(Im)mobilizing languages

This presentation is concerned with the impact of multilingualism on forced migrants’ trajectories. It reports the findings of a two-year qualitative research project, which used ethnographic research methods, including narrative and go-along interviews, classroom and participant observations and linguistic analysis of interactional data. The project set out to investigate how forced migrants reflect, position, and affirm themselves – through languages – in multilingual societies.
Our contribution aligns itself with the body of research that challenges hegemonic monolingual and monocultural practices (Grzymala-Kazlowska/Phillimore 2018, Van Avermaet 2009). Other major influences were Juffermans and Tavares’s (2017) research on south-north trajectories and linguistic repertoires, Stevenson’s (2014, 2017) work on language (hi)stories and Busch’s (2017) biographical explorations of Spracherleben.
In this talk, the focus will be on the experiences of three men from Syria and Iraq who have obtained humanitarian protection in Luxembourg, but aspire to fulfil their integration aspirations across multiple locations and countries. A careful analysis of divergent trajectories sheds light on how experiences of linguistic inequality and/or success are imprinted on forced migrants’ repertoires and shape their understanding of (successful) integration.