Towards a political economy of immigrant languages and multilingualism

Abstract

The growing number of immigrants in countries like Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States has drawn increasing attention from applied linguists, language policy researchers, and migration scholars. Their work highlights how language mediates the the recognition of foreign education and skills, the allocation of resources, economic integration, while reinforcing ideologies associated with dominant languages like English. Yet, much of the research on the economics of language remains largely restricted to monolingual or bilingual contexts centered on mainstream economies. In immigrant-receiving countries like Canada, changing social dynamics have produced new forms of economic organization through ethnic economies, ethnic concentrations, and social multilingualism that are shaped by migration, mobility, and the digital connectivity. Understanding these alternative or parallel to mainstream economies requires an economics of multilingualism approach that accounts for the dynamic role of language in the shaping economic participation and opportunity. Through a case study of South Asian languages in Alberta, this paper examines how immigrant languages are used for economic purposes, making economic activities dynamic, complex, and multilingual, and how such research can stretch the political economy focus from monolingual and bilingual to multilingual economies.

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