Migrant population’s linguistic identities in motion: a new mobilities perspective

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between language, identities, and geographic movements through the New Mobilities Paradigm (NMP). Drawing from various fields of studies about transnational and trans-community students, we shed light on how identity formation is heavily shaped by language through linguistic decisions and affordances. The NMP acknowledges this intricate relationship, and the dynamic nature of linguistic identity triggered by individuals’ mobility within and outside of their national territory. Results show how various forms of local or transnational, and other forms of mobilities interact or complicate how linguistic identities are formed; and how linguistic identities might create fast or slow mobility lanes, or zones of concentration, and isolation for people. We take a poststructuralist stance in making sense of linguistic identity formation for people on the move or with the desire to do so, and argue that their identities are constantly negotiated depending on people’s interests and mobile subjectivities.

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ORCID for Tae-Hee Choi: orcid.org/0000-0001-8840-4082

ORCID for Jay de los Reyes: orcid.org/0000-0002-3609-127X

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