Skip to main content
Presented to you through Paradigm Publishing Services

John Benjamins Publishing Company

Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Multilingualism and identity

What linguistic biographies of migrants can tell us

Abstract

How do migrants integrate the languages they experience and acquire during their migration into their linguistic identities? From a sociolinguistic perspective it is important to see which communication spaces and which communication roles can be taken by the migrants themselves and which are open to them because of the power structures of the societies they live in respectively. Language portraits and biographical interviews help to see which dispositions and attitudes develop, which linguistic heritage is structuring the identity change during the migration process.

Abstract

How do migrants integrate the languages they experience and acquire during their migration into their linguistic identities? From a sociolinguistic perspective it is important to see which communication spaces and which communication roles can be taken by the migrants themselves and which are open to them because of the power structures of the societies they live in respectively. Language portraits and biographical interviews help to see which dispositions and attitudes develop, which linguistic heritage is structuring the identity change during the migration process.

Downloaded on 19.4.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/hsld.1.08kru/html
Scroll to top button