Public Event and Conference: Migrants and Language(s)
Public Event and Conference: Migrants and Language(s) Summary
The current migration crisis faces the UK and other countries with urgent issues within which language plays a significant role. These include decisions about who gets refugee status, which depends partly on origin and may be determined on linguistic grounds; how to integrate migrant children in schools, and adults in employment, when they do not speak the host-country language well (or at all); how they are to communicate in hospitals, banks, with landlords and administrations. Less immediately obvious, but equally significant linguistic issues include:
- how politicians and the media construct discourses about migrants which affect how they are perceived;
- the role of maintaining the migrants’ languages of origin in their integration process and sense of identity;
- how the languages of origin impact on the host country, bringing in new linguistic skills but also potentially transforming the host country language: young people’s multicultural vernaculars are recognised by linguists as a significant source of language change.
The public event and conference, which took place on March 21st & 22nd, brought together a range of experts on migration and drew attention to the role played by language in this crisis. They addressed the particular responsibility of linguists to carry out and disseminate research which will enable policy-makers to take well-informed decisions affecting both the migrants’ futures and those of the host society.
The public event and conference had different purposes and different audiences:
- The public event involved speakers from a range of specialisms whose presentations aimed to sensitize a wide audience to the linguistic issues associated with migration, whilst also providing relevant input to the conference the next day.
- The conference covered a range of issues connected to the migrant experience. It is hoped that both the papers and the discussion will feed into a research bid which will directly address some of the relevant linguistic issues and will help to form policy recommendations.
If you missed these events or wish to revist them, you can now watch the recording of each event below: