Paper short abstract:

I combine migration and tourism theories under the broader umbrella of mobility. I argue labour migration is difficult to evaluate and suggest that this can be done via the study of rural tourism. I try to understand the 'money trajectory' and the microsocial context that these mobilities involve.

Paper long abstract:

The goal of my research is to show the link between two parallel phenomena that can dramatically change a small society: the travelling, migrational or non-migrational, to and from this particular region.

There are two strongly linked "mobility corridors" in Maramures: outgoing mobility, which consists mostly in labour migration and incoming mobility, i.e. the arrival of foreigners, as holiday-residents, researchers and tourists. These two mobility streams are linked empirically. Moreover, migrational workers function as mediators or cultural brokers for the locals (Romanians) and for the visitors (who are often inhabitants of the countries of destination for the labour migration). The massification of migration is both the cause and the effect of an increased interdependence between Eastern-Western / urban-rural societies' cultural and economic models.

Because it involves underground activities, labour migration is very difficult to evaluate, especially when it comes to statistics and figures in general. In this case, the evaluation can be re-constructed on the basis of rural tourism; thus my intention is to follow the "money trajectory" and the microsocial context that this process involves.

Studies on migration generally analyse the situation in the destination countries, in the country of origin, or both. The specificity of my research is the inclusion of a parallel "mobility". I try to combine migration and tourism processes under the broader umbrella of what is mobility nowadays. Another specificity of this research would be the tradition of labour migration from the studied area. Labour migration is usually a new phenomenon or at least one that visibly grew in the last decades. In Maramures this process has more continuity: there is a long tradition of labour migration.