Multilingualism and language practices of Nigerien migrants in Ghana

Abstract

This paper aims at examining language socialisation practices of members of two groups of migrants of Nigerien origin living in Ghana, i.e. Tamasheque-speaking beggars in Accra and Hausa/Zambarima/Buzu-speaking hawkers at the Akuapem Ridge. We examine the migrants’ language practices in various domains, such as work and home, interrogate whether such practices reflect the level of socioeconomic integration they experience and ascertain the role that members of the host communities play in their language socialisation. The Communities of Practice (CofP) framework, an ethnographic approach (which involves long-term observation and unstructured recorded interviews) is employed in the collection of data on the migrants’ language practices. However, two sets of data, from questionnaire surveys in Accra and the Akuapem Ridge, were collected to help describe these host communities’ language practices, which the migrants are expected to encounter. Batibo’s triglossic structure model was relied on in conducting those surveys and in interpreting the data. This study finds that there is strong correlation between a migrant group's socioeconomic integration and their sociolinguistic integration: while adult Tamasheque-speaking beggars are generally unable to learn any new languages in Ghana because they choose to remain marginalised, their children, who are the ones who beg and are the bread winners, as well as the hawkers, who sell wares roaming streets along the Ridge, typically get to learn at least Akan, the dominant local language of their host communities.

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