Language and migration

Language and migration Research reflections

Scholarly sisterhood: Collaboration is our academic superpower

Editor’s note: Regular readers of Language on the Move will have noticed that we have been very quiet for the past two months. This is because some core team members…

Language on the MoveMarch 7, 2023

Language and migration Next Gen Literacies

如何促进移民的社会融入-基督教会带给我们的启示

For an older English-language version of this post, click here. 教堂的中文标识在悉尼的语言景观中越来越突出在以英语占绝对主体地位的语言环境中这些双语的标识是引人注目的更何况汉语…

Yining WangNovember 23, 2022

Language and migration Language in Australia Next Gen Literacies

A Tamil Hindu Temple in Australia

The South Asian presence in colonised Australia is on the rise. I say colonised Australia because, in discussing linguistic diversity in this country, I acknowledge the diverse Aboriginal and Torres…

Niru PereraAugust 22, 2022

Language and migration Next Gen Literacies

Life in a language you are still learning

Mis dos voces (Image credit: Rayon Verde) Imagine this: you go out to a fast-food restaurant and order a burger. While you wait for your order to be filled, you…

Ingrid PillerFebruary 9, 2022

Language and migration

What can churches teach us about migrant inclusion?

Chinese signage on churches is increasingly prominent in Sydney’s linguistic landscape. These signs are surprising because they are bilingual in a predominantly English monolingual linguistic landscape. They are also surprising…

Ingrid PillerJune 21, 2021

Language and migration

Partner language requirements and new borders for family life

Australia Day Parade Melboure (Image credit: Mitchell Luo on Unsplash) In October 2020, the Australian government outlined budgetary plans to create language requirements for migrant partners seeking to remain in…

Kamran KhanFebruary 17, 2021

Language and migration

Asylum interviews as linguistic conflict zones

Professor Katrijn Maryns explains the linguistic transformations that turn "undocumented migrants" into "genuine" or "bogus refugees" Language is the inescapable medium through which we live our lives. Access to social…

Ingrid PillerApril 8, 2019

Language and migration

Feeling weird using your home language?

Fliers for Persian community events (Persian Library Parramatta, Nov 2010) Editor’s note: In the second instalment in our series “Explorations in Language Shaming”, Dr Shiva Motaghi-Tabari examines children’s attitudes towards…

Shiva Motaghi TabariOctober 5, 2017

Language and migration

Linguistic diversity and “cosmopolitan bias”

One of the consequences of the recent upsurge in nationalist politics around the world has been a rise in attacks on the idea of linguistic diversity. As national language ideologies…

Philip SeargeantSeptember 18, 2017

Language and migration

Multiculturalism, linguistic diversity, and citizenship testing

Miriam's mother arrived as a refugee in New Zealand in 1939. She still remembers the kindness her family was shown. Like many other Western countries, Australia is currently grappling with…

Miriam FaineJuly 13, 2017

Language and migration

Refugees in the media: Villains and victims

The current global political climate regarding refugees, while always dynamic and complex, has become particularly charged in the last two years as the Syrian civil war and other events in…

Emily GreenbankJune 21, 2017

Language and globalization Language and migration

How do language barriers come about?

As we prepare for the “Bridging Language Barriers” Symposium to be hosted at Macquarie University next week on March 16, we take a step back and ask how language barriers…

Lg_on_the_moveMarch 7, 2017

Language and migration

Stereotyped ethnic names as a barrier to workplace entry

Who of the three women in this image do you think German employers are most likely to consider as a potential employee and call for a job interview? Obviously, the…

Ingrid PillerNovember 4, 2016

Language and migration

Piller, I. (Ed.) (2016) Language and Migration. London: Routledge. Humans are a migratory species. Although in modern society the dominant imagery we have created about ourselves is that it is…

Ingrid PillerSeptember 15, 2016

Language and migration

Discourses of Integration: Language, Skills, and the Politics of Difference

From inside Jaume Plensa's House of Knowledge, Bordeaux, France (Photo by Shirley Yeung) In much of Western and Northern Europe, we find ourselves in the wake of a widespread retreat…

Mi-Cha Flubacher and Shirley YeungAugust 29, 2016

Language and migration

Cleaning work: a stepping-stone or a dead-end job for migrants?

Kifibin’s workplace was a big event centre, which was open to the public only once a week Let me at once introduce you to the main character of this blog…