Between Values and Limitations: Migrants’ Ambivalent Perceptions of the "Lusophone Market” in Luxembourg

This paper discusses the ambivalent perceptions of lusophone migrants in
relation to the usage of Portuguese as ‘one of the most widely spoken
languages in Luxembourg.’ It examines how official language policies and
ideologies of Luxembourg have been projected onto everyday perceptions of
these migrants, about this communicative resource in this particular
‘linguistic market,’ considering that, in this context, Portuguese-speaking
migrants are the largest migrant group. Bourdieu posits that ‘on a given
linguistic market, some products are valued more highly than others; and
part of the practical competence of speakers is to know how, and to be
able, to produce expressions which are highly valued on the markets
concerned.’ Taking the Bourdieusian market-theoretical approach, in which
language is both perceived as a symbolic resource and as a commodity in the
market, this paper examines lusophone migrants’ narratives on the role and
value of Portuguese as part of their language repertoire in the linguistic
market of Luxembourg. It seeks to unravel the social effects of official
multilingualism on a group of migrants and how these effects shape their
agency, censoring and sanctioning their repertoire while they resist the
market by creating and navigating what I term here a “lusophone market.”