Description
Borders are crossed by millions of people every year, comprising citizens as well as foreigners who cross borders as residents, potential immigrants, family reunification candidates, refugees, asylum seekers – and as tourists and visitors. The latter category of short-term cross-border movement has received scant attention in border and migration scholarship. Rather than filling the gap, I aim to critically examine the reason for its existence. Inspired by the mobilities studies and calls for methodological de-nationalism and de-migranticization of migration research, this paper investigates the conceptual and methodological biases that result in the neglect of ‘ordinary’ cross-border mobility in research. My main argument is that the sedentarism bias and state-centered categories, reinforced by racial, gendered, and classed narratives, construct the ordinary cross-border mobility as either unproblematic or its unique problems as less significant than other types of cross-border movement. This framing obscures specific forms of border violence that shape ordinary mobilities of tourists and visitors. The relevance of this work is in making visible the often-overlooked border injustice tied to tourist and visitor experience of borders, as well as interrogating the biases that shape migration scholarship.| Period | 27 Nov 2025 |
|---|---|
| Held at | Dutch Association for Migration Research |