Carrefours: Migrants’ Support Volunteer Tourism in Lesvos

Abstract

Lesvos (Greece) has become over the last few years the emblem of human migration to Europe. As a consequence of the so-called “migration crisis” in 2015, people from all over the world who, first in a self-organized way and then structuring themselves into associations and organizations, wanted to bring support to migrants in transit or blocked on the island arrived developing what I define migrants’ support volunteer tourism. After defining the historical and contemporary context, I define the tourist framework and in particular this (relatively) new form of volunteer tourism. Keeping in mind that tourism – often described as a panacea for the Mediterranean islands – does not necessarily mean encounter with the other, I try to analyse voluntary tourism from the point of view of the possible relationships that are created thanks to the intersection of two forms of contemporary mobility: tourism and migration.

Migrant support volunteer tourism facing crises: Patchwork autoethnographies on Lesvos (Greece)

“…After that time, however, the arrival of national and international NGOs, grassroots organisations, activists, and volunteers on Lesvos grew exponentially (Tsilimpounidi and Carastathis, 2017). In the case of volunteers, the average stay on Lesvos is 2-3 weeks (Di Matteo, 2023).…”

“…Although acknowledging the importance of research adopting these approaches, we argue that looking at this phenomenon from the volunteer tourism perspective (e.g. : Di Matteo, 2023;Knott, 2018;Trihas and Tsilimpokos, 2018;Tsartas et al, 2020) allows us to broaden the angle to include specific aspects and analytical tools proper of tourism studies. E.g.…”

“…. ], for personal and/or altruistic motives, to a border space to bring support to migrants, either directly or indirectly' (Di Matteo, 2023).…”