The right to work? For whom? Exploring international migration for tourism employment and its effects on local workers through phenomenology

Abstract

Labor migration and tourism development are two separate phenomena, both affecting local workers of tourism destinations. In the context of Phi Phi Island, Thailand, these two issues could not be separated during the study of the effects of labor migration on local workers, as this labor migration was in direct response to the expansion of the tourism industry and the labor gaps that followed. Phenomenology and an interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) were used to understand the benefits and impacts to local workers due to the expansion of the labor market for tourism development and the immigrants, both Asian and Western, who came to fill occupations in the industry. Economical models and quantitative studies are insufficient for understanding these phenomenam and the voices of local workers can increase our understanding of how these phenomena impact the right to work of destination residents.