Overlapping Fields of Migration and Tourism and the (Im)mobility Regimes

Organisers

Natalia Bloch (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland)

Mónica Ibáñez Angulo (University of Burgos, Spain)

Claudio Milano (University of Barcelona, Spain)

Sponsoring Commissions

IUAES Commission on the Anthropology of Tourism

IUAES Commission on the Anthropology of Migration

Short abstract

Migration and tourism often intertwine and generate one another. The aim of this panel is to look critically at the relationship between the privileged mobilities of tourists and the (im)mobility of migrants in tourist destinations – how they reflect the regimes of (im)mobility. We intend to scrutinise the overlapping fields of migration and tourism by exploring the precarity and aspirations in the life trajectories of migrant tourism workers, migrants as tourists, tourist-turned-migrants, or migrant tourist-workers.

Long abstract

Migration and tourism are two dimensions of people’s spatial mobility that need to be studied and conceptualized together (Hall, Williams 2002; Bloch, Adams 2023). Although through the prism of the (im)mobility regimes, they evoke different moral reactions and are founded on binary categories (work vs. leisure, production vs. consumption, precarity vs. privilege, etc.), migration and tourism often intertwine and generate one another. One of the reasons is that the tourism sector stimulates migration. This is especially true when talking about the informal sector, which is inclusive but involves seasonality and precarious working conditions. The aim of this panel is to scrutinise the overlapping fields of migration and tourism by exploring: 1/ the life trajectories of migrant tourism workers (the precarity of their work but also the aspirations, hopes, and visions of a better life); 2/ the situations when migrant tourism workers become tourists, engaging in leisure activities; 3/ and when tourists turn into migrants, either occasionally or permanently, trying to earn their living from catering to the needs of other tourists. We intend to look critically at the relationship between the privileged mobilities of tourists and the (im)mobility of migrants in tourist destinations – how they reflect the regimes of (im)mobility.

We thus invite researchers who will address – although not exclusively – the following topics:

Global division of labour in the tourism sector
Formal vs. informal sector in tourism
Gender/age/ethnic/caste/class dimension of migrant work in the tourism sector
Precarity and aspirations in migrant work in the tourism sector
Other than economic benefits from work in the tourism sector (e.g. searching for a better life)
Tourism practices of migrant tourism workers
Tourist-turned-migrants & migrant tourist-workers
Migrants as hosts in tourist destinations
The role of social networks in migrant work in the tourism sector
 

Mobility

For the Mobile Lives Forum, mobility is understood as the process of how individuals travel across distances in order to deploy through time and space the activities that make up their lifestyles. These travel practices are embedded in socio-technical systems, produced by transport and communication industries and techniques, and by normative discourses on these practices, with considerable social, environmental and spatial impacts.

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