Working Holiday Makers

Purpose-This study conducts the first systematic review of Working Holiday Maker (WHM) research to analyse the evolving nature of WHM schemes and participants. It aims to identify existing theoretical and methodological foundations, to reveal gaps in current knowledge and develop future scenarios for WHM programmes in the context of changing tourism, work and migration patterns. Design/methodology/approach-A 2x2 matrix was developed to generate a distinct picture of WHM participants' motivations and self-perceptions, with axes derived from the review findings. Four corresponding future scenarios were then constructed to explore potential policy and tourism implications. Findings-The analysis revealed a lack of consensus regarding fundamental theoretical frameworks and the social classification of WHMs, highlighting a dominant binary perspective of WHMs as either tourists or temporary migrant workers. The 2x2 matrix demonstrates the inadequacy of traditional tourist-worker dichotomies by revealing four distinct WHM types characterised by motivational fluidity and varying selfperceptions. Practical implications-The study provides a consolidated overview of WHM research and introduces a scenario planning framework with four policy pathways, informing evidence-based policy development for WHM schemes. Social implications-The research contributes to understanding how contemporary mobility patterns challenge traditional assumptions about gap-year experiences, cultural exchange outcomes and temporary-to-permanent migration transitions by revealing motivational fluidity among WHM participants and demonstrating how institutional frameworks actively shape cross-cultural work-travel combinations. Originality/value-This represents the first systematic review of WHM research combined with scenario planning methodology, contributing a novel theoretical framework that challenges existing binary conceptualisations and introduces the first comprehensive synthesis of fragmented interdisciplinary literature.

Although there is notable scholarship on backpackers and their part in tourism cultures, there has been little reflection on their status as long term essential workers in rural areas and what this means for the communities who receive them. We address this gap by investigating the evolution of Australia's Working Holiday Maker program and how it has shaped the presence of backpackers in farming communities. Contemporary backpacking in Australia now involves a culturally and ethnically diverse cohort, which has become essential for farming communities' economic and cultural livelihoods. We argue that the ongoing modifications to the visa program have transformed the presence of backpackers in farming towns, from highly transient tourists to essential workers who may stay for longer periods as temporary migrants, and this has transformed the people and places that host them. Through the lens of mobilities, we outline useful lessons and insights from this example of a backpacker visa, which are relevant for future research and debates around rural livelihoods, labour migration, and farming communities.

The Australian working holiday maker (WHM) program has contributed to the international youth travel market in Australia for many years. Despite a recent increase in the number of participants from Asian countries, their travel behaviours, including accommodation preferences, have not yet been fully explored. In fact, Asian WHMs have often been treated as backpackers in previous studies. The purpose of this study was to explore whether Asian WHMs differ from traditional backpackers on the basis of accommodation preferences. The study employed a sequential mixed methods design consisting of six focus groups followed by a self-administered questionnaire survey. Analyses of both the qualitative and quantitative data revealed that similar to European WHMs, backpacker accommodation was used by many Asian WHMs. However, a sizeable proportion of this market did not stay at this type of accommodation for reasons such as concerns about cleanliness and safety, cultural and language barriers and unfamiliarity with the style of accommodation. Whereas, shared accommodation with people from similar cultural backgrounds was a preferred accommodation style. The main implication of this study is that Asian WHMs cannot be fully understood when they are simply categorised as part of the wider backpacker market. Further consideration of their unique characteristics is required to obtain a comprehensive understanding of this cohort in the current youth travel market.

Transnational temporal migration is becoming increasingly prominent. Neo-liberalised governance has pushed more governments to develop temporal migration programs to relieve skill and labour shortages and, more broadly, to boost economic growth and development. Young people regard short-term migration programs are as a valuable chance to obtain global experience, to the extent that temporal migration has become a rite of passage. This paper offers an overview of temporary migration from South Korea to Australia and identifies the structural factors affecting this temporary transnational mobility, namely regulatory regimes, policies and relevant programs. The data sources in this paper are entirely secondary, consisting of published and unpublished research papers, newspaper articles, statistical data and various government and non-government organisation information and policy documents. Through a historical review of changing migration policies and discourses, the paper explores th...

Temporary migration is a growing global trend, but there is little research on its representation in the media of origin countries. This paper fills this gap by examining how temporary migration is framed by using a longitudinal analysis that focuses on the representation of South Korean participants in the Australian Working Holiday Program in South Korean newspapers from 2000 to 2018. This paper explores the role that South Korean newspapers have played in constructing pro-migration discourses and representing the program, its participants, and their experiences while considering the social and political environments. Key focus areas identified include a “culture of migration,” national interest, economic imperatives/employment, and “victimization.”

This article shows how the meaning of citizenship has changed in South Korea since the partial emergence of a multicultural society in the past two decades. It does so by analysing how newspaper editorials have discussed multiculturalism, which is a multifaceted concept but one which weighs heavily on notions of citizenship. There is often a consensus about citizenship in mono-ethnic and homogeneous societies, even if it is not always clearly articulated or expressed. Societal and demographic change, however, require such societies to change or at least revisit notions of citizenship. The article shows that the print media places the onus on migrants to adapt to society, but also on Koreans to accept the "inevitable reality" of multiculturalism. Editorials advocate a form of conditional citizenship, whereby migrants are incorporated into society without disrupting current notions of what it means to be a South Korean.

Cultural policy is predominantly, and practically, considered the sum of a government’s activities with respect to the arts, humanities and heritage. Thus, cultural policy encompasses a much broader range of activities than was traditionally associated with an arts policy. Critical cultural policy studies, then, sees a distinction between ‘explicit’ cultural policies that are manifestly labelled as ‘cultural’, and ‘implicit’ cultural policies that are not labelled as such, but that work to shape cultural experiences. This article considers this explicit/implicit cultural policy distinction through John Urry’s idea of ‘social as mobility’, suggesting that some public policies regarding mobility (such as immigration, international trade and labour policy) have led to specific cultural consequences and therefore qualify as implicit cultural policy. Using Hong Kong’s working holiday scheme as a case study, this article explores how an economic policy on temporary immigrant labour involv...

Transnational temporal migration is becoming increasingly prominent. Neo-liberalised governance has pushed more governments to develop temporal migration programs to relieve skill and labour shortages and, more broadly, to boost economic growth and development. Young people regard short-term migration programs are as a valuable chance to obtain global experience, to the extent that temporal migration has become a rite of passage. This paper offers an overview of temporary migration from South Korea to Australia and identifies the structural factors affecting this temporary transnational mobility, namely regulatory regimes, policies and relevant programs. The data sources in this paper are entirely secondary, consisting of published and unpublished research papers, newspaper articles, statistical data and various government and non-government organisation information and policy documents. Through a historical review of changing migration policies and discourses, the paper explores th...

This study examined the living and working experiences of 14 Taiwanese working holiday makers (WHMs) in Belgium as they negotiate their identity and social lives while they live overseas, using both participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The study demonstrates that the low salary level and high work pressure in Taiwan are two of the major factors pushing these young Taiwanese to leave their homeland and work overseas. However, the majority of these Taiwanese WHMs face difficulties in speaking Belgium’s local languages, and their opportunities for work are further limited by the temporary visa regulations. Workplaces run by mainland Chinese, especially in the hospitality industry, have become vital places for Taiwanese WHMs to negotiate their ethnonational identity. Although they only have limited social lives and networks in the host society, they claim that they have developed intercultural competences and a greater open-mindedness by living in the multicultural an...

This article shows how the meaning of citizenship has changed in South Korea since the partial emergence of a multicultural society in the past two decades. It does so by analysing how newspaper editorials have discussed multiculturalism, which is a multifaceted concept but one which weighs heavily on notions of citizenship. There is often a consensus about citizenship in mono-ethnic and homogeneous societies, even if it is not always clearly articulated or expressed. Societal and demographic change, however, require such societies to change or at least revisit notions of citizenship. The article shows that the print media places the onus on migrants to adapt to society, but also on Koreans to accept the "inevitable reality" of multiculturalism. Editorials advocate a form of conditional citizenship, whereby migrants are incorporated into society without disrupting current notions of what it means to be a South Korean.

The number of Taiwanese working holidaymakers in Australia has grown rapidly over the last decade. They are criticized as ‘losers’ and are labelled ‘Tai-Lao’ in Taiwanese society. This thesis explores how Taiwanese working holidaymakers respond to the public narratives in Taiwan through their experiences in Australia and their achievements after returning home.
      Based on 31 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with Taiwanese working holidaymakers conducted in Taiwan, I show that, in response to the prejudice they experience in Taiwan, these young people refute, relabel, or even redefine the term ‘Tai-Lao’ to avoid a negative social identity. Nevertheless, they also unconsciously reproduce prejudices, which has led to internal conflicts within this group. Some of them dream of being financial winners, while others identify themselves as cosmopolitans from a Western perspective. This thesis critically examines issues such as English language skills, cultural values and social networks as important resources for their identity formation within the Australian workplace. These resources enable them to make sense of who they are while at the same time leading to intragroup comparison between these Taiwanese. Moreover, becoming successful returnees requires negotiation between the self and neoliberal ideology. This negotiation enables them to commodify their experiences in Australia and forces them to participate in the competition in the Taiwanese labour market.
    Inscribing itself within wider theoretical discussions about the role of capital, reflexivity, postcolonialism and cosmopolitanism on identity formation in a neoliberal economy, this thesis proposes the notion of ‘malleable success.’ A working holiday is seen as a journey for Taiwanese young people’s identity formation. On the one hand, they try to become successful in Australia through their aspirations of becoming cosmopolitan subjects. On the other hand, they need to negotiate neoliberal ideology, social stratifications, and socio-cultural expectations of being a successful young person in Taiwanese society. Hence, success, for them, is malleable and shifting. The idea of malleable success is, I argue, essential for interpreting these young people’s identity formation in neoliberal Taiwan.

This study examined the living and working experiences of 14 Taiwanese working holiday makers (WHMs) in Belgium as they negotiate their identity and social lives while they live overseas, using both participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The study demonstrates that the low salary level and high work pressure in Taiwan are two of the major factors pushing these young Taiwanese to leave their homeland and work overseas. However, the majority of these Taiwanese WHMs face difficulties in speaking Belgium’s local languages, and their opportunities for work are further limited by the temporary visa regulations. Workplaces run by mainland Chinese, especially in the hospitality industry, have become vital places for Taiwanese WHMs to negotiate their ethnonational identity. Although they only have limited social lives and networks in the host society, they claim that they have developed intercultural competences and a greater open-mindedness by living in the multicultural and international environments of Brussels or other Belgian cities.

This article shows how the meaning of citizenship has changed in South Korea since the partial emergence of a multicultural society in the past two decades. It does so by analysing how newspaper editorials have discussed multiculturalism, which is a multifaceted concept but one which weighs heavily on notions of citizenship. There is often a consensus about citizenship into mono-ethnic and homogeneous societies, even if it is not always clearly articulated or expressed. Societal and demographic change, however, requires such societies to change or at least revisit notions of citizenship. The article shows that the print media put the onus on migrants to adapt to society, but also for Koreans to accept the 'inevitable reality' of multiculturalism. Editorials advocated a form of conditional citizenship, whereby migrants would be incorporated into society without disrupting current notions of what it means to be a South Korean.

Employing Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this essay analyzes the discourses surrounding college internships. As universities continue to promote internships as an educational experience and pathway to career success, this study highlights the way that such practices contribute to the rising problem of income inequality by inculcating in some of our youngest workers the expectation that free labor is necessary for employment success. Specifically, the discourses of unpaid internships construct a laboring subject that willingly accedes to the demand to remain "employable" through a strategy of career management.

Since the early 1990s, pushed by domestic economic recession and uncertainty of their life paths, young Japanese have been flying to Canada and Australia not only for holiday experiences, English learning, and temporary work, but also in the quest to find oneself. Searching for "international" work they really want to do, they often prolong their sojourning. Host countries often keep them in temporary resident status, postponing their career development. Suspended in foreigner status, the migrants themselves extend their "subjective youth" -what they see as an ongoing preparatory period in their lives. Based on fieldwork in Vancouver and Sydney, this paper elucidates how the emerging population of self-searching migrants blurs the conventional boundaries between youth and adulthood, and work and holiday, as well as sojourning and immigrating, thus extending "youth experience" indefinitely.

Since the early 1990s, pushed by domestic economic recession and uncertainty of their life paths, young Japanese have been flying to Canada and Australia not only for holiday experiences, English learning, and temporary work, but also in the quest to find oneself. Searching for "international" work they really want to do, they often prolong their sojourning. Host countries often keep them in temporary resident status, postponing their career development. Suspended in foreigner status, the migrants themselves extend their "subjective youth" -what they see as an ongoing preparatory period in their lives. Based on fieldwork in Vancouver and Sydney, this paper elucidates how the emerging population of self-searching migrants blurs the conventional boundaries between youth and adulthood, and work and holiday, as well as sojourning and immigrating, thus extending "youth experience" indefinitely.

This study examines the ‘overseas working holiday phenomenon’ in Korea, drawing on a content analysis of policy and media discourses and qualitative interviews with Korean working holidaymakers in Canada. The study reveals a significant disjuncture between popular representations of transnational mobility and the participants' actual experiences of it. The process of repackaging youth as a potentially ‘global generation’ in the recent discourse of the working holiday phenomenon in Korea implies that transnational mobility can be a discursive construct that may conceal the immobility of a particular group of people, such as youth. The study argues that transnational mobility should be reconsidered as a symbolic and lived process in which national issues are negotiated and contested.

This study explores how transnational working holiday makers imagine and negotiate their identity positions in ethno-racial structures of the host society. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 53 Korean working holiday makers in Canada, the study addresses how the young people are racialized by being exposed to the 'white gaze' and re-ethnicized by engaging with the Korean diaspora. The study examines how the transnational mobility of working holidays both breaks from and continues the mobile subjects' ethno-racial identity. The study's findings contribute to the understanding of the racial dimensions of working holiday making, a largely overlooked topic in previous tourism studies.

An increasing number of young people are making long-stay travels while postponing their transition to adulthood and seeking ‘global experience’. Among various forms of long-stay travel, the working holiday has been popular among young people looking for opportunities to work during travel. In order to empirically explore how global experience is negotiated by young travellers, this study analyses the narratives of 30 South Korean working holidaymakers in Toronto, Canada. The in-depth interviews reveal that the working holiday in Canada is considered by its participants to be a process of seeking the ‘true self’ and a way of enhancing social mobility, both of which lead to a sense of self-development. Drawing upon the empirical findings, the article suggests that the discourse of self-development naturalises a particular mode of neoliberal subjectivity and thus standardises the practice of global experience.

An increasing number of young people are making long-stay travels while postponing their transition to adulthood and seeking ‘global experience’. Among various forms of long-stay travel, the working holiday has been popular among young people looking for opportunities to work during travel. In order to empirically explore how global experience is negotiated by young travellers, this study analyses the narratives of 30 South Korean working holidaymakers in Toronto, Canada. The in-depth interviews reveal that the working holiday in Canada is considered by its participants to be a process of seeking the ‘true self’ and a way of enhancing social mobility, both of which lead to a sense of self-development. Drawing upon the empirical findings, the article suggests that the discourse of self-development naturalises a particular mode of neoliberal subjectivity and thus standardises the practice of global experience.

The Working Holiday is a relatively new but rapidly growing form of
transnational mobility. In Australia, Working Holiday Makers (WHMs) form
the largest group of Japanese temporary migrants, and their numbers have been
increasing. In this paper, I will discuss the experience of returned WHMs in the
light of Japanese labour practice. For my interlocutors, the motivations for
taking a Working Holiday were frequently related to their dissatisfaction with
their status and future prospects as workers. In order to understand this popular
but under-researched form of transnational migration, it is therefore important to
consider their self-perceptions about their worker status when they re-entered the
Japanese workforce, and how they think their life course has changed due to the
Working Holiday experience. The employment experience of WHMs upon their
return to Japan illuminates their position in the home society in which their
migratory decision-making was situated.

Japanese temporary migration has been on the increase over the last few decades, and thousands of
Japanese students and Working Holiday Makers (WHMs) enter the country every year.[1] Upon arrival,
these temporary migrants become minority members of a society where the white majority has cultural
dominance over the 'ethnic' Others. By drawing on the concept of 'contact zones', in this article I explore the
question of minority migrants' agency with a focus on everyday representations of unequal racial
relations-as viewed from their standpoints. I pay particular attention to the intersection between the
structural power relations in which migrants-as-agents are located, and how these actors discursively
develop desirable subject positions. By responding to the theme of this Special Issue titled 'Post-Colonial
and Contemporary Sexual Contact Zones in East Asia and the Pacific', my analysis deals with interview
narratives which explicitly refer to gendered aspects of being young Japanese newcomers in Australia.