Making Oneself In/Visible in Alpine Tourist Areas

Migrants’ Visual Strategies of Resistance on the French-Italian Border

Bibliographic Data

ID9263162
AuthorsSarah Bachellerie (Institute of Geography of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume112-3
Publication date2024-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueRevue de géographie alpine (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0035-1121 • E-ISSN: 1760-7426
PublisherOpenEdition (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4000/139u0
OpenAlexW4407205672
LanguageEN
References cited19

This article looks at the dynamics of in/visibility as a power relation in Alpine tourist areas along the French-Italian border, specifically the Côte d’Azur coastline of Menton–Ventimiglia and the Alpine ski resorts of Montgenèvre and Clavière. Migration control in these regions relies on social and “ethno-racial” profiling by law enforcement officers. The structural social and racial inequalities in the Alpine region render “non-white” minorities and “non-legitimate” tourists hypervisible, resulting in the disproportionate targeting of foreigners from the “Global South.” To evade control, targeted migrants adopt strategies of invisibility, such as hiding in the mountains or using the “passing” strategy, which involves presenting themselves as legitimate travelers. These strategies of resistance against the border regime demonstrate the migrants’ nuanced understanding of the social relations of class and race at play in Alpine tourist areas. By circumventing obstacles to mobility and challenging the social-racial order imposed by the border, the migrants exercise their freedom of movement despite the restrictive border practices

Archaeology · Biology · Economic geography · Ethnology · Geography · Resistance (ecology) · Sociology · Tourism · Cultural Identity and Heritage · Ecology · French Urban and Social Studies · Migration, Health, Geopolitics, Historical Geography

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Open DOIOpen Access