Introduction

While there has been some growing attention in the literature on the rise of global careers (for example, Forster, 2001; Inkson, 2004; Dickmann and Harris, 2005; Richardson and Zikic, 2007; Dickmann and Baruch, 2011; Baruch et al, 2013), most existing studies to date have focused on the implications of global career mobility for organizations and their Human Resource Management practices. This chapter focuses instead on the effects of career mobility upon people's sense of self, addressing questions of identity and belonging (Colic-Peisker, 2010) among ‘hyper-mobile’ professionals. This term describes people who – in rather privileged positions – have lived and worked extensively in several countries, while positively valuating their dwelling in multiple countries, learning new languages, and idealizing a cosmopolitan sensitivity to cultural otherness (Cohen and Gössling, 2015).

When looking at the rise of global careers more broadly, it could be argued that careers are becoming a substantial part of the wider globalization phenomenon (Baruch et al, 2013), which according to Giddens (1990) implies the ‘intensification of worldwide social relations’ (p 64). In the context of increased mobility, however, the sociologist warns that this intensification can bear global risks of spatial displacement and social disorientation, which can reduce people's quality of life. And indeed, as some scholars have noted, extensive mobility can give rise to new forms of hybridized, multiple, and translocal identities which are not bound by the notion of a stable, unitary place (Sheller and Urry, 2003; Küpers, 2015). Instead, the very nature of a ‘mobile’ identity is one that is perpetually compiled and amended as new reference points are added to its roots (Rodda, 2015).