Alter-Nomad: Precarity of Sedentism

Neo-nomadism generates precarity. Globalization serves the states and their citizens, but the market still prevails. Our time is marked by a need for mobility. Mobility is omnipresent. Stopping the free flow would prevent economic growth, yet the fear of motion persists. State apparatus solve the equation by limiting the free flow to a small segment of the population and to goods. Sedentism segments and isolates to maintain public order. This way, it creates injustice whose consequences are visible in the North/South inequalities. It’s a vicious circle assisted by mechanisms such as “social reproduction” - through ideological state apparatus such as schools - and symbolic violence allowing to maintain a sedentary order. Globalization implies cultural homogenization: the strongest culture economically can export itself everywhere in the world. Merchantile globalization offers flexibility at the cost of precarity, the disenchantment of the world. Precarity is first reflected in the growing inequalities between Northern and Southern countries, rich and poor. Attali classifies the global moving population into two categories: infranomads and hypernomads[@attali].

Neo-nomadism serves the most privileged: people like me who travel to improve their quality of life, for financial reasons (pay fewer taxes, tax evasion …), or for entertainment purposes. Those hypernomads chose their lifestyle. They are the elite who can afford to move around. Many sedentaries try to imitate hypernomads by practicing tourism while staying indoor for the major part of the year. Merchantile nomadism supports the flow of goods more than the flow of human beings, which is eased for people who add an economic value. This is why we let hypernomads and sedentaries move across countries: tourism is a profitable industry, workers from Southern countries produce at lower costs, and international companies have access to a bigger market, brain Drain of the intellectual elite… Hypernomads are attracted by this wealth creation and enabled by governments.

On the other hand, infranomads are hereditary or constrained nomads. Hereditary nomads are historical nomads, we already defined them. Constrained nomads are urban nomads, sedentaries who are forced to precarity: homeless, migrants, refugees, etc. without socio-economic stability, marginals forced to move to get a job or just to live a normal life. In both cases, this form of nomadism is not chosen. The historical nomad isn’t forcibly precarious, but what is precarious ends up becoming nomad to survive. Infranomads are limited in their movement by institutional nets: we prevent flows of migrants seeking better living conditions in northern countries, we marginalize them in the news without understanding the real problems going on… despite free flow being a human right in the Universal Declaration. State borders are filters dividing the populations. Residents from southern countries have less visa power than individuals from richer countries: a French citizen needs a Visa in 35 countries, whereas a Thai citizen is required to present a Visa in 134 countries[@visalist]. It’s kind of ironic when you consider that Thailand is among the 10 most visited countries in 2017. Political nomads end up without landmarks and are excluded (ie the global migrant crisis). Getting used to a new location takes time. Human beings strive for stability, but we consume in a way that favors everything ephemeral. Cities became temporary habitats where urbanization and urban misery induce the rapid construction of new living spaces. In France, one household out of three has been occupying its apartment for less than four years. The average commute time never ceases to increase: one hour and a half per day in Paris. Workers became consumables. All of those behaviors combined induce unemployment and competition as an institution. We favor competitivity and busyness, at what cost? Public institutions are closing. Institutions such as education, healthcare, and the police must make profits. Otherwise, they get privatized. More mercantile nomadism is less democracy, less state, and public services whose benefits we progressively lose, resulting in an even bigger precarity.