Language, Immigration and Labor

This book explores dominant ideologies about citizenship, nation, and language that frame the everyday lives of Spanish-speaking immigrant day laborers in Arizona. It examines the value of speaking English in this context and the dynamics of intercultural communication in fast-paced job negotiations.

This book effectively illustrates the daily life of a social group that needs to navigate language in order to successfully gain admission into the setting they seek to enter, and provides important insights into how day labourers think and act in order to work effectively in a society . All in all, this work gives the day labourers a voice in American society, demonstrating the power of using critical approaches to research, particularly critical ethnography and critical discourse analysis. (Michael R. Scott, Discourse & Society, Vol. 28 (2), 2017)

Autorentext
Elise DuBord is Assistant Professor of Spanish Linguistics at the University of Northern Iowa, USA. Her research interests include intercultural language contact, critical race theory, language policy, and community-based learning.

Inhalt

1. The Social Context of Language Contact in the Informal Economy 2. Globalization, Immigrant Labor, and Language 3. 'If I knew the language, don't think I would be here': Shifting Understandings of the Linguistic Capital of English 4. Solidarity, Rapport, and Co-membership: Employers' Hiring Practices 5. Performing the Good Worker 6. Conceptualizing Intercultural Contact in the Borderlands