Covid 19 pandemic and human mobility in island spaces: the case of the Canary Islands (Spain)

Abstract

Several academics, who conduct studies regarding the islands, have pointed out the importance of these territories in analysing human mobility. Their original settlement is explained by the arrival of the population from continental areas and, later on, emigration processes prevail in them, since there has been a shortage of available resources to guarantee the survival of their residents. Recently, tourism development has transformed their migration trends and has turned them, again, into places of attraction for tourists, labour migrants, and lifestyle migrants. Eventually, depending on their location with respect to international trade routes and their geopolitical belonging, some have become strategic places of arrival for irregular migrants. These processes are those that have characterised the external mobility of the Canary Islands throughout history. However, the unusual pandemic and the subsequent health, economic and social crisis have transformed this mobility scheme. Four characteristics can be observed in the mobility in times of pandemic, that differs significantly from the rest of Spain. Firstly, the incidence of the disease has been lower. Secondly, the paralysis of tourist activity has caused an economic recession greater than that of other Spanish regions. Thirdly, the economic crisis, which has affected many less developed countries, such as its neighbours in North-western Africa, has favoured a revitalisation of irregular migration by sea, because of the strategy of many families, who decided to send their children in search of a less uncertain future (young men and women, as well as unaccompanied minors). Finally, internal connectivity has suffered, but it has resisted much better, since travel has acquired a much more intense local dimension: local commerce and tourism. The aim of this presentation is, therefore, to describe and interpret the differentiated behaviour of mobility in island spaces, in times of pandemic, based on the case study of the Canary Islands.