Life in the bubble: The leisure experiences of female Swedish seasonal hospitality workers in Nordkapp, Norway

This article examines how female Swedish seasonal hospitality workers in Norway negotiate migrant living. ‘A posteriori’ it sets out to explore how the bubble lives constructed by many of the female workers are shaped by the Arctic location and lack of local contact zones, and are mainly upheld by their financial motives for taking the job. The difference of climate, natural surroundings and townscape, for instance, confines some of them to their temporarily rented rooms. The experienced transnational workers are less affected by difference and enjoy a more active lifestyle. Moreover, the midnight sun gives the women a sense of timelessness that disturbs their daily rhythm. This makes some of the women passive and sleepy, whereas others gain energy and do unexpected things. It is argued that the women’s construction of bubble lives is not so much about difference of place and timelessness, but rather their lack of ability to transfer earlier embodied senses of presence and time to the new community and location. Often secluded in a planted enclave, they do not learn about the Arctic and Arctic living. They thus remain in the bubble.