Life in a New Language

Cover art by Sadami Konchi

International migration is at an all-time high as ever more people move across national borders for work or study, in search of refuge or adventure. Regardless of their motivations and whether they intend their moves to be temporary or permanent, all transnational migrants face the challenge of re-building their lives in a different cultural and linguistic context, far away from family and friends, and the everyday routines of their previous lives. Established populations in destination countries may treat migrants with benign neglect at best and outright hostility at worst.

How then do migrants make a new life?

To answer that question, Life in a New Language examines the language learning and settlement experiences of 130 migrants to Australia from 34 different countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America over a period of 20 years. Reusing data shared from six separate sociolinguistic ethnographies, the book illuminates participants’ lived experience of learning and communicating in a new language, finding work, and doing family. Additionally, participants’ experiences with racism and identity making in a new context are explored. The research uncovers significant hardship but also migrants’ courage and resilience. The book has implications for language service provision, migration policy, open science, and social justice movements.

Acknowledgments: Or, the Story of This Book
Note on Pseudonyms, Transcription, and Translation
List of Participants
List of Abbreviations

1. Doing things with words in a new language

Adult Language Learning in Real Life
Migrant Speakers in Australia
English as a Migrant Language
English as a Legal Instrument of Migration Management
English as Human Capital
The Lived Experience of Life in a New Language

2. Arriving in a new language

Bringing English to Australia
Arrival Shocks
English as a Diverse Language
Bringing Tested English
Bringing Street English

3. Looking for work in a new language

“Without a Job You Are Nothing”
Creating the Migrant English Language Deficit
Internalizing the English Language Deficit
Human Capital Deficit Made in Australia
The Value of Social Networks

4. Finding a voice in a new language

Facing the Growing Pains
Making Friends and Finding Common Ground
Dealing with Misunderstandings and Managing Emotions
Gaining Recognition

5. Doing family in a new language

Families on the Move
Changing Families
Making Language Choices
Supporting English and Academic Development
Supporting the Heritage Language and Family Connections
Transforming Parent-Child Relationships

6. Facing discrimination in a new language

Encountering Difference in Australia
Being Made to Feel out of Place
Between Language and Race
Coping in White- English Spaces

7. Self- making in a new language

Home is Where the Heart is
Losing and Shedding Old Selves
Finding and Crafting New Selves
Building Community

8. Rethinking language and migration

The Challenge of Migrant Language Learning Revisited
Sharing Data, Pooling Resources
Migration and Decent Work
Migration Across the Lifespan
Building Inclusive Communication

How to Use This Book in Teaching
Notes
References
Index

1. Scholarly sisterhood: Collaboration is our academic superpower, Language on the Move (07/03/2023)
2. Meet the people behind Life in a New Language, Language on the Move (06/09/2023)
3. 新语言生活, 语言治理 (13/06/2024)
4. Life in a New Language: how migrants face the challenge, The Lighthouse (11/07/2024)
5. Being treated as a migrant in Australia, Australian Academy of the Humanities Five Minutes Friday Read (12/07/2024)
6. Ethnographic data sharing as community building, OUPBlog: Oxford University Press’s Academic Insights for the Thinking World (12/07/2024)

1. Ingrid Piller chats with James McElvenny about key findings, History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences Podcast (01/05/2024)
2. Donna Butorac chats with Brynn Quick about migrant identity making, Language on the Move Podcast (12/06/2024)
3. Ingrid Piller chats with Brynn Quick about migrants’ experiences with finding work, Language on the Move Podcast (19/06/2024)
4. Vera Williams Tetteh chats with Brynn Quick about African migrants, Language on the Move Podcast (27/06/2024)
5. Shiva Motaghi-Tabari chats with Brynn Quick about migrant parenting, Language on the Move Podcast (03/07/2024)
6. Loy Lising chats with Brynn Quick about how the monolingual mindset creates barriers for migrants, Language on the Move Podcast (11/07/2024)
7. Emily Farrell chats with Brynn Quick about migrant citizenship, Language on the Move Podcast (18/07/2024)

“This volume breaks new ground by focusing on Doings: a group of diverse researchers collaboratively doing close listening and looking over 20 years, as adult immigrants to Australia engage in doing life, things, words, family, and work in a new language. The result is not only new understandings of the participants’ self-making, but also the making of a new research trajectory that focuses not simply on the learning of a language, but on humanity doing life in language.” (Ofelia García, The Graduate Center, City University of New York)

“This is a moving book that represents the voices of migrants on their challenges and successes across different kinds of boundaries. It embodies impersonal structural and geopolitical pressures as negotiated in the dreams and aspirations of migrants. The authors share findings from decades-long separate research projects to develop richer insights, as a model for data sharing and ethical research.” (Suresh Canagarajah, Pennsylvania State University)