Comments on: How language and race mediate migrant inclusion https://languageonthemove.com/how-language-and-race-mediate-migrant-inclusion/ Multilingualism, Intercultural communication, Consumerism, Globalization, Gender & Identity, Migration & Social Justice, Language & Tourism Thu, 28 Mar 2024 07:07:22 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 By: Donna Butorac https://languageonthemove.com/how-language-and-race-mediate-migrant-inclusion/#comment-106070 Thu, 28 Mar 2024 07:07:22 +0000 https://www.languageonthemove.com/?p=25211#comment-106070 Thanks for your thoughts, Laura! It’s great to hear about your work with Law students. I guess I’m not surprised to hear how they found their language capital being received. With no official recognition of languages that are not English, it gets left to market forces and employer ideologies to determine how this capital is judged. The lawyer in my project was snapped up by a large Australian law firm but only because they wanted to expand their client list in China and she is a Chinese/English bilingual/bicultural lawyer with years of experience in China. So, it was not because of her human right to be considered but because of their business goals.

]]> By: Laura SKh https://languageonthemove.com/how-language-and-race-mediate-migrant-inclusion/#comment-106067 Thu, 28 Mar 2024 00:13:10 +0000 https://www.languageonthemove.com/?p=25211#comment-106067 Absolutely loved reading this post, Donna, and finding out more about your research and teaching experiences in the AMEP.
There are quite a few parallels with the digital ethnography I conducted with migration law students. This argument you make resonates so closely: “instead of framing learners as deficient speakers of English, we should be seeing them as emergent bi- or multilinguals, and we should be problematising interactions they have in the wider society”.
It’s incredible how people’s skills can be transformed into deficiencies, and how much this is context specific. Many of my participants talked about how having a LOTE was something valuable they could bring to their work, but there was still a strong sense that LOTEs are really secondary or optional extras, while English – and a particular way of speaking and writing English – was absolutely crucial.

It was also heartening to see that at least one of your white European students was also able to learn something about her privilege while participating in the project. What an important opportunity.

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