Rethinking Mobility. Beyond the Dichotomy Tourism/Migration

Abstract

Although the distinction between migrant and tourist is artificial — linked to statistical, juridical and economic definitions used to delimit the travel and hospitality sector — these words are associated with conflicting and often opposite images, stereotypes and emotions. On the one hand, migrants or refugees are usually perceived as dead weights, carriers of anguish and danger, to be rejected as a social problem. On the other hand, tourists or travelers are depicted as opportunities, special guests to be accommodated in comfortable places, as bearers of a positive economic value.

Aiming at going beyond a mere critique of kinetophobia (fear of movement) and of the different forms it takes, the essay invites to question the “residentialist” foundations of the nation-state and to develop a new understanding of the interaction between mobility and belonging. By exploring the symbolic meanings and political implications that the migrant / tourist categories carry with them, the essay maps the emergence of a world where freedom of movement is the main factor of social stratification.

Finally, the essay introduces the reflections presented in this volume, highlighting how the different and complementary disciplinary perspectives of the essays collected not only call into question the conceptual categories that define the practice of traveling and the experience of diversity, but they contribute to developing new perspectives on mobility understood as a total social phenomenon.