Paper short abstract:

Paper long abstract:

The recent paradigm shift in social sciences and anthropology has not spared studies concerning mobility. Tourism and migration are placed at the two extremes of an otherwise varied spectrum, and need, if not new concepts and labels, at least a redefinition and recycling of old ones. The "continuum" (Williams and Hall, 2002) that reaches between one end of this spectrum, tourism, all the way to the other, migration, can be well illustrated with the amalgam of perceptions that these phenomena bring about in the case of Northern Romania.

Migrants returning home who come under the looking-glass of an uninformed observer will often be perceived, and hence described, as tourists. The migrant will receive all the familiar labels pertaining to tourists, with often little noticeable differentiation between the two categories. Reaching beyond this forced caricature, migrants and tourists share a complexity of positions in the mobility continuum. There is a category of migrants who use their foreign experience to mark and translate to foreigners overt differences and « exotic » details, avoid misunderstandings, and facilitate cultural communication with locals. Consequently, they play the role of cultural brokers, perceiving themselves as carriers of modernity as well as guides to the local "tradition". On the other hand, some of the most "radical" post-modern tourists spend up to a whole summer in a village. They try to learn the language and participate in household activities in order to better understand, taste and integrate within local life.

If the migrant becomes tourist or cultural broker and the tourist becomes anthropologist or local, where does this leave the original local himself?

E-paper: this Paper will not be presented, but read in advance and discussed