The nature of migrant work is rapidly changing. A combination of technological enablement coupled with social, demographic and economic shifts is resulting in growing numbers of migrant workers.
But these new migrants aren't like the old ones. The new migrants are often choosing this as a lifestyle or doing it to supplement their retirement.
One segment of the new migrants are called "workampers". According to Workamper.news, "workampers" are:
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Adventuresome individuals, couples and families who have chosen a wonderful lifestyle that combines ANY kind of part-time or full-time work with RV camping.
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Person working as an employee, operating a business, or donating their time as a volunteer - while sleeping in an RV or on-site housing.
In other words, workampers are a form of migrant workers that travel around in RVs funding their travels with some form of work.
Mostly older, workampers are often workamping to fund or augment their retirement.
The Washington Post's The new reality of old age in America covers the growing workamper trend, but does so in a less positive light than Workamper.news. Key quote:
... many older workers are hitting the road as work campers — also called “workampers” — those who shed costly lifestyles, purchase RVs and travel the nation picking up seasonal jobs that typically offer hourly wages and few or no benefits.
According to the article, many are doing this to shore up their retirement finances:
... millions of others are entering their golden years with alarmingly fragile finances. Fundamental changes in the U.S. retirement system have shifted responsibility for saving from the employer to the worker, exacerbating the nation’s rich-poor divide. Two recent recessions have devastated personal savings. And at a time when 10,000 baby boomers are turning 65 every day, Social Security benefits have lost about a third of their purchasing power since 2000.
As the article chart below shows, many older Americans are reliant on social security for income. This makes picking up part-time or seasonal work a good way to add to retirement income.
The workamper trend is strong enough that Amazon even has a specific program for these people.
Called "CamperForce", it's targeted at workampers who want work the 3-4 month Christmas holiday season at warehouses in Kentucky. Amazon's website makes it sound pretty good:
Amazon offers great pay, a paid completion bonus, paid referral bonuses, and paid campsites for its CamperForce associates. Along with the chance to build lasting relationships with your coworkers, the CamperForce Program also provides the following benefits:
- Paid campsites
- Paid good wages, with time and a half for overtime, plus shift differential
- Paid completion bonus when you work until Dec 23rd
- Paid referral bonuses
We've long covered the growing trend towards more older Americans working past the traditional retirement age. Some do it because they want to; others because they have to.
The Washington Post does an excellent job chronicling the problems and issues of the growing number of older Americans who are workamping because they have to to survive financially.
But a lot of workampers are doing it because they want to and enjoy traveling around in an RV. For these people, workamping can be the "a wonderful lifestyle" described by Workamper.news.
BTW, this is not say younger Americans, and especially millennials, aren't also pursuing nomadic work. They are.
It's just that younger Americans prefer global roaming to places like Bali or travel in vans instead of RVs.
Migrant millennials are mostly digital nomads.
These are people with a location-independent lifestyle that allows them to work anywhere in the world there is a good Internet connection. Think programmers, designers, writers, marekters, etc.
One of the more interesting digital nomad sub-segments are those choosing to tour in vans. These folks are much like workampers, except they drive around in vans and most have digital occupations.
The term for this is "vanlife", and entering the very popular hashtag #Vanlife on pretty much any social sharing site will provide lots of entries on people traveling and working in vans.
Also Time's #VANLIFE: THE (ARTISANAL) AMERICAN ROAD TRIP nicely covers this lifestyle choice.
We've been following the growth of mobile and distributed work and digital nomads for about a decade. These trends just keep getting more interesting and It's clear the number of new migrants is going to continue to grow.
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