Abstract

Mobilities and immobilities are inscribed within the fluid and volatile lives of migrants. Continuous shifts and complex interconnections between spatial, occupational, educational (im)mobilities of migrants depend on various social, political, legal and economic factors as well as power relations influenced by gender, age, class and ethnicity, where the mobility of some highlights the immobility of others.

This paper gives insight into the multiple and interrelated mobilities as well as immobilities of female migrants employed in hospitality, and the role of the industry in facilitating or restricting these movements. Based on initial findings from an arts-based Participatory Action Research (PAR) project carried out with a group of Central and Eastern European (CEE) migrant women, the paper explores their interpretations (visual and oral), understandings and negotiations of their (im)mobilities. It argues that a more inclusive, participatory and creative approach towards researching female migrants’ hospitality employment experiences leads to a more holistic portrait of migrants’ complex trajectories as well as their relationship with hospitality. The paper also makes links between the mobilities paradigm, migration, gender and hospitality, and is situated within the emerging hopeful tourism scholarship paradigm.