Description

Global Welcome? Migrant workers, service cultures, tourist places

This research proposes a socio-cultural analysis of the welcome provided to and by migrant workers employed in hospitality venues in the English Lake District and the Scottish Highlands, rural tourist places where migrant workers are very important to the workforce. It will explore how the mobilities of an international service sector workforce are influencing perceptions of migration, service and place. The emerging English and Scottish public and private sector agenda on the employment of hospitality migrant workers will be documented to consider whether visiting workers are afforded the welcome in the workplace that they are expected to provide. Simultaneously, the study will explore how hospitality sector front-line migrant workers are transforming perceptions of service in tourist places, and examine how their presence influences perceptions of place. Given the current UK economic climate and UK government policy on migration, debates about the support for and effects of employing migrant workers in the hospitality sector are crucial. Views will be sought from migrant workers, employers and co-workers, residents, and visitors, as well as from a steering group representing the Cumbrian / Highland tourism/hospitality sector, regional migrant worker organisations and academics.

The project will start in February 2009 until February 2010.