Unpacking Corporeal Mobilities: The Global Voyages of Labour and Leisure

Abstract

Concepts of mobility are rapidly moving across disciplines, as scholars grapple with the complexities of movement that characterise our world today. Although not a new phenomenon, the conditions of globalisation have facilitated the movement of a record number of people; individuals who are crossing international borders for work, leisure, safety, and security. Among these groups of people, tourists and labour migrants account for the largest groups traveling worldwide. Although abundant scholarly research is available on the transnational voyages of both groups, in this paper I seek to juxtapose a subset of these two types of movement—backpackers and seasonal workers—to investigate how these mobilities are determined, articulated, and shape various identities of the actors involved. Moreover, by referring to material, juridical, and spatial conditions that facilitate the mobility of these two groups, I will examine who is benefiting from these manifold movements and whether these mobilities represent new patterns of corporeal mobility and/or if they reify old relationships between the North and the South.