, a situation which puts customers in contact with “brains without bodies” or “invisible work-migrants”. In order to highlight the trend of migrating jobs I take a look at the evolution of job advertisements for Dutch speakers in Romania. Then, I investigate the impact that the international relocation of back-office and front-office business activities has both on the employees who take over the activity and on the customer’s satisfaction. Factors such as linguistic similarity, cultural practices, and attitudes towards customers’ complaints shape the outcomes of such relocations. Given that the otherness between employees and customers can be faster noticed in the direct, “voice-to-voice” interaction, the situation of call-centres deserves special attention for the analysis. Call-centres clearly feature the characteristics of non-places, where the employee must assume a similar identity to that of the customer.

The Flying Dutch Job. Jobs that Migrate from the Netherlands to Romania

Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai Sociologia

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"The Flying Dutch Job. Jobs that Migrate from the Netherlands to Romania"}

In the present article I discuss the migration of work from the West towards the East, making direct references to this kind of work relocation between the...

The Flying Dutch Job. Jobs that Migrate from the Netherlands to Romania

Published Online: Jan 29, 2016

Page range: 83 - 102

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/subbs-2015-0004

Keywords
migration, work, Dutch, culture, language

© 2015 Diana Mariana Popa, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The Flying Dutch Job. Jobs that Migrate from the Netherlands to Romania

Published Online: Jan 29, 2016

Page range: 83 - 102

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/subbs-2015-0004

Keywordsmigration, work, Dutch, culture, language

© 2015 Diana Mariana Popa, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
migration, work, Dutch, culture, language