Great to present the paper on Youth Mobility today ar #IRC2026#IGU -in the session – Immobility, Stuckness, and Work.
I presented research that with Prof. Jaeyeon Choe that examines how modern visa architectures systematically manufacture immobility, stuckness, and precarious labor.
Key Arguments & Findings:
Spatial Immobility: Despite the romanticized narrative of nomadic travel, data shows that ~40% of Working Holiday Makers (WHMs) in Australia remain geographically fixed in a single location.
Categorical & Temporal Entrapment: Visas legally label individuals as “holidaymakers,” yet their daily lives revolve around essential labor. This disconnect creates a “permanently temporary” state where long-term futures, careers, and residency pathways are suspended.
Engineered Labor Extraction: Far from being an accidental byproduct, this stuckness is policy-driven. Mandatory regional work requirements (such as Australia’s farm work rules) funnel young migrants into precarious, exploitative labor markets under the guise of cultural exchange.
Tourism and migration scholarship must move beyond celebrating hyper-mobility to critically interrogate how border regimes design and profit from immobility.
#WorkingHoliday#MigrationStudies#Mobility#TourismGeography#Precarity#LabourMigration#YouthMobility