Language and onward migration: Bridging applied linguistics with migration studies

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Karatsareas, Petros; Lytra, Vally and Adriana, Patiño-Santos. 2025. Language and onward migration: Bridging applied linguistics with migration studies. Language Teaching, 58(2), pp. 286-289. ISSN 0261-4448 [Article]

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444824000454

Abstract or Description

The two-day British Association for Applied Linguistics–Cambridge University Press (BAAL–CUP) seminar, organised by the three authors of this article, was held on 13–14 February 2024 at the University of Westminster. A total of 42 academics from the fields of applied linguistics and migration studies, working with a range of onward migrant groups and communities in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, engaged in an interdisciplinary conversation around the concept of the onward migrant (OM) over the two days. The term ‘onward migrant’, which we broadly define as a person whose life course involves extended stays in two or more destination countries (Ahrens & King, 2023, p. 5), has primarily received attention from migration studies. These studies address language as a key aspect that shapes the experiences of OMs. Research within applied and sociolinguistics has only recently started to pay attention to OMs and how they mobilise and reconfigure their linguistic repertoires in complex social and communicative contexts. Our main aim was to critically reflect on the affordances, limitations, and possibilities of working together across traditional disciplinary boundaries to enrich our understanding of this concept. We collectively reflected on some of the following questions: What does the social category OM mean, and for whom? When does it becomes relevant? What do we use this category for? What do OMs need and understand as important for them to investigate? When does language matter in processes of onward migration, in what contexts and for what purposes?

Item Type:

Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444824000454

Additional Information:

This article has been published in a revised form in Language Teaching [http://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444824000454]. This version is published under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND licence. No commercial re-distribution or re-use allowed. Derivative works cannot be distributed. © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press

Keywords:

onward migration, multilingualism, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, migration studies

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Educational Studies > Centre for Language, Culture and Learning

Dates: