Parallels are drawn between representations of early 20th century Finnish maritime labourers on foreign merchant ships and present-day Estonian blue-collar commuter workers who work in the construction sector in Finland. We ask how the workers at both the times comment the media representations of them and how the possible analogues can be understood. The study focuses on two themes: stereotypes and masculinity ideals related to mobile work. The data comprise seamen’s letters, construction workers’ interviews, and media sources. By combining anthropological and historical analyses, we show that, rather than being occupation specific or related to time, certain features related to mobility, physical work, and gender tend to reappear in different kinds of circumstances. The features are characterised by the paradox of positive expectations and negative prejudices. We suggest that present-day discussions on cross-border work benefit not only from comparisons between different areas and occupations but also from historical juxtapositions.

中文翻译：

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流动劳工的历史和现代观点：

在20世纪初的芬兰海上劳工在外国商船上的代表与现今在芬兰建筑业中工作的爱沙尼亚蓝领通勤工人的描述之间存在相似之处。我们问工人在这两个时期如何评论他们的媒体代表以及如何理解可能的类似物。该研究的重点是两个主题：与流动工作相关的刻板印象和男性气概。数据包括海员的来信，建筑工人的采访和媒体来源。通过结合人类学和历史分析，我们发现，与流动性，体力劳动和性别有关的某些特征，而不是特定于职业或与时间有关，而倾向于在不同情况下重新出现。这些特征的特征在于积极期望和消极偏见的悖论。我们建议，当今关于跨界工作的讨论不仅受益于不同地区和职业之间的比较，而且受益于历史并列。