Insurgent citizens: mobility (in)justice and international travel

Abstract

Goal 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) emphasizes the importance of providing just and inclusive societies for all and target 16.10 underscores the importance of ‘protect[ing] fundamental freedoms, in accordance with national legislation and international agreements’. The United Nations (UN) and World Tourism Organization (WTO) frequently describe tourism as a phenomenon that promotes peace and dialogue between different cultures. Nonetheless, the UN rarely sees tourism as political. Despite the ongoing struggles of the members of marginalized communities throughout the world, social justice in the context of international travel remains unattainable for some and neoliberal understandings of freedom of movement and right to travel replicate and contribute to the existing systems of injustice and inequality. Guided by a critical mobilities framework, the aim of this research is to explore how dual citizenship shapes the border crossing experiences of Canadians who have travelled internationally in the post 9/11 era. To that end, we had in-depth interviews with 11 Canadian dual citizens to learn how citizenship shape their border crossing experiences. Findings revealed that some dual citizens are treated as insurgent citizens as they are legally citizens but are not treated as such and are deprived of their rights. Moreover, race plays a crucial role in how dual citizens are hierarchically categorized and international mobilities of some citizens are favoured over the others.

KEYWORDS:

• Insurgent citizenship
• international travel
• border
• inequality
• critical mobilities

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pooneh Torabian

Pooneh Torabian is a Lecturer at the Department of Tourism at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. Her research interests are critical Mobilities and freedom of movement, citizenship, borders, arts and leisure, qualitative Inquiry, and critical theories.

Heather Mair

Heather Mair is a Professor in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. Her interests are in critical approaches to tourism and leisure studies and the role of tourism, sport, and leisure in rural community development.