Intersections of Tourism, Migration, and Exile

by Kathleen M. Adams (Editor), Natalia Bloch (Editor)

This book challenges the classic--and often tacit--compartmentalization of tourism, migration, and refugee studies by exploring the intersections of these forms of spatial mobility: each prompts distinctive images and moral reactions, yet they often intertwine, overlap, and influence one another.

Tourism, migration, and exile evoke widely varying policies and popular reactions, as well as contrasting imagery. What are the ramifications of these siloed conceptions for people on-the-move? To what extent do gender, class, ethnic, and racial global inequalities shape moral discourses surrounding people's movements? This book presents twelve predominantly ethnographic case studies from around the world, and a pandemic-focused conclusion, that address these issues. In recounting and juxtaposing stories of refugees' and migrants' returns, marriage migrants, voluntourists, migrant retirees, migrant tourism workers and entrepreneurs, mobile investors and professionals, and refugees pursuing educational mobility, this book cultivates more nuanced insights into intersecting forms of mobility. Ultimately, this work promises to foster not only empathy but greater resolve for forging trails towards mobility justice.

This accessibly written volume will be essential to scholars and students in critical migration, tourism, and refugee studies, including anthropologists, sociologists, human geographers, political science and cultural studies scholars. The book will also be of interest to non-academic professionals and general readers interested in contemporary mobilities.

274 pages, Paperback

Published December 30, 2022

About the author

Kathleen Adams (Ph.D., University of Washington) is a socio-cultural anthropologist who writes about Southeast Asia, heritage, the cultural aspects of tourism, and the arts. She has authored multiple books, including three award-winners. Adams was a Fulbright scholar in Indonesia and is currently a Fulbright Specialist (2023-2026). Her long-term research has been in the Toraja highlands of Sulawesi, with shorter-term research on the Indonesian island of Alor, in Singapore, and in San Juan Capistrano, CA. Dr. Adams received Loyola University's Sujack Award for Teaching Excellence and in 2012, was named one of the nation's "300 Best Professors" by the Princeton Review. In her leisure time, she plays so-so tennis, hikes the hills and coasts of northern California, and hunts for good coffee and chocolate (all those years of living in Indonesia left a culinary imprint).