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Multilingualism in Migrant Contexts

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A special issue of Languages (ISSN 2226-471X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 January 2021) | Viewed by 46884

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Jaine Beswick

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Guest Editor

Modern Languages and Linguistics, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Southampton, Avenue Campus, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
Interests: multilingualism, the multilingual turn; translanguaging and style shifting; language and identit(ies); migration and diaspora; transnational borders, boundaries, space and place; linguistic attitudes and ideologies; island studies

Dr. Darren Paffey

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Guest Editor

Modern Languages and Linguistics, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Southampton, Avenue Campus, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
Interests: language planning; language policy and migration; language ideologies; politics of language; political and media discourse

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The innovative aim of this Special Issue is to present key sociolinguistic and social psychological aspects of multilingual behaviour in migratory contexts from any region or community of the world, through a comparative examination of original academic scholarship that may encompass either empirical and/or theoretical approaches. First-generation migration research has often focused on return and essentialised, diasporic identities, but recent radical changes to the global infrastructure have facilitated an unprecedented escalation of cross-border human mobility, highlighting the dynamicity and fluidity of transnational and translocal interconnectedness. Migrant families’ lives may thus be conducted in more than one place and across more than one home, through mobilities and practices that transcend physical, social and symbolic borders and involve engagement with the receptor society within shared spaces (Watt and Llamas 2017; Auer, Hilpert, Stukenbrock and Szmrecsanyi 2013).

Recent scholarship has started to demonstrate how this has profound consequences for language use and for language structures, even though stereotypical attitudes and ideologies about immigrants may still be reinforced by macro-level citizenship legislation that foregrounds linguistic integration as a prima facie requirement. This volume aims to be a forum through which the actual linguistic behaviour of migrants and their families as social actors in situated contexts can be debated and analysed through a comparative perspective. Thus, it examines the potential for drawing on elements of speakers’ idiolects as one integrated linguistic system rather than two or more monolingualisms (García and Lin 2016), the creation of new social networks and communities of practice across borders and boundaries and the development of new identities as negotiated, indexical and situationally determined social practices.

To this end, we encourage contributions that interrogate the following themes and concepts:

The multilingual turn in migratory contexts, linguistic appropriation and shift; translanguaging;
Migrants as new speakers; linguistic authenticity, competency, legitimacy;
Transnational social spaces; in-group and out-group ideologies; embeddedness, anchoring;
Identity and linguistic repertoires; insider vernaculars as indexical markers.

The tentative completion schedule is as follows:

-Abstract submission deadline: 15 June 2020 (400–450 words including bibliography)

-Notification of abstract acceptance: 30 June 2020

-Full manuscript deadline: 15 December 2020

References

Arnaut, Karel, Blommaert, Jan, Rampton, Ben, and Spotti, Massimiliano (eds.) (2015) Language and Superdiversity. London: Routledge.
Auer, Peter, Hilpert, Martin, Stukenbrock, Anja, and Szmrecsanyi, Benedikt (eds.) (2013) Space in Language and Linguistics: Geographical, Interactional, and Cognitive Perspectives. Berlin: de Gruyter.
García, Ofelia, and Lin, Angel M.Y. (2016). ‘Translanguaging in bilingual education’. In O. García et al. (eds.), Bilingual and Multilingual Education, Encyclopaedia of Language and Education.
Watt, Dominic, and Llamas, Carmen (2017) ‘Identifying Places: The Role of Borders’, in Chris Montgomery and Emma Moore (eds.) Language and a Sense of Place: Studies in Language and Region. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 191-214.

Dr. Jaine Beswick
Dr. Darren Paffey
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

Borders and the third space
Identity practices
Ideologies of inclusion and exclusion
Insider vernaculars
Multilingualism
Speakerhood
Superdiversity
Translanguaging
Transnational social spaces

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Published Papers (13 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 355 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Migrant Maths Teachers: Deficit, Translanguaging, and Growing Authority

by Alan Benson

Languages 2022, 7(2), 136; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7020136 - 27 May 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2342

Abstract

This article draws from a longitudinal case study of trainee (the term used in official documentation related to Initial Teacher Training (ITT) in England and with some reservations throughout this paper) and early-career teachers (ECT) of mathematics. The sample represents migrant teachers that the Immigration Act of 2020 seeks to attract to the UK to address national shortages identified by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC). The analysis examines how multimodal semiotic repertoires of language, bodies and pedagogical practices are entangled in classroom encounters. It shows how the ideology of Standard English can create an uncomfortable sense of different deficits amongst multilingual professionals and evidences how these can be addressed through a model of authority in which teachers get the right mix of mathematical subject knowledge (epistemic authority), the use of school practices and expectations (practical authority), and individual biography (personal authority). It uses translanguaging spaces to examine how teachers use communicative repertoires to orchestrate semiotic resources and manage their identity positions in ways that promote intercultural competencies during the daily encounters of teachers and their pupils. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multilingualism in Migrant Contexts)

20 pages, 426 KiB

Open AccessArticle

‘In Ukrainian, Please!’: Language Ideologies in a Ukrainian Complementary School

by Katie Harrison

Languages 2021, 6(4), 179; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6040179 - 26 Oct 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2517

Abstract

This article examines the language practices of teachers and students in a Ukrainian complementary school, and the language ideologies influencing teachers’ responses to students’ language practices in a Ukrainian complementary school. The data presented in this analysis comprise a collection of fieldnotes collected over the course of one academic year in a Ukrainian complementary school located in the Midlands, England. The analysis of these data identifies the presence of two seemingly contradictory language ideologies—separate bilingualism and flexible bilingualism—seemingly coexist in the complementary school, implied through teachers’ and students’ language practices and teachers’ responses to students’ language choice. The analysis also considers the use of Russian in the Ukrainian complementary school, thus exploring the use of a language other than the heritage language (Ukrainian) and the societal majority language (English) in this setting, highlighting the linguistic diversity within this context. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multilingualism in Migrant Contexts)

15 pages, 371 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Multilingualism in Migrant Contexts in Pakistan and the UK: Transcending Physical, Social and Symbolic Borders in Transnational Social Spaces

by Tony Capstick

Languages 2021, 6(4), 177; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6040177 - 25 Oct 2021

Viewed by 2389

Abstract

This paper is based on a four-year ethnographic study of multilingualism in transnational Mirpuri families in Azad Kashmir (Pakistan) and Lancashire (United Kingdom). Data were collected in a range of physical settings in Pakistan and the UK as well as social spaces online. Migrants’ literacy practices are often related to the standard language variety of the country to which the migrant is moving. However, this paper suggests that migration requires different kinds of literacies, not all of which relate to standard writing system use. The study sought to understand how these literacies are shaped in Pakistan before they are taken up in the UK, by seeing them as part of migrants’ everyday translanguaging. This perspective involves exploring how different language varieties (such as Punjabi, Urdu and English) and different linguistic resources (such as scripts, styles and registers) are appropriated by migrants at different stages of their migration trajectories alongside migrants’ own perspectives on these practices. The findings demonstrate how migrant families counter discrimination in their everyday multilingualism as part of the translingual practices which transcend physical, social and symbolic borders. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multilingualism in Migrant Contexts)

22 pages, 1209 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Between Loss and Salvage: Kabyles and Syrian Christians Negotiate Heritage, Linguistic Authenticity and Identity in Europe

by Heidi Armbruster and Souhila Belabbas

Languages 2021, 6(4), 175; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6040175 - 25 Oct 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 6016

Abstract

This paper brings together two different communities, Kabyles (Amazighs) and Syrian Christians, who are nevertheless marked by some commonalities: a strong diasporic dispersal as a historical experience, political, cultural and linguistic marginalization in their countries of origin, the deep association of collective identity with an “endangered” heritage language, a lived experience of multilingualism, and a post-emigration struggle of language maintenance and transmission. The Kabyles have roots in northern Algeria, and associate their language, Kabyle, with a pre-Arabized history of northern Africa, with claims to cultural authenticity and indigeneity. This paper focuses on research conducted in the UK, a relatively new immigrant setting for this community. The Syrian Christians originate from Turkey and have dispersed across different European countries since the 1960s. They make strong identity claims to Aramaic, “the language of Jesus”, yet have also found its preservation and intergenerational transmission challenging. This paper focuses on research conducted in the German speaking context. Drawing on ethnographic research with these communities, we bring their post-migration language preservation activisms into a dialogue. This shows the enduring significance of the heritage language for social, cultural and historical identity, despite considerable language decline. It also demonstrates that the current survival of the “mother tongue” hinges on multilingual and multi-sited language activisms which bear the hallmarks of both new creativities and diminishing fluencies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multilingualism in Migrant Contexts)

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15 pages, 374 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Italian-Bangladeshis in London: Onward Migration and Its Effects on Their Linguistic Repertoire

by Francesco Goglia

Languages 2021, 6(3), 121; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6030121 - 15 Jul 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3254

Abstract

This article discussed language use and language maintenance among the Italian-Bangladeshi community in London, considering in particular the effects of onward migration on the reorganisation of their linguistic repertoire. Drawing on focus groups and interviews with the second-generation members of Italian-Bangladeshi families, initial findings revealed that Italian is maintained through communication with same-age friends and siblings, with older siblings acting as the main agents of language maintenance. English is considered the most important language and, together with a British education, functions as a pull-factor for onward migration to improve the second generation’s future prospects. Bengali, on the other hand, is spoken by parents among themselves and children are not always fluent in the language. Bengali also represents a marker of identity for the Italian-Bangladeshi community as opposed to the larger Sylheti-speaking British-Bangladeshi community. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multilingualism in Migrant Contexts)

19 pages, 1395 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Migrant Learners of Basque as New Speakers: Language Authenticity and Belonging

by Anna Augustyniak

Languages 2021, 6(3), 116; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6030116 - 2 Jul 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2965

Abstract

Language issues related to identity negotiation in minoritised language contexts, including those related to the category of “new speakers”, have often been studied in relation to local language dichotomies and national populations. This paper will examine identity construction among migrant learners of Basque from outside of Spain, looking at migrants as a diverse population and as a particular group of new speakers of Basque. By analysing the ways in which migrant learners position themselves as (not) belonging to “Basqueness” as a group identity, it points to the underlying language ideologies that guide language and identity categories, such as native Basque speakers or new speakers, within the essentialising and non-essentialising ideological influences. It will aim to answer how migrants employ identity categories or contest their use in discourse and establish the extent of the relation between perceived linguistic competence in Basque, the use of Basque by migrants and the ideologies of authenticity, legitimacy and ownership. The methodology applied is ethnographically oriented and linguistic data analysis is performed through a thematic discourse analysis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multilingualism in Migrant Contexts)

18 pages, 399 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Language Ideologies and Transnational Migration: A Study of Cape Verdeans in Galicia

by Nicola Bermingham

Languages 2021, 6(2), 99; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6020099 - 25 May 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3855

Abstract

Changes to the global infrastructure have contributed to the growing (linguistic) diversity of large metropolises. However, there have been calls from scholars to explore “emerging superdiversity” (DePalma and Pérez-Caramés 2018) in peripheral regions in order to fully understand the complexities and nuances of the sociolinguistics of globalisation (Wang et al. 2014; Pietikäinen et al. 2016). This article, therefore, explores language ideologies among a purposive sample of five young adults of Cape Verdean origin living in the peripheral region of Galicia, Spain, and draws on interview data to examine the ways in which multilingual migrants engage with the language varieties in their linguistic repertoire. In studying immigration from a former African colony to a bilingual European context, we can see how language ideologies from the migrant community are reflected in local ones. The sociolinguistic dynamics of Cape Verde and Galicia share many similarities: both contexts are officially bilingual (Galician and Spanish in Galicia, Kriolu and Portuguese in Cape Verde), and questions regarding the hierarchisation of languages remain pertinent in both cases. The ideologies about the value and prestige of (minority) languages that Cape Verdean migrants arrive with are thus accommodated by local linguistic ideologies in Galicia, a region which has a history of linguistic minoritisation. This has important implications for the ways in which language, as a symbolic resource, is mobilised by migrants in contexts of transnational migration. The findings of this study show how migrants are key actors in (re)shaping the linguistic dynamics of their host society and how, through their practices and discourses, they challenge long-standing assumptions about language, identity and linguistic legitimacy, and call into question ethno-linguistic boundaries. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multilingualism in Migrant Contexts)

19 pages, 363 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Chilean Migrants in the Swedish Context from the 1970s until Recently: The Discursive Construction of Their Own Linguistic Trajectories

by Patricia Baeza-Duffy and Rakel Österberg

Languages 2021, 6(2), 95; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6020095 - 24 May 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2566

Abstract

This study aims to compare the discursive construction of Chilean migrants who arrived in Sweden from the 1970s until recently regarding their own linguistic trajectories at the micro level of social activity, the meso level of sociocultural institutions and communities and the macro level of ideological structures. The analysis of the latter level is based on Critical Discourse Studies, in particular, the strategies of de/legitimisation and the macro strategies of perpetuation or transformation The research questions concern (a) the semiotic resources used in multilingual contexts of action and interaction (at a micro level), (b) expressions of belonging and language identity (at a meso level) (c) and the de/legitimisation of events, processes and social actors in the construction of different ideologies (at a macro level). The method is qualitative and interpretative and is based on critical discourse analysis. The findings showed that the de/legitimisation of policies is associated with access to and acquisition of L2 (Swedish) and maintenance of L1 (Spanish). Well-prepared teachers, the communicative setting of the multicultural language classroom and the linguistic mediators were legitimised, while the process of adaptation and volunteers without sufficient preparation were delegitimised. Societal changes were identified as macro strategies that resulted in the transformation or perpetuation of what was being legitimised or delegitimised. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multilingualism in Migrant Contexts)

17 pages, 2193 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Multilingual Behaviour within the Portuguese and Italian Communities in Montreal: A Quest of Purism

by Fabio Scetti

Languages 2021, 6(2), 91; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6020091 - 18 May 2021

Viewed by 3065

Abstract

Many heritage speakers, starting particularly from the second generation, return to the practice of their heritage languages so as to build or rebuild their diasporic and heritage identities. Within an urban context such as in Montreal (Quebec), multilingual behaviour exists. This is due to the presence of multiple languages and dialects, as well as the bilingual reality of this city, where both French and English are dominant. Such conditions provide evidence of how determinant in-group ideologies and stereotypical attitudes are concerned with communities and languages (standard and vernacular) and how they function in the process of linguistic integration within the group and the Canadian city. Focusing on recent research that compares heritage speakers of Portuguese and Italian origin in Montreal, this contribution addresses whether identifying places have an important role in the process of integration within the group, in shared spaces of language or dialect practice, both private and public. Moreover, questions arise as to how standard languages are valued within both communities (mainly in schools) and how competency and legitimacy have been evaluated and by whom, in this process of integration. The two communities observed are very different, given the practice and behaviour as well as in-group ideologies of inclusion. This contribution argues that, as a consequence of our ‘global’ societies, there is an extension of new identities during the process of development where multilingual behaviour is reviewed and analysed for the dynamicity in the repertories of new generation speakers. Our comparison brings to light a central ideology of language purism, and the ways in which it is institutionalized and/or contested across the two groups. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multilingualism in Migrant Contexts)

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18 pages, 442 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Linguistic (il)legitimacy in Migration Encounters

by Petros Karatsareas

Languages 2021, 6(2), 66; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6020066 - 2 Apr 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3141

Abstract

Linguistic differences between groups of co-ethnic and/or co-national migrants in diasporic contexts can become grounds for constructing and displaying identities that distinguish (groups of) migrants on the basis of differences in the sociohistorical circumstances of migration (provenance, time of migration) and/or social factors such as class, socioeconomic status, or level of education. In this article, I explore how language became a source of ideological conflict between Greek Cypriot and Greek migrants in the context of a complementary school in north London. Analysing a set of semi-structured interviews with teachers, which were undertaken in 2018 as part of an ethnographically oriented project on language ideologies in Greek complementary schools, I show that Greek pupils and parents, who had migrated to the UK after 2010 pushed by the government-debt crisis in Greece, positioned themselves as linguistic authorities and developed discourses that delegitimised the multilingual and multidialectal practices of Greek Cypriot migrants. Their interventions centred around the use of Cypriot Greek and English features, drawn from the linguistic resources that did not conform with the expectations that “new” Greek migrants held about complementary schools and which were based on strictly monolingual and monodialectal language ideologies. To these, teachers responded with counter-discourses that re-valued contested practices as products of different linguistic repertoires that were shaped by different life courses and trajectories of linguistic resources acquisition. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multilingualism in Migrant Contexts)

13 pages, 359 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Qualitative Analysis of Translanguaging by Colombian Migrants in North Carolina

by Scott Lamanna

Languages 2021, 6(2), 64; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6020064 - 1 Apr 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2565

Abstract

This study examines the usefulness of the theoretical construct of translanguaging in analyzing the linguistic production of twenty-four Colombians (originally from Bogotá) residing in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina. Translanguaging maintains that bilinguals and multilinguals have a single linguistic repertoire consisting of features traditionally associated with different named languages (English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, etc.), and that they freely select from among these features according to their communicative needs in specific contexts. In terms of named languages, participants utilized varying amounts of English during sociolinguistic interviews conducted primarily in Spanish by the investigator. The study presents a qualitative analysis of participants’ linguistic production viewed through the lens of translanguaging, which offers a better account than codeswitching of several patterns of language use observed in the data. These include phonetically ambiguous words, fluid combinations of morphemes from each named language (Spanish and English), and innovative uses of linguistic forms. The study concludes with a consideration of the relevance of translanguaging in addressing the issue of the legitimacy of the (often stigmatized) language varieties of Hispanics in the U.S. context. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multilingualism in Migrant Contexts)

22 pages, 6601 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Attitudes towards Turkish and Turks in Austria: From Guestworkers to “Quasi-Foreigners” in a Changing Social Landscape

by Johannes Woschitz

Languages 2021, 6(1), 58; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6010058 - 23 Mar 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 5912

Abstract

In Austria, Turkish immigrants have long suffered from the stigma of being the uneducated and unintegrated guestworker, often portrayed as marginalised and as living in parallel societies. However, second-generation Turks who were born and/or raised in Austria have challenged this stigma profoundly. This paper argues that this has led to a re-indexicalisation of Turkish in Austria. Evidence for this is drawn from two matched-guise studies (n = 226) that aimed to unearth the covert language attitudes of Austrian participants towards Turkish. The data presented shows that many Austrian participants still conceive of the Turkish guises in overall xenophobic terms. They were depicted as more aggressive, less educated, less integrated, more joyous of life and more family-oriented when compared to the German guises. There was, however, an age-effect indicative of changing attitudes among participants born after 1998, for whom this stereotype seems to be losing its influence. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multilingualism in Migrant Contexts)

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28 pages, 539 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Navigating the London-French Transnational Space: The Losses and Gains of Language as Embodied and Embedded Symbolic Capital

by Saskia Huc-Hepher

Languages 2021, 6(1), 57; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6010057 - 22 Mar 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3134

Abstract

In this article, an interdisciplinary lens is applied to French migrants’ reflections on their everyday language practices, investigating how embodied and embedded language, such as accent and London-French translanguaging, serve as both in-group and out-group symbolic markers in different transnational spaces. Key sociological concepts developed by Pierre Bourdieu are deployed, including field, habitus, hysteresis and symbolic capital, to assess the varying symbolic conversion rates of the migrants’ languaging practices across transnational spaces. A mixed-methodological and analytical approach is taken, combining narratives from ethnographic interviews and autobiography. Based on the data gathered, the article posits that the French accent is an embodied symbolic marker, experienced as an internalised dialectic: a barrier to inclusion/belonging in London and an escape from the symbolic weight of the originary accent in France. Subsequently, it argues that the migrants’ translanguaging functions as a spontaneous insider vernacular conducive to community identity construction in the postmigration space, but (mis)interpreted as an exclusionary articulation of symbolic distinction in the premigration context. Finally, the article asks whether participants’ linguistic repertoires, self-identifications and spatialities go beyond the notion of the ‘cleft habitus’, or even hybridity, to a post-structural, translanguaging third space that transcends borders. Full article

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