Language, Space and Identity in Migration


Book Description

This book explores both theoretical and practical issues of language use in a migration context, using data from a German urban immigrant community in Canada. Through this transcontinental perspective, the book makes a new contribution to the literature on both language and identity and language and globalization.




Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Migration Control


Book Description

In the midst of an international crisis in migration policy – widely referred to as a ‘refugee crisis’ – this book brings together timely analyses of the manifold and yet specific ways in which migration affects globalized societies, set against the background of the rise of nationalist and populist movements. The voices of migrants and refugees are rarely heard in this context: usually, they are debated about, summarized and reported but their agency is denied. Each contribution to this volume adds an empirical perspective to our understanding of how language relates to migration in a specific national context. The chapters use innovative combinations of multimodal, qualitative and quantitative analyses to examine a broad range of genres and data related to the voices of migrants and reporting about migrants.




Language, Identity and Migration


Book Description

This volume presents a collection of the latest scholarly research on language, migration and identity. It includes research conducted within both established and emerging methodological frameworks and explores a wide range of contexts and geographical locations, from the language classroom to the migrant experience, and from Ireland to Eritrea.




Language, Migration, and Identity


Book Description

While much scholarship has been devoted to the interplay between language, identity and social relationships, we know less about how this plays out interactionally in diverse transient settings. Based on research in Indonesia, this book examines how talk plays an important role in mediating social relations in two urban spaces where linguistic and cultural diversity is the norm and where distinctions between newcomers and old timers changes regularly. How do people who do not share expectations about how they should behave build new expectations through participating in conversation? Starting from a view of language-society dynamics as enregisterment, Zane Goebel uses interactional sociolinguistics and the ethnography of communication to explore how language is used in this contact setting to build and present identities, expectations and social relations. It will be welcomed by researchers and students working in the fields of linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, the anthropology of migration and Asian studies.




Return Migration and Identity


Book Description

The global trend for immigrants to return home has unique relevance for Hong Kong. This work of cross-cultural psychology explores many personal stories of return migration. The author captures in dozens of interviews the anxieties, anticipations, hardships, and flexible world perspectives of migrants and their families, as well as friends and co-workers. The book examines cultural identity shifts and population flows during a critical juncture in Hong Kong history between the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984 and the early years of Hong Kong's new status as a special administrative region after 1997. Nearly a million residents of Hong Kong migrated to North America, Europe, and Australia in the 1990s. These interviews and analyses help illustrate individual choices and identity profiles during this period of unusual cultural flexibility and behavioral adjustment. Nan M. Sussmanis an associate professor and chair of psychology at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York. "Sussman effectively weaves together themes about migration and remigration from such diverse sources as arts and literature, history, sociology, and her own discipline of psychology. This book will make an excellent contribution to research on acculturation, cross-cultural transition and adaptation, identity and migration." -- Colleen Ward, Victoria University of Wellington




Approaches to Migration, Language and Identity


Book Description

This book foregrounds the use of different methods for the study of migration, language and identity. It brings together studies from fields such as ethnology, linguistics, literature and religious studies. The scenarios investigated range from Czech-German language contact in nineteenth-century Vienna to Eritreans living in the present-day America, and also include studies of migrants in the Ruhr Valley in Germany, far-right discourse in Italy, Yugoslavian and Tunisian migrants in Switzerland, racializing discourses in Brexit Britain and identity assignation of Palestinian dancers. The volume thus displays a wide array of scenarios linked to language, migration and identity as well as a variety of predominantly qualitative methods that have been applied from different disciplinary perspectives.




The Routledge Handbook of Migration and Language


Book Description

** Winner of AAAL Book Award 2020 ** **Shortlisted for the BAAL Book Prize 2018** The Routledge Handbook of Migration and Language is the first comprehensive survey of this area, exploring language and human mobility in today’s globalised world. This key reference brings together a range of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspectives, drawing on subjects such as migration studies, geography, philosophy, sociology and anthropology. Featuring over 30 chapters written by leading experts from around the world, this book: Examines how basic constructs such as community, place, language, diversity, identity, nation-state, and social stratification are being retheorized in the context of human mobility; Analyses the impact of the ‘mobility turn’ on language use, including the parallel ‘multilingual turn’ and translanguaging; Discusses the migration of skilled and unskilled workers, different forms of displacement, and new superdiverse and diaspora communities; Explores new research orientations and methodologies, such as mobile and participatory research, multi-sited ethnography, and the mixing of research methods; Investigates the place of language in citizenship, educational policies, employment and social services. The Routledge Handbook of Migration and Language is essential reading for those with an interest in migration studies, language policy, sociolinguistic research and development studies.




Exploring Identity Across Language and Culture


Book Description

This book explores the ways in which migrants’ experience in today’s multilingual and multicultural society informs language use and processing, behavioural patterns, and perceptions of self-identity. Drawing on survey data from hundreds of Italian migrants living in English- speaking countries, in conjunction with more focused interviews, this volume unpacks reciprocal influences between linguistic, cultural, and psychological variables to shed light on how migrants emotionally engage with the local and heritage dimensions across public and private spaces. Visualising the impact of a constant shifting of linguistic and cultural practices can enhance our understanding of migration experiences, foreign language acquisition, language processing and socialisation, inclusion, integration, social dynamics, acculturation tendencies, and cross-cultural communication patterns. Overall, this book appeals to students and scholars interested in gaining nuanced insights into the linguistic, cultural, and psychological underpinnings of migration experiences in such disciplines as sociolinguistics, cultural studies, and social psychology.




The Friulian Language


Book Description

Are minor languages the lifeblood of cherished local identities or just passports with restricted validity, serving no purpose in today’s transnational, global world? Italy’s north-eastern region of Friuli is a case in point: in this area, around half a million people speak Friulian, a Romance language of the Rhaeto-Romance family, which is attested to in written texts since 1150 and acquired official minority language status in 1999. Geographically and politically off-centre, Friuli remained isolated for a long part of its history and developed a unique language that sustained a distinctive identity and culture. Starting from the nineteenth century, large-scale migration towards Northern Europe and the Americas brought Friulian into contact with other languages and contexts of use. The Friulian Language: Identity, Migration, Culture is the first comprehensive study in English of this little-known language to consider its history and the variety of its cultural manifestations from antiquity to the present day. The volume gathers together the work of ten contributors who are specialists in the fields of history (Fulvio Salimbeni), law (William Cisilino), linguistics (Paola Benincà, Franco Finco, Fabiana Fusco and Carla Marcato), literary studies (Rosa Mucignat and Rienzo Pellegrini), and migration (Javier P. Grossutti and Olga Zorzi Pugliese). The focus of the book is on Friulian, its varieties, its linguistic characteristics and its use in literature from fourteenth-century ballads to Pier Paolo Pasolini, and more recent poetry by Novella Cantarutti and others. Equal attention is given to the Friulians themselves, the social and political transformations of the region, and the experience of migration, in particular the case of high-skilled mosaic craftsmen from the Alpine foothills. Thanks to its multidisciplinary approach, the book sheds light on the questions of why Friulian has developed the way it has, what its significance as a minor language is, and how it can negotiate its relationship to other languages on a global scale.




Rethinking National Identity in the Age of Migration


Book Description

Greater mobility and migration have brought about unprecedented levels of diversity that are transforming communities across the Atlantic in fundamental ways, sparking uncertainty over who the "we" is in a society. As publics fear loss of their national identity and values, the need is greater than ever to reinforce the bonds that tie communities together. Yet, while a consensus may be emerging as to what has not worked well, little thought has been given to developing a new organizing principle for community cohesion. Such a vision needs to smooth divisions between immigration's "winners and losers," blunt extremism, and respond smartly to changing community and national identities. This volume will examine the lessons that can be drawn from various approaches to immigrant integration and managing diversity in North America and Europe. The book delivers recommendations on what policymakers must do to build and reinforce inclusiveness given the realities on each side of the Atlantic. It offers insights into the next generation of policies that can (re)build inclusive societies and bring immigrants and natives together in pursuit of shared futures.