The racialised mobility of transnational working holidays

Abstract

This study explores how transnational working holidaymakers imagine and negotiate their identity positions in ethno-racial structures of the host society. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 53 Korean working holidaymakers in Canada, the study addresses how the young people are racialised by being exposed to the ‘white gaze’ and re-ethnicised by engaging with the Korean diaspora. The study examines how the transnational mobility of working holidays both breaks from and continues the mobile subjects’ ethno-racial identity. The study’s findings contribute to the understanding of the racial dimensions of working holidaymaking, a largely overlooked topic in previous tourism studies.

Keywords:

• racialised mobility
• working holiday
• ‘white gaze’
• Korean diaspora
• youth mobility
• Korean youth

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Erratum

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the University of British Columbia Okanagan under its Individual Research Grant (2009) and FCCS Research Development Fund (2012). I thank Dr Christian Joon Park, Dr Daniel Keyes and the two reviewers for their constructive comments. My deepest gratitude goes to those young Koreans who shared their stories for this project.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kyong Yoon

KYONG YOON is Assistant Professor in the Department of Critical Studies at University of British Columbia Okanagan.