Programme & Abstracts

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BAAL-CUP/COST Seminar
New Plurilingual Pathways for Integration:
Immigrants and Language Learning in the
21st Century
Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
27th May 2016
Seminar Organisers: Nicola Bermingham (Heriot-Watt University)
and Gwennan Higham (Cardiff University)

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WELCOME
FÀILTE
CROESO
We are very grateful to BAAL-CUP, COST New Speakers, the
Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies and the
Intercultural Research Centre at Heriot-Watt University for
funding and hosting this event.
Contact details:
Nicola Bermingham
nb199@hw.ac.uk
Gwennan Higham
highamge@cf.ac.uk

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SEMINAR PROGRAMME
Friday 27th May 2016
08:30 Registration
08:45 Welcome
09:00 Keynote 1: Prof Alison Phipps, “Language Labour and
Language Resistance: On the demands of hosts on their
guests”
10:00 Paper 1: “Is “Foreigner” Just a “Word in English in the
Dictionary”?” Professor Karen Corrigan and Dr Adam
Mearns, Newcastle University
10:15 Paper 2: “Museums, Migration & Integration in Europe”
Dr Katherine Lloyd, Heriot-Watt University
10:30 Paper 3: “Literacy Mediation in Marriage Migration from
Pakistan to the UK: Challenging Dominant Discourses to get a
Visa and using Vernacular Literacies to Integrate” Dr Tony
Capstick, Reading University
10:45 Paper 4: “Polish Post-2004. Migrants to the UK and Social
Cohesion—the Case of Wales” Dr Karolina Rosiak, Adam
Mickiewicz University in Poznań
11:00 Paper 5: “Citizenship Test Preparation and the
Responsibilization of Learning” Dr Kamran Khan, Leicester
University
11:15 Discussion
11:45 Coffee Break
12:15 Keynote 2: Prof Máiréad Nic Craith, “Language and
Community Cohesion: Refugees and the Linguistic
Landscape in Germany”
13:00 Lunch and Poster Session

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14:15 Paper 6: “New Times, Contemporary Mobilities and New
Speakers of Faroese: Challenges and Opportunities”
Elisabeth Holm, Heriot-Watt University
14:30 Paper 7: “Code-switching as identity marker? A sociolinguistic
Analysis of the Community of Young Italians Living in London”
Giulia Pepe, University of Westminster
14:45 Paper 8: “Estás ready for Spanglish y mas identity? How the
Hispanic Community in the USA Challenges Traditional
Concepts of Americanness and shows new ways of Citizenship
in the 21st
Century.”
Professor Daniela Wawra, University of Passau
15:00 Paper 10: “Reshaping the Italian Language through Creative
and Cultural Practices: Migrant and Intercultural Associations
in Contemporary Italy” Dr Naomi Wells, University of
Warwick
15:15 Paper 11: “Migrant Speakers in Diasporic Public Spheres: a
Theoretical Approach” Dr Katerina Stani, Heriot-Watt
University
15.30 Discussion
16:00 Coffee Break
16:30 Round table: Immigration in the 21st
Century: Language,
Integration and Citizenship:
Professor Bernadette O’Rourke, Heriot-Watt University
Professor Alison Phipps, Glasgow University
Prof Máiréad Nic Craith, Heriot-Watt University
Dr Kathryn Jones, IAITH
Dr Cassie-Smith Christmas, University of the Highlands and
Islands
Claire Speedie, Senior Immigration Advisor, Scottish
Government
Mandy Watts, ESOL Development Officer, Scottish Government
18:00 Seminar Close & Wine Reception

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KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Keynote 1: Professor Alison Phipps, University of Glasgow
“Language Labour and Language Resistance: On the Demands of Hosts on their Guests”
Professor Phipps works as Professor of Languages and
Intercultural Studies, and is Co-Convener of Glasgow
Refugee, Asylum and Migration Network (GRAMNET)
at the University of Glasgow. Her keynote speech,
entitled “Language Labour and Language Resistance:
On the demands of hosts on their guests” will consider
the arts of integration through language learning and
language policies in the host country and alongside
this the arts of resistance and strategies for language
and heritage language maintenance employed by migrant communities. It will consider
some of the ways in which policies move and are made which diverge from the present and
changing make up migrant communities. It will look at the nature of support for language
learning and some of the initiatives, which allow for new language combinations. In
particular it will focus on some of the humanities perspectives on language learning in exile
and what can be learned from literary and psychological and theoretical contributions on the
languages of exile. In addition to this the paper will consider how the arts might intervene
and contribute to the representation of migrant languages.
Keynote 2: Professor Máiréad Nic Craith, Heriot-Watt University
“Language and Community Cohesion: Refugees and the Linguistic Landscape in
Germany”
This presentation is set in the context of the recent
refugee crisis in Europe with a particular focus on
Germany’s welcome to more than 1,000,000 refugees (an
approx. proportion of one refugee to every eighty
Germans). Drawing on conceptual frameworks of
integration as expressed by Blommaert, Stevenson,
Taylor, Modood and others, this plenary queries the
opportunities, challenges and obligations for new
refugees in relation to the German language and how this
situation impacts on the broader linguistic landscape.
Focusing on the significance of German language
acquisition for the process of integration, the contribution
probes the challenges and opportunities of a huge influx
of non-German speakers for wider societal cohesion. It
explores the impact of vastly increased numbers learning
German on teachers, publishers and other stakeholders
and queries whether significant proportions of new learners of German disrupt the national
imagined German-speaking community.

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ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION:
Immigration in the 21st Century: Language, Integration and Citizenship
This round table discussion will address the ways in which immigration in the 21st century has
lead us to challenge the way in which we think about language learning, integration and
citizenship. Despite the UK’s model of one nation, one language, sub-state nations in the UK
are undergoing expanded devolution powers, localising policies on education and
community cohesion. In many minority language contexts such as Welsh, Gaelic, etc.,
governments have the double task of regulating their minority language policies as well as
mapping cohesion strategies in response to the increased multicultural reality of their
societies. The aim of this roundtable is to bring academics, community practitioners and
government officers together in order to invite discussion around this issues. One or two
questions will be allocated to each invited speaker although the other speakers are invited to
respond and contribute their understanding to the discussion. One of the proposed
outcomes is that this round tablediscussion will lead torecommendationson fostering cross-
sector partnerships and future stakeholder initiatives.
Invited Speakers:
Professor Bernadette O’Rourke (Heriot-Watt University),
Professor Alison Phipps (Glasgow University)
Prof Máiréad Nic Craith (Heriot-Watt University)
Dr Kathryn Jones (IAITH)
Dr Cassie-Smith Christmas (University of the Highlands and Islands)
Mandy Watts, ESOL Development Officer, Scottish Government
Claire Speedie, Senior Immigration Advisor, Scottish Government

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POSTER PRESENTATIONS
Hanan Ben-Nafa, Manchester Metropolitan University; 13501165@stu.mmu.ac.uk
Arabic-English Code-Switching: an Integrative Practice among Sojourners/Immigrants in
Manchester.
Susan Nelson, Clark University, Massachusetts; sunelson@clarku.edu
A Study that Critically Engages Secondary Language Acquisition and How it Relates to
Immigrants Developing Cultural Competence
Dr María Sánchez, University of Aberdeen; m.t.sanchez@abdn.ac.uk
Immigration and Integration: An overview
Dr Sviatlana Karpava, UCLan Cyprus; skarpava@uclan.ac.uk
Issues of Identity, Language Use and Maintenance, Discrimination, Integration, Cohesion
and Citizenship Faced by Russian Speakers in Cyprus
Silke Zschomler, University of Cambridge; sz333@cam.ac.uk
Social Class, Identity and Second Language Learning: A Critical Hermeneutic
Phenomenology of Adult Migrant Experiences in London
Maria Grazia Imperiale, Glasgow University; m.imperiale.1@research.gla.ac.uk
Researching Multilingually at the Borders of Language, the Body, Law and the State

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PAPER ABSTRACTS
Dr Tony Capstick
(University of Reading; tony.capstick@gmail.com)
Literacy Mediation in Marriage Migration from Pakistan To the UK: Challenging
Dominant Discourses to get a Visa and Using Vernacular Literacies to Integrate
This paper explores the multilingual literacy practices of a Mirpuri family and the ways family
members challenge the bureaucratic discourses of immigration as part of the literacy
mediation they seek when applying for a visa as well as the ways they construct alternative
identities when staying in touch online. The central issue is to identify the institutional
literacy practices in the visa application process by combining aspects of the Discourse-
historical Approach (DHA) in Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) with New Literacy Studies
(NLS). The article traces how texts are reused and recontextualized as they move between
physical and social spaces in Pakistan and the UK. The aim is to identify how far the analysis
of intertextual and interdiscursive relationships between discourses of migration can
enhance the analysis of the literacy mediation that marginalized groups seek at a time of
increasing curbs on family migration from non-European Economic Authority countries to
the UK. Tracing recontextualisation in this way provides a combined framework for exploring
the operations of power when analysing the extent to which bureaucratic discourses are
challenged when text producers and consumers seek help filling in forms (Capstick,
forthcoming). The paper is based on the author’s PhD study which explores both the
dominant literacies of migration as well as the vernacular literacies (Barton and Hamilton
1998) that migrants draw from online.
References
Barton, D. & Hamilton, M. (1998) Local Literacies. London: Routledge.
Capstick, T. (forthcoming). Literacy mediation in marriage migration from Pakistan to the
UK: Challenging bureaucratic discourses to get a visa. Discourse & Society 27(5)

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Professor Karen Corrigan & Dr Adam Mearns
(Newcastle University: k.p.corrigan@ncl.ac.uk)
Is “Foreigner” Just a “Word in English in the Dictionary”?
Globalisation has resulted in patterns of international migration that are perceived to be
unprecedented in the history of human societies. Australasia, North America and Western
Europe are particularly attractive destinations and the movement of peoples to these areas
has created what are being termed ‘super-diverse’ societies even in regions which in the later
twentieth century were essentially homogeneous. The island of Ireland is an excellent case
in point in this respect. From the 1800s, the migration trajectory has actually been outward
rather than inward with major peaks during the Great Famine era of the 1840s as well as
arising from the so-called ‘Troubles’ of the 1960s and 1970s followed by periods of ‘boom and
bust’ from the 1980s to the present day. This paper reports on a project that investigates
language, migration and identity in this region from both diachronic and synchronic
perspectives. The voices of migrants and their experiences of both discrimination/exclusion
and tolerance/inclusion are examined in two different datasets: (i) The Corpus of Irish English
Correspondence (McCafferty & Amador-Moreno 2012) which includes historical letters
composed by Irish migrants to North America and (ii) A set of sociolinguistic interviews with
young people whose families have recently migrated to Northern Ireland undertaken from
2013-2014. They are learning English as a second language in educational contexts which are
wholly unprepared for the tasks of ESOL teaching and cultural integration as this type of
inward population movement was completely unknown in this region until recently. Each of
the datasets is interrogated with a view to answering the following questions that contribute
to a better understanding of both the ‘sociolinguistics of globalization’ (Blommaert 2010)
and a plurilingual view of integration, namely:
(1) What are the social and linguistic similarities and differences between the diverse
inward and outward migrant groups?
(2) What are the dimensions of exclusion/discrimination that each set encounters?
(3) Is it the case that Northern Ireland is more tolerant and inclusive in its treatment
of migrants than other parts of the UK on account of the intense migratory
movements of its past which are unique to this region?

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Elisabeth Holm
(Heriot-Watt University; ah71@hw.ac.uk)
New Times, Contemporary Mobilities and New Speakers of Faroese: Challenges and
Opportunities
The focus of this project is on language and migration in the Faroes Islands. Faroese is the
majority language in the island community, but in demographic and political terms, it is a
minority language within the wider Nordic region. The islands have in recent years
experienced a rapid increase in in-migration to the area and a contrasting trend of out-
migration among educated native speakers of Faroese. This study looks at the effect of these
processes on the linguistic and cultural landscape in the Faroe Islands. The acquisition of
Faroese is essential to the prospects of newcomers when it comes to integrating into Faroese
society and in playing their part in its economic, social, political and artistic life. However,
what are the opportunities and challenges for newcomers who learn the local language? This
study looks systematically at the experience of migrants in acquiring, using and becoming
speakers of Faroese. The research is ethnographic in nature and traces the migration
trajectories of two groups of adult migrants: those long-settled in the Faroes and those who
have arrived more recently. Particular attention will be paid to: (1.) language learning,
including the learning of Faroese; (2.) the use and value of different language resources and
different forms of linguistic capital as the adult migrants seek employment and negotiate
access to different domains of Faroese life; and (3.) the lived experiences of adult migrants
on entering the workplace and the attitudes they encounter, as new speakers of Faroese, in
the day to day routines of interactional life at work.
References
Duchêne, A., Moyer, M. and Roberts, C. (eds.) (2013) Language, migration and social
inequalities. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
O’Rourke, B. and Ramallo, F. (2013) Competing ideologies of linguistic authority amongst
new speakers in contemporary Galicia. Language in Society 42 (3), 1-19.
Simpson, J. and Whiteside, A. (2015) Adult language education and migration: Challenging
agendas in policy and practice. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge

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Dr Kamran Khan
(Leicester University; kk258@leicester.ac.uk)
Citizenship Test Preparation and the Responsibilization of Learning
In the UK, citizenship language requirements can no longer be satisfied via ESOL classes. The
remaining route to satisfying the requirement is via the LUK (Life in the UK) test. The
majority of LUK test preparation centres have closed down. The individual must prepare for
the test away from institutional education settings and, through responsibilization, must
take charge of one’s own learning. This paper will demonstrate the ways in which such
situations are negotiated.
This paper is based on two citizenship studies. One is an 11 month ethnography in a diverse,
major city in the UK. The focus is two communities (Yemeni and Chinese). Language
planning and test preparation takes place in unexpected places such as khat chewing
sessions (khat is a leaf with an amphetamine-like quality) and restaurant kitchens. The
second is data from an ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) citizenship project.
Analysis for this is in a preliminary stage and data from the first phase of over 70 interviews
will be presented.
Responsablization refers to the way in which responsibility is passed from the state to the
individual. In the case of citizenship testing, test preparation centres are now highly
regulated. Whereas before there was a free market open to accredited centres, now there
are few providers. Furthermore, an ESOL route to citizenship that demonstrates progress of
lower levels of English proficiency has been abolished. The responsibility to prepare for the
test is firmly on the shoulders of test takers.
Faced with difficult socioeconomic situations, low levels of education and a demanding test,
test-takers engage with the test by translating the materials and taking the test on their own
multilingual terms. In so doing, the more that they engage with the test in their native
language, the more they undermine the monolingual orientation of the test and preparation.
Such methods allow for a meaningful test preparation which is then passed down to others
as in one case, test-takers become teachers to help others who must also take responsibility
for their own learning.

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Dr Katherine Lloyd
(Heriot-Watt University; k.lloyd@hw.ac.uk)
Museums, Migration & Integration in Europe
Museums are often celebrated as places for public debate and dialogue by those who
advocate their vital role in society. Motivated by a commitment to social justice, many
museums in Europe have embraced this role by actively engaging with contemporary issues
of migration. Drawing on wider research conducted as part of the major EU-funded projects
‘MeLa: European Museums in an Age of Migrations’ I examine the role that museums may
play in the integration of new migrant communities. The paper focuses specifically on
research conducted with Rhiannon Mason and Areti Galani at Newcastle University as part
of the project ‘Who Do We Think We Are? Exploring Identity, Place and Belonging in the
North East’, in collaboration with Discovery Museum, Newcastle, UK, which features the
UK’s first permanent exhibition on migration: Destination Tyneside. The analysis draws
on interviews and focus groups with curatorial staff and visitors with differing experiences of
migration, including Asylum Seekers and Refugees. The research shows that museum the
museum functions as an affirmation and validation mechanism, in terms of migrants' sense
of identity and belonging.

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Giulia Pepe
(Westminster University; giulia.pepe@my.westminster.ac.uk)
Code-switching as Identity Marker? A Sociolinguistic Analysis of The Community of
Young Italians Living in London"
Multicultural, vibrant, and with numerous communities living and talking in it, London is a
fascinating city for sociolinguists. The Italian community, not numerically relevant in the
past, is nowadays formed by about 250.000 units, and it is an interesting case of new
migration (Scotto, 2015). The 2007 economic crisis caused the start of a big migratory flow
from southern European countries to the United Kingdom that deeply affected London. The
new Italian migrants are mainly young, thus, I have grouped them in a sub-community called
“community of young Italians living in London” (hereafter, CYILL). Starting from the most
recent sociological studies (McKay, 2015; Sacco, 2013) a description of CYILL is suggested.
Subsequently, throughout the presentation of my informants, I explain the context of my
linguistic research. A group of young Italians living in London have agreed to be recorded in
a wide range of situations; as a result, a qualitative analysis of spontaneously produced
speeches can be introduced. The talk aims to explain the social variables that characterise
the participants and to show linguistic phenomena they realise; among these phenomena,
code-switching deserves a special mention. In particular, I present examples of
conversational code-switching (Gumperz, 1982). Through the analysis of extracts of
participants’ conversations, I suggest some reasons for code-switching, evaluating its
possible meaning and CYILL members’ attitude towards the English language. A historical
perspective is chosen to investigate the theme of language acquisition. Twentieth century
Italian migrants are the term of comparison selected to examine the linguistic behaviour of
this new generation of young immigrants. By attempting to answer the question suggested
by the title, identity issues are addressed.
Keywords: Code-switching, Migration, Identity Markers, Language Acquisition.
References:
Gumperz, J.J. (1982). Discourse Strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McKay, S. (2015). Young Italians in London and in the UK. In: Gjergji, I. (2015). La Nuova
Emigrazione Italiana. Cause, Mete e Figure Sociali. Venezia: Edizioni Ca’Foscari-Digital
Publishing, pp. 71-81.
Sacco, G. (2013). Italians in London. European Scientific Journal. 9(19), 582-593.
Scotto, G. (2015). From ‘Emigrants’ to ‘Italians’: What is New in Italian Migration to
London?. Modern Italy. 20 (2), 153-165.

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Dr Karolina Rosiak
(Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań; karolka@wa.amu.edu.pl)
Polish Post-2004 Migrants to the UK and Social Cohesion – the Case of Wales
The Welsh Assembly Government 2012 report Getting On Together – a community cohesion
strategy for Wales encourages the citizens of Wales to learn the Welsh language claiming
that having skills in Welsh is claimed to “help you feel part of your new community, to make
friends and to access any important information and services you may need”. Poland’s
accession to the European Union in 2004 resulted in Polish nationals migrating to the UK in
unprecedented numbers. Migration Observatory recorded over 18,000 Poles living in Wales
in 2014 and the biggest Polish communities can be found in Llanelli (West Wales), Wrexham
(North East Wales) and Cardiff (South Wales). Whereas some Poles open up to the local
communities by organizing events celebrating Polish culture and history, others learn Welsh
to familiarize themselves with local culture and society.
The paper will present data obtained in 2014 from 11 participants living across various
locations in Wales and having varying skills in Welsh, ranging from a very basic
communicative knowledge of the spoken language tonative-like competency.Thepaper will
discuss the beliefs of Polish migrants to Wales regarding the importance of learning Welsh
for integration with their local Welsh communities.
Selected references:
Longhi, S. and Rokicka, R. 2012. European immigrants in the UK before and after the 2004
enlargment: Is there a change in immigrant self-selection?, Institute for Social and
Economic Research, ESRC, No. 2012-22 https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/publications/working-
papers/iser/2012-22.pdf
Migration Observatory http://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/press-releases/changes-
migrant-population-wales-2001-2011 (Accessed 10 September 2014)
Wróbel, P. 2016 (in press). “Polish migration’s socio-cultural impact on Wales in the
aftermath of 2004 – preliminary findings from Western Wales: Case study of Aberystwyth”.
Studia Celtica Posnaniensia 1

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Dr. Katerina Strani
(Heriot-Watt University; A.Strani@hw.ac.uk)
Migrant Speakers in Diasporic Public Spheres: A Theoretical Approach
This paper uses a theoretical lens to examine change in public sphere argumentation
practices in the context of migration and multiculturalism.
Multilingualism constitutes an integral part of post-national citizenship, not only in the
framework of EU citizenship/public sphere, but also in sub-national public spheres in the
form of assemblies, local communities etc. that include migrant citizens and representatives
of minority communities. Together with the profusion of new publics, the rise of new media
and ‘third spaces’ of communication (Wright, 2006; Bhabha, 1994), multilingual
communication has altered the normative make-up of the public sphere both in terms of
structure and communicative nature. ‘Emergent publics’ (Angus, 2001; Wodak, 2008),
‘counter-publics’ (Fraser, 1993; 1997) and diasporic public spheres are no longer defined
solely by their agonistic nature but also by the way this is expressed through their choice of
language. Multiple languages representing multiple cultures signify multiple competing
rationalities in essentially agonistic public spheres. Power differentials in multilingual
(physical and virtual) public spheres are not rooted in status, education, or access, for
instance, but instead on the language chosen for communication. In cases where a lingua
franca is chosen, the power differentials that affect communicative rationality are clearer
between native and non-native speakers of the lingua franca.
It is clear that a common language of communication is not going to resolve communication
challenges or homogenise public spheres. For these reasons, in attempting to map post-
national multilingual citizenship practices, we must move away from existing models of
public deliberation (such as Habermas’s communicative rationality, for instance) towards a
power-centred approach (cf. Honneth, 2001) in mixed communities that also takes into
account the complexities and contingencies (Luhmann, 1995; Bohman, 1996) inherent in
multilingual / multicultural communication.
Keywords: citizenship, migrants, public sphere, multilingualism, diasporic public spheres

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Prof. Dr. Daniela Wawra
(University of Passau; wawra@uni-passau.de)
¿Estás ready for Spanglish y mas identity? How the Hispanic Community in the USA
Challenges Traditional Concepts of Americanness and Shows New Ways of Citizenship in
the 21st Century.
This paper starts out by investigating current attitudes in the USA towards the question of
what it means to be American and which role language plays in the ascription of identities.
The starting point of our investigation is the Los Angeles Times series ‘Citizenship in the 21st
Century’ from 2014 and readers’ comments on the issues addressed in the articles. All in all
we have analysed 100 comments. The discourse is contextualized and critically assessed, the
arguments are collected and categorized so that the analysis provides an insight into the
societal debate. It will be shown that citizenship, national identity and language are
predominantly conflated. The majority of contributors still adheres to the standard language
ideology and is convinced that it is necessary to have one official language so that a nation
state can function. Few immigrants took part in the discussion, so we collected more online
voices of the largest immigrant population in the USA, the Hispanics, and looked for their
discourse on the question of whether Americanness, citizenship and English language
proficiency relate. These voices are clearly different from the majority of WASPs’ opinion on
the matter. The discourse of the immigrants points us towards the phenomenon of
Spanglish. It is detailed how it expresses the hybrid identity of Hispanic immigrants and
challenges as well as redefines language norms and traditional concepts of local and national
belonging. Spanglish is also a good example of how local communicative practices can
transcend local environments as the US economy has lately recognized Spanglish’s
marketing potential: A series of advertising campaigns has been launched, which have
become known and popular across the USA. These campaigns will also be shown to
challenge traditional concepts of US-American national identity. It will be argued that the
economy is a strong force in promoting hybrid border and nation transcending identities.
Keywords: language, national identity and citizenship; language ideology; language
contact; Hispanics; Spanglish

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Dr Naomi Wells
(University of Warwick; naomi.wells@warwick.ac.uk)
Reshaping the Italian Language through Creative and Cultural Practices: Migrant and
Intercultural Associations in Contemporary Italy
Across Europe, the adoption of the national language(s) by migrant citizens has dominated
political discourse and policies of integration, with the emergence of language testing
regimes. In Italy, those applying for permanent residency are now required to demonstrate
proficiency in the Italian language, primarily by written test (Love 2014). This focus on a
strictly regulated written form of the language implies, however, a passive role of adoption
by migrant subjects, and positions language acquisition as a condition for integration rather
than as a process which develops in context (Van Avermaet and Gysen 2009: 122).
A critique and contrast to such an approach can be found in the appropriation and
transformation of the Italian language by migrant subjects within the active network of
migrant and intercultural associations in the city of Bologna. Such associations, including a
multilingual theatre group, offer examples of spaces which provide for the negotiation of
linguistic and cultural resources, but with Italian typically acting as a lingua franca of both
communication and cultural expression for both Italian and migrant participants.
In such cases language learning may not be an explicit goal but rather the product of the
engagement in collaborative cultural and creative practices, with migrant participants
bringing to bear on these encounters the traces of other languages, histories and traditions
from their own trajectories of migration (Hall 1992). Appealing to critical ethnography and
drawing on interviews, observations and examples of media produced, this paper addresses
how migrant speakers appropriate and reshape the Italian language to serve their own
purposes of cultural expression and production.
References
 Hall, Stuart. 1992. The Question of Cultural Identity. In Hall, Held and Mcgrew, eds.
Modernity and its Futures. Cambridge: Polity, pp. 274-316.
 Love, Stephanie V. 2014. Language Testing, ‘Integration’ and Subtractive
Multilingualism in Italy: Challenges for Adult Immigrant Second Language and Literacy
Education. Current Issues in Language Planning. 16, 26-42.
 Van Avermaet, Piet, and Sara Gysen. 2009. One Nation, Two Policies: Language
Requirements for Citizenship and Integration in Belgium. In Extra, Spotti and Van
Avermaet, eds. Language Testing, Migration and Citizenship. London: Continuum, pp.
107-24.

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