Talking About Global Migration: Implications for Language Teaching 9781783095551

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Talking About Global Migration

NEW PERSPECTIVES ON LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION Series Editor: Professor Viv Edwards, University of Reading, Reading, UK Two decades of research and development in language and literacy education have yielded a broad, multidisciplinary focus. Yet education systems face constant economic and technological change, with attendant issues of identity and power, community and culture. This series will feature critical and interpretive, disciplinary and multidisciplinary perspectives on teaching and learning, language and literacy in new times. Full details of all the books in this series and of all our other publications can be found on http://www.multilingual-matters.com, or by writing to Multilingual Matters, St Nicholas House, 31–34 High Street, Bristol BS1 2AW, UK.

NEW PERSPECTIVES ON LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION: 48

Talking About Global Migration Implications for Language Teaching

Theresa Catalano

MULTILINGUAL MATTERS Bristol • Buffalo • Toronto

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Names: Catalano, Theresa, author. Title: Talking About Global Migration: Implications for Language Teaching / Theresa Catalano. Description: Bristol; Buffalo: Multilingual Matters, [2016] | Series: New Perspectives on Language and Education: 48 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2015049061| ISBN 9781783095544 (hbk : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781783095568 (epub) | ISBN 9781783095575 (kindle) Subjects: LCSH: Language and languages—Globalization—Case studies. | Language and languages—Study and teaching—Foreign speakers—Case studies. | Emigration and immigration—Case studies. | Language minorities—Study and teaching—Case studies. Classification: LCC P130.5 .C38 2016 | DDC 306.44--dc23 LC record available at http:// lccn.loc.gov/2015049061 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN-13: 978-1-78309-554-4 (hbk) Multilingual Matters UK: St Nicholas House, 31–34 High Street, Bristol BS1 2AW, UK. USA: UTP, 2250 Military Road, Tonawanda, NY 14150, USA. Canada: UTP, 5201 Dufferin Street, North York, Ontario M3H 5T8, Canada. Website: www.multilingual-matters.com Twitter: Multi_Ling_Mat Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/multilingualmatters Blog: www.channelviewpublications.wordpress.com Copyright © 2016 Theresa Catalano. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. The policy of Multilingual Matters/Channel View Publications is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products, made from wood grown in sustainable forests. In the manufacturing process of our books, and to further support our policy, preference is given to printers that have FSC and PEFC Chain of Custody certification. The FSC and/or PEFC logos will appear on those books where full certification has been granted to the printer concerned. Typeset by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby Printed and bound in Great Britain by the CPI Books Group

To migrants everywhere: ‘Where we love is home – home that our feet may leave but not our hearts.’ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

Contents

Acknowledgements Foreword

ix xi

Part 1: Beginnings

1

1 Introduction

3

2 Terminology and Types of Migrants

11

3 What are Metaphor and Metonymy? 17 4 Media Discourse and Migrants

25

Part 2: The Stories

29

5 Adventure Migrants

33

6 Refugee/Asylum Seekers

45

7 Family-Reunion/Child Migrants

64

8 Economic Migrants

95

9 Third Culture Kids (TCKs)

122

10 Love and/or Marriage Migrants

129

Part 3: The Metaphors and Metonymies

151

11 Summary of Dominant Metaphors/Metonymies in the Stories

153

12 Media Discourse vs. Migrant Discourse

187

vii

viii  Talking About Global Migration

Part 4: Conclusion and Future Directions 13 Conclusion and Future Directions

193 195

Appendix A: Methodology 200 Appendix B: Resources for New Migrants 204 References 206 Index 218

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I would like to give thanks to all the participants in this study, who took the time out of their busy lives to share their incredible stories with me, and with the world. Additionally, I would like to give thanks to the College of Education and Human Sciences for their support, and my wonderful colleagues in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education who in conversations or recommendations of scholarly work, contributed either directly or indirectly to the development of ideas related to this book and who gave me moral support and encouragement during the process. I must also recognize the dedication and excellence of my numerous graduate assistants without whom I would never have been able to tell these stories. They are: Qizhen Deng, Jill Fox, Ji Guo, Kristen Nugent, Jared Peo, Madhur Shende, Emily Suh (especially for your help with the metaphor analysis), Hanihani Traore and Amanda Romjue. Thanks also goes to M’Balia Thomas (for talking through my ideas at the beginning), Agus Surachman, Linda R. Waugh (whose influence on me will never cease), Grace Fielder (for your wisdom particularly in regards to conceptual blending theory), John Creswell (for your guidance and encouragement in regards to Alessio’s story), Isabella Catalano for the exceptional artwork and edits and Karl Hostetler for your suggestions regarding the organization of the book. Additionally, many thanks go to the editor and reviewers for their insightful comments which I believe made the book even better. Finally, I would like to thank my amazing family who sat down to many dinner conversations about the book and the stories within it.

ix

Foreword

What a personal journey this has been! My understanding and growth about migration issues was immensely enriched as I fervently turned each page and became enraptured by the vivid ‘lived stories’ of each migrant and their implications for educational change. This, let me say immediately, is a rare and exceptional book that taps into one of the most poorly understood phenomenon in education – the lives of migrants crossing and re-crossing borders, as they flee poverty or conflict on the one hand, and pursue a better quality of life, education and security on the other hand. The wealth of this book lies not only in giving us glimpses of the storied lives of migrants across the world but in the immense pragmatic value it holds for teachers. Utilizing a social justice thread, the author masterfully weaves together a rich, colorful tapestry of individualized portraits that reflect the diversified nature of migrant journeys and allow the voices of migrants to touch the very chords of human compassion. The author goes against the grain of typecasting migrants only into legal (documented) and undocumented categories and its associated stereotypical notions and goes to extreme lengths to painstakingly describe the complexities and intricacies of diverse individually and socially led migrant journeys. The book is organized into four parts: beginnings; the stories; the metaphors and metonymies; and conclusion and future directions. The author takes us on a journey that introduces a diversity of experiences. Moving seamlessly from adventurer, refugee/asylum seeker, family-reunion, economic migrants, third culture kids and love and/or marriage migrants, the author not only broadens our visage and understanding of migrants, but offers insightful discussions related to each case. Interesting themes emerge from each of these cases that present a panorama of distinctly diverse migrant experiences. We learn from Michi that education is not all about a career and that non-traditional learning xi

xii  Talking About Global Migration

opportunities allow people to ‘see the world through the lens of many types of vulnerability, cultivating a rich imagination.’ Sachin, in search of a better quality of life discards opulence, in favor of ‘a search for happiness.’ For Lihua, it is more about seeking acceptance. Dijana’s story discloses the misperception between lack of language proficiency and the lack of intellect. Imran’s journey introduces the importance of understanding humor. While Arman’s and Carmelle’s respective stories highlight the issue of silence. Arman is unable to tell his story because of his reluctance to re-live painful experiences. Carmelle, on the other hand, feels that migrants should just accept the status quo and remain silent. The narrative of Badr focuses on co-existence, good attitude and living honorably. Bertha’s story sheds light on the importance of newcomers knowing their rights and gaining access to help. Multilingual discourses worldwide, race and religions define Jane’s immigrant experience. While the intersection between language, race and identity is aptly portrayed in Alessio’s narrative. Toto’s story unveils the need for reflexivity and Nao’s narrative links to this by emphasizing the need for language reflexivity and intercultural communicative competence. Emma’s story reveals that we need to have an open mind and to realize that different does not equal bad. This resounds with Kofi’s experiences of racial division. In theorizing these stories the author uncovers two all-embracing metaphors, namely immigration as a journey and immigration as cultivation. The metaphor of a journey is a common and a dominant metaphor in migrant discourses. What makes it different in the context of this book is that the utterances that counted as part of the journey metaphor were figurative in nature. It views immigration as a significant part of the broader metaphor of ‘Life as a journey,’ with a beginning, middle and end. This book has shown that just like any physical journey, metaphorical travelers face certain obstacles that impede their paths. In the case of Hui and Yan it was language. For Placida, it was about understanding the culture and Kofi mentioned racial division. These all create individualized obstacles and serve as a reminder that migration is a diverse individualized experience. The second metaphor looks at migration as cultivation. Here of note is Sachin who became wiser through the migration experience and Carmelle’s personal growth was in leaps and bounds as being the only one who was proficient in the English language, she had to take on much of the responsibility of her family during the migration process. It is the foresight of the author of this volume, Theresa Catalano, who saw the enormous gap in the existing literature to bring together some of the most fascinating case studies of migrant experiences. The author chose to write this book from multiple perspectives because of her multiple

Foreword xiii

identities as a second foreign language teacher/learner and researcher. She thus dons three different hats: her ‘researcher hat’ that allows her to provide evidence and support for readers to make meaning of stories and tie them to global issues and contexts and to explain the methodology of the study; her ‘second language learner hat’ to share her own stories and provide examples from learner perspectives; and lastly her ‘teacher hat’ to advise teachers on migration issues. What teachers can learn from this book is twofold: first, in terms of the stories themselves and then in terms of metaphor and metonymy analysis. Various suggestions are then offered on how teachers can respond to educational issues brought forward from the stories and metaphor analysis. The author celebrates her human agency in motivating positive and deep change. This wonderful work of scholarship presents one of the few and most interesting book-length treatments of the subject of immigrant experiences. This book will travel far, geographically and intellectually. Professor Saloshna Vandeyar University of Pretoria South Africa

Part 1 Beginnings

A mighty flame follows a tiny spark. (Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy)

1

1 Introduction

In 2015, over 500,000 newcomers arrived in Europe, most of whom were escaping war in Syria or elsewhere. Of those 500,000, half were children (Fifield, 2015). These children experienced violence, social breakdown, distressed parents, loss of family members, ambiguous loss (when a person isn’t sure what happened to someone) and incredible psychological trauma and stress, leading at times to anxiety and fear, nightmares and difficulties in sleeping. In addition, many of the children hadn’t been to school in a year or more. A year earlier in the United States, thousands of unaccompanied or separated minors from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador made their way to the US border (and they continue to come), most of whom were escaping situations that threatened their physical and psychological safety. They too experienced trauma and interrupted schooling. Other adults leave their home countries looking for a better life for their children, including better access to healthcare and education, or better job opportunities. Others still, spend most of their lives traveling from one country to the next, or they live half of their time in one country and half in the other, or they follow their loved ones around the world as they migrate or maybe they just want to explore the world. Globalization and the increased movement of transnational migrants around the world underscores the need for educational responses to migration that attend to the linguistic and cultural diversity of demographically changing student bodies. Europe’s migrant crisis, the increasing number of unaccompanied or separated children moving across national boundaries and other recent events in migration reify the need for educators to consider migrant students at all levels of curriculum development and implementation. Thus, on a professional level as a teacher and teacher educator, I was propelled to write this book to help people understand migration experiences through the telling of individual migration stories (and metaphorical/metonymical analysis of them) that would 3

4  Part 1: Beginnings

hopefully develop empathy for globally mobile students. Furthermore, I wanted to encourage educators to plan for a ‘productive coexistence of different linguistic and cultural groups’ (Liddicoat et al., 2014: 269) and create spaces where pupils, teachers and community members engage in discourses about migration that are informed by migrant perspectives, and encourage personal interaction on an equal level, leading to greater harmony (Agnihotri, 2014). On a personal level, there were many reasons I wanted to write this book. Like many Americans, I grew up hearing my grandparents’ stories of immigration and their journeys to and struggles in the US. Then, as a 20-year-old college student, I studied abroad, met a man and fell in love. We later married and he moved to the US to be with me. I have spent the last 25 years witnessing (and participating in) his immigration experiences in the United States, good and bad. In addition, because of my job as an English as a Second Language teacher (at elementary, adult education, community college and university levels), I have heard the immigration stories of children and adults from all around the world who have happened to be in my classes. I also had the opportunity to hear about the migration experiences of many people while living in Turkey and Italy and visiting countries such as South Africa and Pakistan. In addition, because I have lived in a country other than my birth country and have traveled extensively, I know what it is like to be a second language learner. All these experiences have led me to the realization that in this globalized world many other countries, including countries not normally thought of as countries of immigration (e.g. Jamaica, Indonesia) are receiving migrants too, and there are vast differences between migration experiences depending on the contexts and types of migrants. Currently I work in a Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education, in the area of second language education and applied linguistics where I teach teachers how to adapt their instruction to ensure the success of all children (including migrant children). However, I also do research that aims to apply my knowledge about language to solve real world problems. As a linguist and discourse analyst, I have published articles that examine media discussion of migrants and immigration in the US and the ways in which discourse shapes public opinion about immigration and migrants in the US, Canada, the UK and Italy. I have noticed that the way immigration and migrants are talked about is qualitatively different than the way migrants describe their own (vastly different and unique) experiences. This, and recent events on the global stage became the impetus to write this book.

Introduction 5

Author and Readers As the author of this book, I write to you from multiple perspectives that may at times seem as though I am different people. I do this, because the book is meant to be read by a variety of people, and thus I attempt to address the needs of all my readers speaking to different people at different times. Whether you are a second language teacher, foreign language teacher, any teacher of any level or subject that has migrant students in his/her classes, migrant students themselves (looking to learn about what other migrants experience), students and researchers in the field of language acquisition and education (as well as metaphor analysis) and teacher educators and educational researchers, there is something here for you. Because of this variety of readers, and because of my multiple identities as a second/foreign language teacher/learner and researcher, sometimes I put on my ‘researcher hat’ in order to provide evidence and support for readers to make meaning of the stories and tie them to global issues and contexts. In addition, I use my ‘researcher hat’ to explain the methodology involved in the study, and the intricate workings of metaphor/ metonymy analysis, which is a central element of this book. Other times, I put on my ‘second language learner hat’ in order to share my own stories and provide more examples of particular issues from a learner perspective. And still other times, I am a teacher, giving examples of student situations and advice for teachers in similar situations. The thread holding together all these pieces is my aim of social justice, which is the central underlying purpose of this book, and which I will explain in detail below.

Goals The main purpose of this book is to bring forward the individual stories and voices of migrants so that educators – in particular, language teachers – as well as migrant students can learn from these stories. In addition, it is hoped that the writing of this book can be one step forward on the journey (intentional metaphor here) toward social justice for migrants everywhere. More specifically, I seek to do the following: • break down entrenched stereotypes about migrants by telling stories of migrants from very different backgrounds and contexts; • help people understand the variety of people and experiences that falls under the umbrella category of ‘im/migrant’ or ‘globally mobile’; • help second/additional language teachers and students understand issues that their students (or others like them) might be going through

6  Part 1: Beginnings

and what it means to learn a new language from the perspective of the language learner; • provide some suggestions for how teachers can take into account the needs of transnational globally mobile students in their classrooms; • help people understand migration on a deeper level by examining the metaphors and metonymies migrants use to talk about their experiences; • compare the language used to talk about immigration/migrants to that used by migrants to talk about their own experiences. The quote from Dante at the beginning of Part 1 speaks of the great things that can come from engaging in small acts. It is my hope that educators reading this book can take the small ideas for praxis that come from it and turn them into big ‘flames’ that greatly impact their students’ lives.

Methodology For those readers interested in learning about the methodology involved in the research for this book, please see Appendix A, in which I describe the interview process, IRB approval process, interview protocol, data collection and analysis and other details.

Participants The participants who shared their stories1 in interviews with me (and graduate assistants) are listed below along with their destination countries, countries of origin, gender and reasons for migrating. Table 1.1  Participant profiles Sr. Pseudonym Gender No.

Country of origin

Destination country

Reason for migration

1

Arman

Male

Afghanistan

Italy

(Escape) War

2

Chiara

Female

Italy

US

Education (PhD dissertation); employment (economic crisis in Italy; relevance to degree)

3

Antonia

Female

Chile

US

Education; job opportunities

4

Antoinette Female

France

Indonesia

Education; job (research)

5

Kashif

Bangladesh

Italy

Employment

Male

Introduction 7

Sr. Pseudonym Gender No.

Country of origin

Destination country

Reason for migration

6

Bertha

Female

Mexico

US

Reunion with father

7

Nya

Female

Chad

US

Education

8

Badr

Male

Morocco

Spain

Reunion with father

9

Cristina

Female

Colombia

Spain

Employment, adventure

10 Kaitlyn

Female

US (NJ)

US (Puerto Rico)

Sense of adventure, marriage

11 Ken

Male

US (MI)

US (Puerto Rico)

Education (desire to learn a new language); married to Puerto Rican at the time

12 Caroline

Female

France

US

Education; love

13 Hedvika

Female

Czech Republic Germany

Better life

14 Chiharu

Female

Japan

US

Education (first English language, then degrees); marriage to American

15 Carmelle

Female

Congo

US

Better life (family won visa lottery)

16 DanDan

Female

China

US

Dream of study abroad

17 Emma

Female

Japan to US

US to Japan Return to mother’s Japanese family; then return to US for high school, return to Japan for college

18 Farideh

Female

Iran

South Africa Education

19 Fenfang

Female

China

US

Education

20 LiHua

Female

China

Japan

Interest in country

21 George

Male

Venezuela

US

Better life, education

22 Gregorio

Male

Portugal

Germany

Employment

23 Garrett

Male

US

China

Employment, adventure

24 Imran

Male

Iraq

US

Opportunities/better life; refugee

25 Elena

Female

Serbia

US

Better life

26 Li Qin

Female

China

US

Education, wanted more than one child

27 Jack

Male

US

Japan

Childhood interest in culture, desire for rite of passage

28 Julian

Male

El Salvador

US

Escape from family’s control

8  Part 1: Beginnings

Sr. Pseudonym Gender No.

Country of origin

Destination country

Reason for migration

29 Jane

Female

Ukraine

Belgium

Education

30 Calvin

Male

US

Japan

Employment (negative experiences during US practicum, enjoyed being in Japan); love (Japanese wife)

31 Gui

Male

China

Britain, Canada, US

Work; better life

32 Kofi

Male

Ghana

South Africa Education

33 He

Female

China

US

Pursue her dream; employment

34 Luca

Male

Ecuador

Spain

Opportunities (job)

35 Martez

Male

Mexico

Costa Rica, US, Canada

Employment, love (Costa Rican wife), jobs

36 Michi

Male

Germany

US

Study abroad, adventure (following musicians)

37 Misi

Female

Zimbabwe

South Africa Reunite with husband, study

38 Alessio

Male

Italy

US

39 Nthona

Female

Lesotho

South Africa Education

40 Prunelle

Female

Congo

US

Education, came with parents and family

41 Miljan

Male

Bosnia

US

War

42

Female

Bosnia

US

War

43 Nadir

Male

Syria

US

Opportunities; religious freedom; escape impending civil war

44 Laiha

Female

Syria

US

Opportunities

45 Nao

Female

Japan

US

Family (to be with husband and stepson)

46 Ioana

Female

Romania

Spain

Family (reunite with parents)

47 Nate

Male

US

Spain

Work

48 Obehi

Male

Nigeria

Italy

Opportunities

49 Olga

Female

Russia

US

Study, opportunities/comfort

50 Padmaj

Male

India

Jamaica

Employment (work for uncle)

51 Petra

Female

Mexico

US

Opportunities for her children

Love (to be near future wife)

Introduction 9

Sr. Pseudonym Gender No.

Country of origin

Destination country

Reason for migration

52 Peter

Male

Jamaica

US

Education

53 Paki

Male

Swaziland

South Africa Education

54 Placida

Female

Tanzania

South Africa Education (as part of country of origin job requirement)

55 Quyen

Female

Vietnam

US

Education, employment

56 Hui

Male

China

US

Love

57 Qiang

Female

China

US

Education

58 Rachel

Female

China

US

Love

59 Gouta

Female

Botswana

Indonesia

Opportunities

60 Totò

Male

Italy

Germany

Opportunities (earn money and start career)

61 Sachin

Male

India

Jamaica

Adventure

62 Mei

Female

China

Italy

Parents moved

63 Ai

Female

China

Italy

Parents moved

64 Chun

Female

China

Italy

Employment

65 Susana

Female

Dominican Republic

Puerto Rico

Parents (opportunities)

66 Tamomi

Female

Japan

US

Love (followed boyfriend)

67 Thinh

Male

Vietnam

US

Refugee

68 Tiburcio

Male

Portugal

Germany

Employment

69 Winston

Male

England

US

Adventure

70 Xui

Female

China

US

Followed husband, education

71 Yan

Female

China

US

Education

72 Julietta

Female

Mexico

US

Opportunities

73 Zarrin

Female

Tajikistan

US

Education

74 Lubna

Female

Pakistan

US

Escape war, better education for children

75 HaeWon

Female

Korea

US

Love, opportunities

76 HyunJin

Female

Korea

US

Opportunities

77 He

Female

China

US

Education

10  Part 1: Beginnings

Organization of the Book The book is organized into four parts: beginnings, the stories, the metaphors and metonymies and conclusion and future directions. After this introduction, Chapter 2 explains and clarifies some of the terminology and research related to immigration and migrants and provides a list of the participants and the category in which their story appears (i.e. why they migrated). In Chapter 3, I explain what metaphor and metonymy are, what metaphor/metonymic analysis entails, and why it is helpful for understanding how human migration is perceived by the migrants in this book. Chapter 4 provides a brief review of metaphor research about immigration discourse and major findings in this area. In Part 2, I describe the different types of migrants found in this study and how they compare to categories of migrants found in the literature. It is important to note that by no means am I attempting to classify all transnational voyagers; rather, I describe the categories found in this study and point out the variety of migrants that might fall into the category described. In each of the categories, several prominent example stories are told in full, followed by a discussion of themes and/or metaphors found in the stories and their connections to educational and language issues. Part 3 begins with Chapter 11, where the findings from the metaphor analysis of the stories (including stories not told in this book, but that were part of the study) are discussed and dominant metaphors/metonymies are broken down in order to understand their implications for teachers. In Chapter 12, the metaphor analysis findings are compared to metaphors found in media discourse about migrants. Finally, in Part 4 of the book, I sum up the most important findings and discuss future directions for the project.

Note (1) All names of participants are pseudonyms.

2 Terminology and Types of Migrants

Before telling the participants’ stories, it is important to explain some of the terminology used in this book to refer to the different types of migrants in the stories. There are many different terms to refer to a person who travels to and settles in a new country, and many of these terms depend on the specific context of the individual, and the person talking about them. For the purposes of this book, I adopt the term ‘migrant’ used by the United Nations which refers to ‘an individual who has resided in a foreign country for more than one year irrespective of the causes, voluntary or involuntary, and the means, regular or irregular, used to migrate’ (Key Migration Terms, 2014). It’s worth noting that there are many scholars who would not use the term ‘migrant’ to refer to some of the participants (e.g. refugees, Third Culture Kids (TCKs), Expats1). However, for the purposes of this book, ‘migrant’ will be used as an umbrella term for the globally mobile in general, except in cases where participants use the term ‘immigrant’ or where it appears as such in the literature. More specific names such as ‘refugees/ asylum seekers’ or ‘TCK’ will be given in Part 2, where the stories of the participants are told. I chose the term ‘migrant’ and the definition listed above for several reasons. First, in order to be interviewed for this book, participants had to meet the requirement of having lived in the receiving country for at least a year, with intentions of staying, and therefore the UN definition fits the participants of this study well.2 Second, the term ‘immigrant,’ which is also frequently used in the same context, has often been used in negative contexts such as crime and burden whereas the term ‘migrant’ has been found (in corpus studies) to be located in more positive and sympathetic discourse contexts (Khosravinik, 2010). Although recent media discourse on the migration crisis in Europe has made a point to separate ‘migrants’ from ‘refugees’ in order to emphasize the different implications they have for resettlement in receiving countries (Martinez, 2015), I chose to view ‘refugees’ as just one type of migrant that could fall 11

12  Part 1: Beginnings

under the overall category of migrants as defined above by the United Nations. In doing so, I recognize that there is so much more variety and permeability between each of the categories of transnational voyagers than those two labels allow us to see (Bartlett & Ghaffar-Kucher, 2013). Much research has been done on migrants and immigration that spans many disciplines (e.g. sociology, psychology, immigration studies, critical discourse studies).3 Some of these studies look at the reasons people migrate and their experiences in the process (e.g. Clarke, 2005; Kennedy, 2010; Maehara, 2010; Mazzucato, 2008; Niedomysl et al., 2010; Razin & Scheinberg, 2001). For example, Clarke’s (2005) study enlightens readers about the experiences of transnational British ‘working holiday makers’ and ‘adventure seekers’ who cross borders for non-economic reasons in Australia and certain behaviors they participate in (such as abandoning cars and dropping litter) as a result of their temporary status. Mazzucato (2008), on the other hand, takes a transnational perspective looking at Ghanaians migrating to the Netherlands, coining the term ‘play it by ear migrants’ to refer to migrants beginning to make enough money to spend it on things other than their own subsistence. Others study the socioeconomic status and skills of migrants and/or its relation to social mobility such as Gatti (2009) who studies the expat (highly skilled and educated migrants) community in Brussels, finding that they are often perceived as one coherent community when in fact their situation is much more complicated. In Findlay et al. (2009), the authors describe the ‘travelator,’ aka young adults new to the labor force and educated in periphery who move to seek their first employment opportunity. Reyneri (2004) describes ‘target migration,’ which he defines as migrating for the purpose of earning enough capital to build a house/open a small business back home while still others examine their visibility. He explains that this type of migration is more common among urban youth, is linked to families (either to escape them or to financially support them) and often involves immigrating for a sense of personal adventure. Leinonen’s (2012) study examines discourse about immigration in Finland and in particular, migrant visibility both visually and audibly. She argues that the term ‘immigrant’ in Finland is used in negative contexts and that the politics of visibility is an important mechanism of labeling foreigners with the term ‘immigrants’ in Finland. Other important studies look at the effects of post-traumatic stress symptoms and torture on migrants (Silove et al., 2002), the effects of immigration on children, schooling and migrant identity (Hamann et al., 2006; He et al., 2008; Sanchez-Garcia et al., 2012; Suárez-Orozco & SuárezOrozco, 2001; Suárez-Orozco et al., 2008; Vandeyar, 2012; Zúñiga & Hamann, 2009), discourse about immigration and migrants (investigating

Terminology and Types of Migrants  13

metaphors used to talk about them as well as corpus studies that identify which terms are used in which contexts to label them) (Çaglar, 2001; Khosravinik, 2010; Hart, 2010) and stories (or testimonios4) of immigration (Urrieta et al., 2015; Beverly, 2000). In the above-mentioned research, migrants are referred to and categorized in many different ways, such as by motivation for migrating (e.g. refugee, economic migrant), legal status (e.g. regular/irregular/ documented/undocumented), whether the stay is temporary vs. permanent (e.g. sojourner, trans/binational) or whether they are adults or children. For the purposes of this book, participants have been organized into six categories based largely (but not exclusively) on their motivations to migrate. These six categories and the participants that fall under each category (including their gender, country of origin (CO), destination country (DC), percentage of males/females in each category, and the percentage of migrants in the study found in each category) can be seen in Table 2.1 below. Table 2.1  Types of migrants Types of migrants in stories

Names of participants and their CO/DCs

Adventure

Jack (M) (US – Japan) Julian (M) (El Salvador – US) Michi (M) (Germany – US) Sachin (M) (India – Jamaica) *Ken (M) (US – Puerto Rico) LiHua (F) (China – Japan) Winston (M) (Ghana – England – US) Garrett (M) (US – Japan, Mongolia, Korea, China)

Refugee/ asylum seeker

Miljan (M) (Bosnia – US) Dijana (F)(Bosnia – US) Imran (M) (Iraq – US) Arman (M) (Afghanistan – Italy) Ilhana (F)(Bosnia/Serbia – Canada) Nadir (M)(Syria – US) Laiha (F) (Syria – US) Lubna (F) (Pakistan – US)

Total

Male/female % of total ratio migrants

8

7/1

10.4%

8

4/4

10.4%

14  Part 1: Beginnings Types of migrants in stories

Names of participants and their CO/DCs

Family reunion/ Bertha (F) (Mexico – US) child migrants Badr (M) (Morocco – Spain) Cristina (F) (Colombia/Spain – US) Ioana (F) (Romania – Spain) Chun (F) (China – Italy) Mei (F) (China – Italy) Ai (F) (China – Italy) Susana (F) (Dominican Republic – Puerto Rico) Xui (F) (China – US) HyunJin (F) (Korean – US) *Michèle (F) (DRC (Congo) – US) *Carmelle (F) (DRC (Congo) – US) * Thinh (M) (Vietnam – US) Economic

Misi (F) (Zimbabwe – South Africa) Agnes (F) (France – Indonesia) Kashif (M) (Bangladesh – Italy) Nya (F) (Chad – US) Hedvika (F) (Czech Republic – Germany) Jorge (M) (Venezuela – US) Gregorio (M) (Portugal – Germany) Gui (M) (China – US) Lucas (M) (Ecuador – Spain) Nate (M) (US – Spain) Obehi (M) (Nigeria – Italy) Padmaj (M) (India – Jamaica) Gouta (F) (Botswana – Indonesia) Totò (M) (Italy – Germany) Tiburcio (M) (Portugal – Germany) Julietta (F) (Mexico – US) Fenfang (F) (China – US) He (F) (China – US) Peter (M) (Jamaica – US) Olga (F) (Russia – US) Kofi (M) (Ghana – South Africa) Caroline (F) (France – US) Chiharu (F) (Japan – US) DanDan (F) (China – US) Farideh (F) (Iran – South Africa) Nthona (F) (Lesotho – South Africa) Li Qin (F) (China – US) Jane (F) (Ukraine – Belgium) Paki (M) (Swaziland – South Africa) Placida (F) (Tanzania – South Africa) Quyen (F) (Vietnam – US) Qiang (F) (China – US) Yan (F) (China – US) Zarrin (F) (Tajikistan – US) Petra (F) (Mexico – US) Chiara (F) (Italy – US) Antonia (F) (Chile – US) Antoinette (F) (France – Indonesia) Martez (M) Mexico – Canada)

Total

Male/female % of total ratio migrants

13

2/11

17.1%

39

14/25

50.1%

Terminology and Types of Migrants  15 Types of migrants in stories

Names of participants and their CO/DCs

Total

Male/female % of total ratio migrants

Third Culture Kid (TCK)

Emma (F) (Japan – US – Japan)

1

0/1

.01%

Love and/or marriage

Hui (M) (China – US) Alessio (M) (Italy – US) *Calvin (M) (US – Japan) Rachel (F) (China – US) Tamomi (F) (Japan – US) HaeWon (F) (Korea – US) Kaitlyn (F) (US – Puerto Rico) Nao (F) (Japan – US)

8

3/5

10.4%

*77

36/50

100%

Total

(Names in bold represent selected stories) * Indicates the participant’s reason for migrating falls under two categories.

It is important to acknowledge that the participants in this sample in no way constitute a representative sample of the world and its migration tendencies; rather, they represent a way of organizing the participants in this study to see an overall picture of the findings. The next section will introduce the theoretical framework of this study, firmly grounded in metaphor/ metonymy research. I will explain what metaphor and metonymy are, and what analysis of these two tropes can contribute to the book’s overall goal of educational responses to migration.

Notes (1) According to Koutonin (2015), the term ‘expatriate’ or ‘expat’ is used mainly for Caucasian people going to work abroad or ‘temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than that of the person’s upbringing.’ In the case of this book, I have deliberately not used this term because of this perceived bias. Instead, the umbrella term ‘migrant’ is used for all of the participants, and then each type of participant is categorized depending on reasons for migrating. Those that might have been classified as expats in other studies are referred to as ‘adventurers’ in this study, but there are several differences. One, the reason they migrated was not necessarily for work, although sometimes that is part of it. In addition, participants found in this category include people of color, but they are generally people with financial means. See Chapter 3 for more details. (2) Although participants considered for the study said they had intentions to stay in the receiving country, it is important to recognize that life happens, and many of the participants may find themselves moving (or have already moved) to a different receiving country, returning to their countries of origin, or doing both. (3) Because this book aims to tell the stories of the participants rather than give an overview of research in this area, I will not spend time reviewing the research and its findings, rather, I will begin by saying that, to my knowledge, no research exists which

16  Part 1: Beginnings

re-tells stories of immigration in order to analyze the metaphorical information in the participants’ discourse such as will be done in this book. (4) Beverly (2000) refers to ‘narratives with the authority to convey conditions of truth and representation by those who have historically been denied such voice’ as testimonios (as cited in Urrieta et al., 2015).

3 What are Metaphor and Metonymy?

Metaphor Interest in metaphor goes back to the times of Aristotle, who defined metaphor as ‘giving the thing a name that belongs to something else’ (Aristotle, 1952). Even in ancient times, he recognized ‘the ubiquity of metaphor in conversation and writing’ and the fact that ‘people actually learn and understand things better through metaphors’ (Mahon, 1999: 69–70). Modern researchers still agree with Aristotle, proposing that: ‘We use metaphor every time we call something by another name. Far from being merely a poetic device, metaphor is ubiquitous in everyday language’ (Todd & Harrison, 2008: 479). Metaphor allows us to offer ‘infinite possibilities of enriching and extending meaning and is as much a feature of initiate interpersonal interactions as it is of scientific discourse’ (Denroche, 2015: 14). Metaphor connects ‘two things that are not normally related’ (Charteris-Black, 2014: 160); in doing so, metaphors have many functions. For example, ‘metaphor allows us to talk about personal matters safely and tackle delicate topics without losing face or hurting feelings – it allows us to suggest things without saying them explicitly’ (Denroche, 2015: 15). ‘Metaphor… entails thought, or ideas, as well as language, and enables us to explore limitless different ways of thinking’ (Charteris-Black, 2014: 160) and is used to talk about abstract ideas as well as ‘aspects of ordinary experience’ (Gibbs, 1999: 44). From these interconnected definitions, we can understand the power of metaphor to convey and influence thought. Much of what we know about metaphor is influenced by research in the field of cognitive linguistics, which is ‘a powerful approach to the study of language, conceptual systems, human cognition, and general meaning construction’ (Fauconnier, 1999: 96). Within the field of cognitive linguistics, metaphor is understood as a construal operation (what we use to make sense of our experience) and largely involves ‘understanding and experiencing one thing in terms of 17

18  Part 1: Beginnings

another’ (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980: 5). Through examining linguistic evidence, Lakoff and Johnson have found that most of our conceptual system is metaphorical in nature, meaning that we structure how we think and what we do through metaphorical thought. According to Lakoff and Johnson (1980: 6), ‘metaphors as linguistic expressions are possible precisely because there are metaphors in a person’s conceptual system’ – therefore, when we use the term metaphor, we are talking about the metaphorical concept (e.g. the mental connection between two things) in the brain, and not the actual words expressed in the discourse. Rather, it is these metaphorical linguistic expressions (MLEs) that help us to identify conceptual metaphors. A good example of this can be taken from Lakoff and Johnson in reference to time is money.1 In this example, the actual utterances might be ‘You’re wasting my time’ and ‘This gadget will save you hours’ (1980: 9). The words wasting and save are MLEs of the conceptual metaphor time is money because they provide evidence of the concept behind the metaphor and a way of thinking that compares time to another valuable resource (money). This isn’t the only way to think about time. In Turkish, time is compared to moving water, as in the expression ‘Zaman bir su gibidir.’ When one conceives of time in this way, the qualities of moving water (e.g. fast, continuous flow, a part of nature that we can’t control) are mapped onto time, leaving us with a different way of thinking that views time not as something that we can control by spending or wasting, but as a natural organic process.2 Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) provides an excellent way to explain how our conceptual system is structured by metaphor. It proposes that metaphors are embodied, and thus come largely from our own bodily experiences; as a result, we are largely unconscious of their use. According to CMT, metaphors contain a target domain (the issue that is being discussed that you want to understand better), which is understood through the mapping of elements or characteristics of a source domain (what the target domain is compared to) onto the target domain. In the case of life is a journey, the characteristics of a journey (the source) are mapped onto the concept of life, and we end up with MLEs such as ‘I’m at a crossroads in my life’ or ‘We need to move forward,’ which present the topic of life as if it is a physical journey. While this theory works well to help us understand our conceptual system, which functions largely at the unconscious level, it does not explain the conscious use of metaphor for the purposes of manipulation and to ‘achieve communication goals within particular contexts rather than being predetermined by bodily experience’ (Charteris-Black, 2006: 247). Furthermore, it does not provide a model to understand metaphorical meaning in face-to-face interactions. For this,

What are Metaphor and Metonymy?  19

we turn to Conceptual Blending Theory (CBT) (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002). According to CBT, metaphors are blended spaces that act as sites for central cognitive work: reasoning, drawing inferences and developing emotions (Fauconnier & Turner, 1996: 115). CBT is based on the idea that blending is a cognitive operation, which takes place in a conceptual integration network (CIN) in the brain. The CIN is an array of mental spaces that includes a generic space, two input spaces and a blended space (Kok & Bublitz, 2011). I will demonstrate how this works with a blend that a friend used during conversation with me many years ago. The blend was so successful I have never forgotten it. At the time, my friend, M’Balia Thomas, was learning how to cook (apparently she is quite the chef at the moment), and since I have been known to dabble in the gastronomical milieu, she came over to have dinner and cook with me. We had planned on making soup as a first course, but unfortunately, I had forgotten the acini di pepe (little round pieces of pasta) I had planned to put in the soup. ‘No worries,’ I told her, ‘we can solve this problem easily.’ I then proceeded to take some spaghetti from its wrapper and break it into small pieces to put in the soup. M’Balia was impressed (I admit, it did not take much to impress her) and exclaimed, ‘You’re like MacGyver of the kitchen.’3 We both broke out into laughter because we understood exactly what she was trying to say, and we were both left with a visual image of me defusing bombs in my kitchen. This blend works because the salient characteristics of MacGyver were known to both of us (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= 09UlB17cgKw if you are not familiar with this TV series). This blend was successful because at the time, this TV show had been made even more well known by the Saturday Night Live spoof on MacGyver (called ‘MacGruber’) in which these very abilities were parodied (see https://screen.yahoo. com/macgruber-sensitivity-training-000000208.html). Therefore, we both understood what she was referring to because we both had either seen the show or the SNL spoof. To explain how this example could be interpreted using CBT, we can assume that the generic space would be the mental concept of a person and his or her general resourcefulness. Input Space 1 would be MacGyver, and his ability to do something with very little resources, such as defuse a bomb with only a paper clip. Input Space 2 would be me and my ability to cook. The blended space would be when my activities in the kitchen take on the salient characteristics of MacGyver, namely, being extremely resourceful. The end result (if done correctly) is the blend (aka metaphor), in which my resourcefulness in the kitchen is compared to that of an action/adventure hero. This metaphoric blend works because of the

20  Part 1: Beginnings

motivating metonymy part for whole or more specifically, attribute for entity in which the defining property of MacGyver (his resourcefulness) stands for the whole TV series or star of it. Thus, in this blend, metonymy motivates the metaphor theresa is macgyver in the kitchen (for more on the interaction of metonymy and metaphor, see Goossens, 2003; Mittelberg & Waugh, 2009; Ruiz de Mendoza & Diez, 2002). In the blended space, not all elements from the mental spaces are projected (for example, M’Balia did not suggest that I was carrying duct tape and a Swiss army knife or that after making the soup I would be reporting to the Phoenix Foundation). Just the salient characteristics necessary to make the blend work are transferred, which points to the important role that metonymy has in metaphor.4 I will now provide a brief explanation of metonymy, which is the larger and more frequent process of the two, but often the most overlooked and underestimated.

Metonymy Metonymy can be defined as a figure of language and thought in which one entity stands for another entity it is associated with in some way. More simply, it is the process of choosing word(s) that highlight certain things while backgrounding others. Metonymy is an ‘everyday process which plays a key role in helping us make sense of the world’ and ‘shapes the way we think and the way we influence the thoughts of others’ (Littlemore, 2015: 191). Because metonymy works mostly behind the scenes, we don’t often notice it, but we should (Littlemore, 2015: 191). For example, when I choose the phrase ‘job creator’ instead of ‘rich person’ to describe someone, I highlight the good things this person (purportedly) brings to society and hide the possible negative actions they took in order to become rich. Metonymy is thus a stage or sub-process within metaphor, making it possible for us to ‘see and understand things in different ways’ (Brdar-Szabó & Brdar, 2011: 222). For example, the process of metonymy allows us to use terms like Serbian during the Bosnian war (as you will see later in Miljan and Dijana’s story) and present a coded meaning that indicates religion (in this case, Eastern Orthodox) rather than the nation/state it explicitly indexes. In the MacGyver blend example, the metonymy ‘MacGyver’ motivates the metaphorical blend theresa is macgyver because it stands for the most salient part of MacGyver – the fact that he can make something great with very few resources. Without going through the process of metonymy, the blend could not be successful.

What are Metaphor and Metonymy?  21

Metonymy’s importance should not be underestimated and recent scholarship in cognitive linguistics reveals that it ‘plays a vital role at every level of the language hierarchy’ and ‘serves a whole variety of essential communicative functions,’ such as giving nuance, emphasis and spin, and it is an essential tool in the language toolbox (Denroche, 2015: 105). In addition, metonymy often has the ‘potential to be a more manipulative trope than metaphor because it is more subtle and less likely to be noticed’ and it can have ‘a stronger more lasting effect on the development of people’s worldviews than metaphor’ (Littlemore, 2015: 102, 104). Although I have alluded to the frequent interaction between metonymy and metaphor, I will not go into detail about these interactions in the book, instead concentrating on what we can learn by studying the metaphors and metonymies used by the participants to talk about immigration. For those readers interested in a more detailed account of metonymy as well as its distinction from and interaction with metaphor, the following resources are quite helpful: Benczes et al., 2011; Bierwiaczonek, 2013; Denroche, 2015; Littlemore, 2015). Following Barcelona’s (2011: 38) argument that ‘Metonymic motivation of metaphors is the rule, not the exception,’ I will look at metonymies as the larger process that leads or motivates the majority of the metaphors found. Although I will not discuss each metonymy, many of them will be listed as examples of MLE in Tables 11.1 to 11.4 found in Chapter 11. In addition, recognizing that metonymy is the ‘underlying construal operation responsible for social stereotypes’ (Hart, 2010: 141), and that ‘we must study metonymy as being embedded in authentic discourse’ (Brdar-Szabó & Brdar, 2011: 218), I will examine specific metonymies related to how participants refer to themselves in discourse and how they represent others’ perceptions of them (see Tables 11.3 and 11.4). The following section will review literature that explores metaphor analysis of talk (the work of this book) and its use in understanding participant conceptualizations of immigration.

Methodology ‘Metaphor analysis can be conducted on any kind of text, whether naturally occurring or collected from interviews or focus groups’ (Todd & Harrison, 2008: 492). I agree with Armstrong et al. (2011: 153) that ‘metaphor analysis can be a valuable tool for uncovering participant conceptualizations, particularly for purposes of understanding learners’ conceptualizations in educational settings.’ As follows, we will look at the findings of the metaphor/metonymy analysis as one way in which to

22  Part 1: Beginnings

inform teaching practices with migrant students by examining the metaphors participants used to talk about the immigration experience in their interviews, and thus ‘project and reveal a world’ (Ricoeur, 2003: 108) as experienced by the globally mobile. While examples of metaphor in language use (talk) cannot give researchers direct access to thought or mental representations, they can offer traces of activity from which inferences can be made. Hence metaphor analysis, as a qualitative research tool, will allow us to examine the conceptual metaphors invoked by metaphoric linguistic expressions (MLEs) articulated by speakers to ‘provide some insight into their thought patterns and understandings’ of immigration (Cameron & Low, 1999; de Guerrero & Villamil, 2002 as cited in Armstrong et al., 2011: 151). My goal in using metaphor/metonymy analysis is to ‘get a glimpse of the conceptual metaphors of participants, which consist of the socio-cognitive connections that enable them to relate one concept to another, through close analysis of the linguistic expressions with which they are systematically linked’ (de Guerrero & Villamil, 2002 as cited in Armstrong et al., 2011: 151). Examining metaphors/metonymies in talk adds an extra layer to the analysis of interview data, such as the thematic discussions presented in Part 2 of this book. Regarding metaphor in talk, Cameron (2008: 197) posits, In talk, metaphor is a shifting, dynamic phenomenon that spreads, connects, and disconnects with other thoughts and other speakers, starts and restarts, flows through talk developing, extending, changing. Metaphor in talk both shapes the ongoing talk and is shaped by it… People use metaphor to think with, to explain themselves to others, to organize their talk, and their choice of metaphor often reveals – not only their conceptualizations – but also, and perhaps more importantly for human communication, their attitudes and values. Thus, the metaphors that migrants use to tell their stories can be seen as a facilitator ‘by enabling emotionally difficult topics to be talked about indirectly’ (Cameron, 2008: 204). Metaphor ‘can also offer speakers a “third space” in which to align or to negotiate towards deeper understanding of the other’ (Cameron, 2008: 207) since speakers ‘shape and shift metaphor as they work towards greater understanding or less distance.’ Keeping this in mind, the analysis was careful to exclude metaphors that were provoked by the language of the researchers doing the interviews. That is, if the interviewer posed the question ‘Describe your immigration journey,’ and then the participant used this same expression in the interview, then the researcher would have provoked this metaphor by using the word ‘journey’

What are Metaphor and Metonymy?  23

and thus it might not reveal how the participant viewed the experience but rather how the researcher perceived it. Although applying metaphor analysis to interview data is a fairly new approach, there is a good amount of research available that explains how to go about doing this as well as the caveats and methodological difficulties of doing so (Armstrong et al., 2011; Cameron & Low, 1999; Charteris-Black, 2014; Kövecses, 2002; Low, 2003; Semino et al., 2000; Steen et al., 2010; Todd & Harrison, 2008). One of the major problems related to metaphor analysis is the ‘difficulty of agreeing on exactly what is and is not a metaphor, which ultimately remains up to the native speaker or researcher’s judgment (Todd & Harrison, 2008: 492). Armstrong et al. (2011: 153) concur, proposing that ‘qualitative approaches to metaphor analysis are most effective when an intentional plan for triangulation is built into the research design.’ According to Todd and Harrison (2008: 489), ‘In many metaphor studies, only one person identifies and analyzes the metaphors. Although this is often the most convenient way to analyze the data, it may be preferable to have a second coder for at least some of the data.’ In support of this research, triangulation for this book occurred between myself and my graduate assistant after each iteration of metaphor analysis.5 In terms of how metaphors were identified, the first manual coding helped us to take in the context of the discourse and to identify ‘a set of “key words” from a particular semantic field before searching the corpus on the basis of both intuition and previous studies’ (Charteris-Black, 2014: 180). We then drew on online dictionaries and Google searches to ‘confirm or reject initial decisions’ and to establish ‘whether there is a more basic sense of a word, and corpora to identify whether the word is usually metaphorical’ (Charteris-Black, 2014: 180). Following Todd and Harrison’s (2008) advice on what to do with an ‘interesting metaphor’ or metaphors we had a hard time categorizing, we first checked the surrounding text to see if the metaphor was part of a cluster and if so, we tried to connect the metaphor in question to a group of metaphors. This allowed us to ‘give added insight into what the metaphor means’ (Todd & Harrison, 2008: 490). After analysis we asked ourselves whether the metaphor was ‘systematic and underlying the text as a whole’ and we checked the metaphors we came up with against lists in the literature (such as those given by George Lakoff) and to be certain that the metaphor was not first used by the researcher (Todd & Harrison, 2008: 491). Finally, upon completion of the analysis and the creation of the charts, I explain the major findings and give examples of dominant metaphors used by the participants to talk about immigration (in Chapter 11). The next chapter will briefly discuss previous research related to metaphors used in media discourse to talk about immigration and migrants.

24  Part 1: Beginnings

Notes (1) In cognitive linguistics, the convention is to use small caps to refer to conceptual metaphors and metonymies as seen here. (2) Many thanks to Sevda Budak for this example, and to Ana M. Rivero and Lyrica Lucas for their presentation in my doctoral class (and participation from all my doctoral students) which led to my discovery of this interesting metaphor. (3) Note that in cognitive linguistics, simile such as in this example, are counted as metaphor. (4) It is important to mention that besides CBT, recent studies (such as that of Steen (2008), Deignan (2005) and Cameron (2008)) highlight the emergent and creative meaning of metaphor as well as the use of metaphor as a flexible resource during discourse (Denroche, 2015: 39). In these studies, the researchers have noted the intentional use of metaphor to shape discourse events and the way in which metaphors are adapted in the flow of talk to make difficult topics approachable, such as when they are used in dialogue to ‘distance’ or ‘de-emphasize’ ‘when the topic of talk is uncomfortable’ (Cameron, 2008: 203). While the emphasis of this book will be more on understanding the migration experience through metaphor, the work of Steen, Deignan and Cameron is helpful in understanding the many functions of metaphors in talk. (5) Both my research assistant and I began analysis by reading the entire file and manually coding it for metaphors. My research assistant then began the first iteration of the MAXQDA analysis using both our manual codes to perform the coding with MAXQDA and adding onto this, checking for anything that was missed during the hand coding. We did this several times, and only after several readings of the complete file, we discovered that we were coding with some data that should not have been included in the analysis. Therefore, we began again, first extracting the erroneous section and then conducting a new analysis. We then met several times to discuss the metaphors and debate the placement of certain MLEs, and again when the metaphor tables were created. After we created the metaphor tables, we examined the examples, made final adjustments and calculated percentages.

4 Media Discourse and Migrants

Across a variety of disciplines and ranging from various theoretical foundations, there exists a substantial body of research on media discourse and the topic of metaphor/metonymy of immigration/migrants (Burke, 2010; Catalano & Waugh, 2013; Charteris-Black, 2006; Chavez, 2001; Chilton, 2004; Cisneros, 2008; Ellis & Wright, 1998; Hart, 2010; Musolff, 2010; Nelkin & Michaels, 1998; O’Brien, 2003; Ono & Sloop, 2002; Santa Ana et al., 1998; Santa Ana, 2002, 2013; Semino, 2008). This research has determined several major metaphorical themes for migrants/immigration in which they are placed in the frames of war, illness/disease, parasites/animals, inorganic material, crime and water (Musolff, 2012, 2015; Richardson & Wodak, 2009; Santa Ana, 2013; Wodak, 2014). While there is not time to provide a detailed review of all the research, I will attempt to summarize and give examples of some of the major findings in each of these main themes. In terms of metaphors of war, Hart (2010: 144–146) provides convincing evidence from immigration discourse in Britain of how text-producers often employ the ‘metaphorical strategy of militarization and present immigration as an invasion and immigrants as invaders.’ The following examples demonstrate this: (The Sun, 17 May 2002) The invasion of Britain by illegal immigrants continues unabated. (Daily Mail, 14 December 2005) The committee was also told that officials in the front line of the battle against illegal immigration have to consider around 50 cases every day. (Hart, 2010: 144, 146)

25

26  Part 1: Beginnings

In the case of many of the metaphors found in the research, metonymy plays an essential role such as in highlighting the legal status of migrants (e.g. illegal), which motivates the metaphor immigrants are criminals, and in setting up the frames such as nation as a house/container (Burke, 2010; Charteris-Black, 2006; Santa Ana, 2002). In this frame, doors stand for immigration policies and migrants are the invaders trying to get in, or the insects or dirt contaminating the house and the people in it with diseases. Ono and Sloop (2002) found similar metaphors of war and nation as a house in their analysis of debates about California’s Proposition 187, as well as Johnson (2005) in his analysis of debates surrounding Arizona’s Proposition 203. Ellis and Wright (1998) examined the ‘balkanization’ metaphor in which migrants were portrayed in US discourse as threats to society, responsible for ethnic division. In this analysis, migrants were represented as dangerous animals, social ills, physical burdens or ailments. Some examples of the metaphors of illness/disease/parasites can be found in O’Brien (2003: 43) where discourse regarding migrants viewed them as ‘parasites on the oak of national prosperity [that] should be eradicated’ and as ‘a big swarm of mosquitoes, infested with malaria and yellow fever germs.’ Another example of these metaphors can be seen in online discourse about immigration to Britain from Bulgaria and Romania (Fielder & Catalano, 2015). (The Telegraph, 19 February 2014 online comments): rosierosierosie Let’s start with the deluge of Romanian beggars infesting the streets of major UK cities pushing their belongings round in stolen supermarket trolleys. The above example demonstrates a combination of water + contamination metaphors (seen through metonymies of deluge + infesting + Romanian beggars) in which Romanians are conflated with Roma (not all Romanians are Roma, yet the metonymy Romanian beggars really stands for Roma) and all Roma are seen as beggars (undesirables). The use of the water metaphor combines well with infestation/contamination because a deluge is an unwanted body of water that causes damage and can wreak havoc. Research on immigration discourse in the US has also shown evidence of animal metaphors such as in Santa Ana’s analysis of immigration discourse in the LA Times (Santa Ana, 1999, 2002: 201) seen below: The truth is, employers hungering for really cheap labor hunt out the foreign workers (9 June 1992: D–3).

Media Discourse and Migrants  27

More recently,

(Santa Ana, 2013) has replaced in general news coverage of migrants in the United States, such as in the following example from Santa Ana (2013: 160): immigrants are criminals

immigrants are animals

I’m not allowing illegals to stay in this country,’ said Virginia Representative Virgil Goode… Finally, many examples of immigrants are water and immigration as flow of dangerous water have been found in immigration discourse. The following examples are discussed in Hart (2010: 150 and 153): (The Independent, 21 January 2002) A team of senior British immigration officials has also been posted to Bosnia to set up controls at borders which are leaking up to 50000 illegal immigrants a year to Western Europe. (The Sun, 21 May 2002) With illegal immigrants flooding into Britain this back door should have been bolted long ago. These metaphors are dangerous because by mapping the characteristics of water onto immigrants, they imply that ‘immigrants are inanimate and therefore do not have motives, intention and volition’ (Hart, 2010: 149). In addition, migrants are dehumanized, and seen as a single mass (water is a non-count noun) which ‘masks individuality and simplifies it so all cases can be treated the same way’ (Hart, 2010: 149). This dehumanization is noted by Paulo Freire as a strategy of those who oppress and notes that ‘the more the oppressors control the oppressed, the more they change them into apparently inanimate “things”’ (1970/2012: 59). These metaphors also succeed in blending the characteristics of undesirable immigrants onto all immigrants. In summary, research that examines metaphors used to talk about migrants and immigration has yielded overwhelming evidence of a negative representation through the use of metaphors such as immigrants are criminals, water, parasites, animals, illness/disease and immigration is dangerous flowing water and war. Obviously, this does not present migrants in a good light, and many of the migrants who participated in this book had experiences that may have resulted from people’s stereotypes or perceptions due to the entrenchment1 of these metaphors. At this point, you may be wondering why it was necessary to provide this overview of the metaphors used to talk about immigration/migrants by others (as opposed to migrants themselves). I believe this was necessary in

28  Part 1: Beginnings

order to present the way others view migrants as a point of comparison for how migrants view themselves and the migration process. We will now begin the storytelling part of this book. In the next six chapters, you will read detailed stories of migration as told by participants in this study. As you read, keep in mind what you have learned about metaphor and metonymy and what they tell us about the migrant experience.

Note (1) Charteris-Black (2014: 267) explains entrenchment as a way of processing metaphors where there is no longer any active comparison (because the metaphor has been used so often, it has become naturalized, and people no longer connect it to its original meaning). He gives the example of ‘blight,’ which has taken on a ‘general meaning of “harmful entity” rather than a specific disease affecting potatoes.’

Part 2 The Stories

I believe that one can never leave home. I believe that one carries the shadows, the dreams, the fears and dragons of home under one’s skin, at the extreme corners of one’s eyes, and possibly in the gristle of the earlobe. (Maya Angelou, 2014: 5)

A Word about Part 2 This section of the book contains a brief explanation of the major motivations and characteristics of participants, followed by a few example stories and discussion for each category. Although the participants have been placed under particular categories, migration is complex, and rarely does one category (e.g. reason for migrating) characterize an entire experience. Thus, these categories are designed to highlight the main similarities between stories; readers must keep in mind that each individual has undergone a vastly different experience with complex and overlapping reasons for (trans) migrating. Stories selected to be re-told here were chosen based on the following criteria: (1) Variety of gender (making sure that a roughly equal number of female/ male stories were told). (2) Variety of countries of origin and destination countries. (3) Prototypical representation of category and variety of story types within the category. (4) Identification of issues related to the book’s focus. As with others engaged in narrative inquiry, I am inspired by ‘a view of human experience in which humans individually and socially, lead storied lives’ (Clandinin, 2006: 45), and I draw on Dewey’s (1938) criteria to create 29

30  Talking About Global Migration

a narrative experience. This means that I view narrative inquiry as a way of understanding experience, and in Dewey’s view, as a way of understanding individuals in relation to social context and as part of a continuum in terms of their past, present and future experiences (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000). Therefore, I am committed not to just looking at the immigration experiences on their own, but looking at them in relation to the participants’ continuing and constantly changing lives. Hence, the stories told in the next sections are not divorced from their contexts, and some explanation of the political, social or economic situations of the migrants is often needed in order to fully understand their stories and provide the necessary context about what may have influenced their decisions in the past, which is why the discussion section has been included for each story. Because the stories were originally interviews, they have been re-told in narrative form, but wherever possible, direct quotes have been inserted in order to maintain the integrity of the story and bring forward the voices of the migrants as much as possible. In addition, there is a great variety in length. Some of the interviews lasted hours, while others lasted 30 minutes. This variety in length was necessary in order to give participants the freedom to talk more or less, depending on how much they were willing to say. Because some of the interviews involved bringing back painful memories, it was important to me to never push a participant to talk about topics which brought them discomfort. Therefore, some stories go into great depth while others tell short, succinct details. In the same light, some of the discussions following each story are much longer and include more themes to discuss. Some of them include a discussion of a dominant metaphor/metonymy found in the story, and others do not. Furthermore, some of the stories are more directly connected to educational responses to global migration than others. This is due to the fact that some of the interviews were shorter and carried less information worth discussing, and less ‘teachable moments’ that could inform teaching practices and so there were less discussion bullets for these stories.

What to Look for? Before we begin, I would like to make sure that readers have an idea of what to look for while reading the stories so that they will be attuned to these things when they come up in later chapters. First, one of the main purposes of this section is to expose readers to many different individual experiences so that their perception of ‘migrant’ becomes more open and versatile. Therefore, as you read, make note of the various experiences found under the same category, but also how different each story is from the other.

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Relating to this, think about what you have read about migrants and what you have seen in media reports about migration and migration issues. How are migrants represented in this discourse and how do these stories differ from what you have heard or read? Third, the discussions following each story are designed to bring up important themes that relate to teachers in some way, but they are also issues that come up in the stories that serve as a type of ‘teachable moment.’ Finally, as you read, attend to the metaphors participants use to talk about their experiences, i.e. what things are they comparing when they talk about migrating? For example, if a participant says that integrating into local culture was a ‘long road’ and she had just taken the ‘first step,’ she is comparing integration to a journey. If he says that it was like ‘being thrown into a wild ocean,’ he is comparing migration to dangerous waters. As you read, attempt to pay attention to these metaphors as much as possible. Then in Chapter 11, I will discuss the metaphors and metonymies found in the stories but also in interviews that are not presented as stories here, since there were close to 80 stories collected. I will also explain why it is important for us to consider these metaphors and how they can inform teaching practices. In the same light, be aware of words migrants use to refer to themselves and words they say others use to talk about them (i.e. metonymies). These too, give us important information that I will describe in more detail and relate back to teaching in Chapter 11.

5 Adventure Migrants

I decided to begin the stories with adventure migrants because they are not often thought of under the umbrella term ‘migrant’ and because Michi was the first participant interviewed for the study. Adventure migrants are defined in this book as people who are largely motivated by the ‘desire to explore other cultures’ (Kennedy, 2010: 472). These migrants are also referred to in the literature as working holiday makers (WHMs) (Clarke, 2005), expatriates or expats (Gatti, 2009) and urban migrants (Reyneri, 2004). Often, adventurers are ‘young, childless, on career breaks, and thus are extensively, frequently and speedily mobile’ (Clarke, 2005: 317). In addition, they are often ‘highly skilled, well-educated, and view emigration “as an adventure,” as a personal choice, and do not plan to return’ (Reyneri, 2004: 1146). These migrants often emigrate because they wish to experience change and a new lifestyle. It is important to me that the stories of adventure migrants are told because so often people that don’t fit the traditional idea of ‘migrant’ are overlooked in the educational realm (and elsewhere), yet they have needs and experiences often similar to other migrants. The following participants and their stories fall under this category.

Michi: Germany → United States He never intended to stay in the United States. In 1990, Michael (or Michi, as his friends call him) and his girlfriend, who were dedicated fans of Melissa Etheridge living in Köln (Cologne), Germany, were invited to follow her and the band to England to see them play. They enjoyed it so much, they decided to continue on for the US tour and ended up in New York City. Since they were also huge Bruce Springsteen fans, they could not resist the temptation to visit Springsteen’s hometown – Freehold, New Jersey. They took a Greyhound bus from New York City to Freehold, assuming that they would 33

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be able to get a hotel once they arrived. Unfortunately, because of a local convention, all of the hotels were booked, and they had nowhere to stay. After trudging along the street for five minutes (lugging their heavy suitcases with them), a large SUV stopped and two soccer moms got out and said, ‘You guys look lost.’ These middle-aged women, strangers to Michi and his girlfriend, offered them a place to stay, and, because they knew the area, took them to a club where Springsteen was known to play and hang out (and where they ended up seeing his second wife, Patty Scialfa). To Michi, this event was a turning point. Reflecting on that night he says, This entire experience was I think really important because it… it was an experience that I’ve never had before in my life in – in Germany or even in Europe, you know like, in general just, I’ve never had this experience and this kind of sort of… friendliness and openness on… some level [it] was remarkable and I think that sort of very much shaped our idea of going to the US. These events led Michi to leave his studies in Köln to do what many young German students did at the time – travel abroad for a year, learn English and have fun. It was 1992, right after the unification of Germany, and, suspicious of a greater and stronger Germany that was taking a ‘dangerous turn toward some greater national sentiment,’ Michi had his doubts about the political zeitgeist, making it easier for him to leave his country with his girlfriend and take off on a new adventure to the US. Michi and his girlfriend had a passion for music; thus, their original plan was to study in Athens, Georgia so as to be near one of their favorite bands – R.E.M. However, due to a reality check (in terms of finances), they settled with studying at Georgia State in Atlanta. Supported by his parents, Michi studied (after initially failing most of his classes because he was more committed to having fun than attending lectures), simultaneously managing to fulfill his musical dreams following his favorite bands around the country attending concerts, making friends with musicians and tour managers and even becoming a tour bus driver for the Ellen James Society band. These experiences of being a groupie and traveling around the US, making friends and discovering what the new culture was all about, made Michi realize that he did not want to go back – he wanted to stay. He liked his new life in the US – he liked the diversity that Atlanta had to offer, and the friendliness and openness of the American people he had come to meet. Then, after a tense phone call with his parents a year after he had been in the US, he realized that if he wanted to continue his adventure, he would

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need to be able to support himself. Although his F-1 visa status did not allow him to work off-campus, he figured out a way around this limitation and was eventually able to land a job as a pizza delivery person, which helped to support him through school. Adjustment to life in the US was not easy, but because he came from a ‘privileged position of immigration,’ in which he had the money to study and travel, and nine years of experience learning English (along with a good education in general), Michi acknowledges that his experience was easier than many others. He notes that, When I look around… my story of immigration is vastly different from – I think the majority insofar as that it’s not out of economic need, not of political persecution, or violence or anything. It was purely voluntary so to speak. Even my unease about German politics – it has nothing to do with being persecuted or anything else… So, it’s a privileged position to be in… which also it allows me the privilege to not – to say I do not have anything to do with my community, right? Like, like meaning, I’m not going to drift toward the Germans or the German speaking – which I think is often what the immigration story is about, right? Like, the Chinese people end up in Chinese communities and… you know… like Italians then there’s little Italy. And… the Irish have you know – and so on. And that’s the last thing I wanted because I wanted to actually… be if you will, exposed to… those who are not like me in some – on that level. … and so… the decision that we made at the time… was the right decision I think. Like meaning to not to… seclude ourselves by, you know, by looking up which bar is it where the Germans do hangout. … and I think life became also very easy for us because we were then very quickly, you know, hooked into sort of the local social economies and you know like the ability to make friends and… a lot of doors opened up as a result of this, you know. Michi can locate the first time he really felt that he ‘had made it.’ It was when he realized he had dreamt in English. Despite his great success in integrating socially, Michi also explains that his desire to integrate had negative effects on his own language and identity. This sharp rejection of his own culture and identity caused him to refuse to write or speak German for long periods of time, which he felt he needed to do, in order to acquire English. In fact, even when he visited Germany and began speaking German again, he noticed that he would make German sentences as if he was ‘building English sentences’ and that people would ask him ‘What’s going on with your German?’

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After his initial first year of enjoying himself and adjusting to his new life, he got serious about his studies, and while still managing to continue a life that revolved around music, concerts and travel, he graduated from Georgia State in 1995. After one of his professors (a German migrant himself) encouraged him to continue on to graduate school, he went on to do his Masters and PhD at Penn State where he got a degree in English, specializing in 20th-century American Literature and Theory. When asked what the key to his success was, Michi points to a professor who made a difference. In his senior year, he wrote a paper about Faulkner and Nietzsche and his professor (who happened to be the editor for the main journal in William Faulkner Studies) told him that he had never seen Michi’s argument made before, and that he could publish his work. This professor then helped him to prepare the paper for publication, and when it was eventually accepted, it was a major factor in his acceptance to Penn State. Michi says he can to some extent ‘draw like a clear cut cause and effect line’ of exactly how and when people like this professor contributed to his success, and he knows that in Germany a professor would not have offered to ‘spend some time together’ to revise and polish a paper with a student. According to Michi, ‘There was a certain, you know, genuine-ness on his part… for me to do well – like he wished for me to do well. He saw something in me.’ This experience was then repeated again in graduate school, and reflecting upon this, Michi adds, ‘I think this has shaped me more than anything in terms of like how I sort of think about my students today.’ Michi notes that now as a professor himself, he helps to actualize students’ potential just as his professors helped him. In essence, the transformative experience of writing something and seeing it in print (that only came about because of the encouragement and guidance given to him by his professor) gave him confidence and ‘a good feeling’ that he wanted to repeat, which fed his desire to stay and enabled him to continue his success.

Discussion Privilege Michi’s story (as he says himself) is one of privilege and cannot be readily compared with those who come without the social, physical (because his appearance is relatively similar to Caucasian Americans), economic and linguistic capital that he brought with him. Coming from Western Europe, Michi’s social mirror (Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 2001) (that is the way the person sees him/herself in relation to how society views him/her)

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was largely positive, and he most likely ‘benefited from positive expectations of his competence as a result of being [a member] of a “model minority”’ (Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 2001: 99). In addition, he had a basic competence in the language, intrinsic motivation to learn English (due to his interest in music), the financial support and a strong educational background to serve as a basis for his university studies. Although Michi’s story is one of success, it was not necessarily easy, and it is important to recognize that there are many international students like Michi, who do not start out wanting to emigrate, but who end up doing so for various reasons, and contribute much to their receiving societies.

Language attrition Integration into the receiving culture is desirable for many reasons, partly because it aids in adjustment to the new culture but also because it contributes to a higher level of well-being (Phinney et al., 2001; Smokowski & Bacallao, 2010). The fact that Michi’s German deteriorated due to his desire to integrate into the receiving culture is not unusual (Yoshizawa Meaders, 1997). Often, assimilation (which means adapting to the cultural norms and ways of the receiving culture at the risk or to the detriment of the first culture) is accompanied by language attrition or loss (among other negative effects). However, it is not uncommon (such as in Michi’s case later in his life) for full proficiency to return with increased access to the mother tongue (or L1 as it is referred to in the literature) (Schmid, 2002). Prescher (2007) found that some German migrants in the Netherlands described their linguistic and cultural changes as a fundamental change in their conceptions of self. They discussed feeling ‘in-between,’ ‘living in a no-man’s-land,’ ‘feeling forlorn’ (Prescher, 2007: 198). In the case of Michi, because he comes from a position of privilege (and during the political and social context of the time, a culture with a certain level of prestige attached to it in the US context), and was an adult, having begun a formal university education in his first language, this language attrition did not cause him great trouble. He was still successful in an American university context, as many international students are. After many years of living in the US, he has been able to re-gain his German proficiency but still does not feel confident publishing papers in German since most of his academic writing skills were learned in English. Thus, it is important here to make the distinction between Michi’s case and others, in the sense that assimilation worked for him with only a small cost, whereas for many others (particularly those coming from low prestige minority groups, and those without an extensive education in their first language) assimilation (particularly in youths) can be associated with many

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negative effects such as high-risk sexual activity, alcohol and substance use, violence and poor diet (Smokowski & Bacallao, 2010: 132). Thus, a more bicultural approach (learning the new language and culture while maintaining and developing the first) is a more desirable goal that can result in higher quality of life, psychological adjustment, cognitive flexibility, social interest, familism and lower levels of depression and conflict for migrants in general (Smokowski & Bacallao, 2010: 132).

Education isn’t just about a career George Bernard Shaw is famously credited with saying that the only time his education was interrupted was when he went to school (Postman & Weingartner, 1971). Perhaps another lesson to be learned from Michi’s story can be found in the benefits he gained by taking time off to pursue his passion for music while simultaneously interacting socially with people from the receiving culture and not worrying about his career and job skills throughout his time at the university. In this day and age in which the humanities have been greatly downsized, there is increasing pressure for students to study ‘practical’ fields that will lead them to profitable careers, whereas the ability to imagine, empathize and identify with common human predicaments is greatly under-valued (Nussbaum, 2010). Study/ travel abroad experiences such as Michi’s, in which he pursued something he was passionate about (which eventually led to his emigration from Germany to the US) provide non-traditional learning opportunities for people to ‘see the world through the lens of many types of vulnerability, cultivating a rich imagination’ and to ‘understand interdependency, as democracy and global citizenship both require’ (O’Brien, 2003). Thus, it is important not to underestimate the significance and value of learning something for the sake of it (and because of a personal passion), not necessarily for career purposes. Such experiences of exploring the wonders of the world allow us to approach one another soul-to-soul and connect to people in a ‘rich, subtle, and complicated manner’ (Nussbaum, 2010: 6).

You can make a difference When Michi’s professor took the time to tell him that he had potential, and worked with him to publish a paper that led to the beginning of a successful career in academia, it made a great difference in his life. In the case of vulnerable populations such as migrant students, this matters more than ever; because school can be daunting when content is not delivered in a language the student can understand. Often these students receive negative

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feedback from the moment they begin school because they are evaluated with assessments meant for native speakers (imposed on them by federal or state policies that do not take into account the five to eight years it takes to gain academic competency in a second language). In these instances, we must be careful not to underestimate the power we educators have to make a difference in a student’s life by recognizing their efforts or giving them encouragement.

Languages are buildings When Michi notices that when he speaks German, he is often building English sentences, he has activated a sub-category of the structural metaphor theories are buildings (Kövecses, 2010). Of course, language is an abstract concept – we do not have wood or bricks or anything else that we can build sentences with and sentences are not objects we can maneuver, physically putting one on top of the other. Michi uses this metaphor as a concrete way of understanding how his brain perceives language, and the way in which syntactic cross-linguistic influence (CLI) occurs. What he is attempting to explain by saying that he ‘builds’ sentences in German like he would in English, is that he is using English syntax rules in his linguistic system to create sentences when he should be using German syntax rules, which would result in a different sentence. An example of this might be the sentence ‘I like dogs because they’re friendly’ [Ich mag Hünde, weil sie freundlich sind]. Using English syntax, Michi might say ‘Ich mag Hünde, weil sie sind freundlich,’ which would be incorrect, because it would be incorporating English rules into a German sentence. From a teacher perspective, using metaphors such as languages are buildings can be helpful when getting students to understand their language errors and how they occur.

Sachin: India → Jamaica Like Michi, as a young college student, Sachin wanted to ‘see the beautiful wonders of the world.’ Having just graduated, Sachin left India for Jamaica to work for his uncle, who owned a chain of high-end jewelry shops there. His original plan was to go to Jamaica for a few years, get some experience, and go back. But he decided to stay because he liked the people. He has now lived in Jamaica for 22 years. He notes, ‘You know. It’s a country of 3 million people that was nice… very friendly people and happy tourists from all over the world because when people go on vacation, they are very happy. When

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you choose [a] vacation spot like Jamaica, you have happy people all around you so it makes you happy as well.’ When Sachin first came to Jamaica, India was very conservative at the time. He notes, Remember in the East, it is very conservative, culturally conservative society, but because I’m a college-educated person, I wanted to broaden my horizons, and this has worked really well… when people come to the Western world, they are broad minded, open minded. It’s not… it’s a free for all, you really work hard and you get to appreciate it, but since I have left India, in 22 years that I have been here, India has become like that too. As a matter a fact, as much broad minded as it is here now. Internet has create[d] very old boundaries now… Since living in Jamaica, Sachin believes that the experiences he has had because of his move have made him more mentally and emotionally mature, and he has become stronger. He does note, however, that had he remained in India, he would probably be better off financially, as many of his friends who stayed there are now. However, if he could do it all over again, he would choose Jamaica, because ‘it has been a beautiful life.’ He is very happy with the decision he made to move (and his wife and son also joined him later) and feels that human migration does, in essence, one important thing: It broadens your horizons. It brings more understanding to what you hear and see on T.V… [it] is different than when you experience it, one firsthand, because when you come on this side of the world, any country, any migration, you see everybody is doing the same thing, everybody has the same aspirations. But culturally, people have different approaches to doing the same thing. That is the only difference. Sachin emphasizes that people are always trying to reach the same goals; however, because traditions are different, they do this in different ways, and often, with different priorities. He believes that before people migrate, they take things for granted. But when they move to another country, they must take everything seriously because they do not always have their ‘near and dear ones’ next to them. To Sachin, migration is ‘like putting a man in water who doesn’t know how to swim. He will learn to swim, which he would probably not do in his own pond, but if you throw a man overboard, in a foreign ship, this is what makes a person.’ The experience of being forced to face exceptional challenges (such as mental, physical, emotional and financial ones) with no one to help, renders a person able to make it on his/

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her own. In the end, he believes, ‘it’s always a fruitful experience because experiences good or bad make a person wiser.’

Discussion Not everyone migrates to wealthy countries India and Jamaica have a long shared history beginning in 1845 when the first indentured workers from India were brought to the country. Sought out by the Jamaican government (along with workers from China), most of these workers intended to return to India bringing their earnings with them, although for various reasons many ended up staying, and they have contributed much to Jamaican society (e.g. foods such as curry goat, the smoking of Ganja – first introduced to Jamaica from India, and Indian jewelry like the gold bangles sold by Sachin’s uncle) (Tortello, 2003). Currently, it is estimated that there are 70,000 Indians still living in Jamaica, many of whom are descendants or relatives of the original indentured servants who came to the country many years ago. Typically, people think of migrants as people who travel to developed, wealthy countries, usually looking for financial improvement. Cases like Sachin’s, in which established families that emigrated earlier for involuntary reasons continue to have ties to their countries of origin and result in new migration to the country, are often overlooked, which is one reason why I chose his story to be told. For Sachin, what started out as a short business adventure became a lifestyle, in which he chose happiness and being around happy people over financial opulence. In today’s global society, more and more people are embracing migration for reasons other than financial security, and quality of life (when all else is equal, and basic needs are met) is something that is emerging more and more to the forefront as a reason for moving families and transforming lives.

Immigration is cultivation This powerful positive metaphor was dominant in Sachin’s story (and others) and reveals the reason why so many people take great risks and face great danger to go to live in a new country. When Sachin says it’s always a fruitful experience, he is comparing life experiences to the natural event of a plentiful harvest. Examples of this metaphor pointed largely to the benefits that learning another language and culture as well as social interaction with people from diverse backgrounds has to offer. This finding not only underscores the importance of study abroad opportunities for all students but also the value

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of creating opportunities for second language students as well as students that study abroad to have out-of-school activities in which interaction with locals is integrated into the program. If migrants or study abroad students don’t have multiple and varied opportunities to interact with locals, they are not able to ‘sow the seeds’ of this incredible cultivation. This finding that interactions with receiving country people lead to cultivation has powerful far-reaching implications for the education of migrant students in that many migrant students end up in schools where they are the majority, or where they encounter mostly minority language students. This type of forced segregation (because parents from White, high/middle-class SES don’t want their kids at these schools) leads to less opportunity for interaction with majority language students, which can make language (and native-like pronunciation) more difficult to acquire. This lack of interaction can also lead to more cultural friction and misunderstandings.

LiHua: China → Japan Even though LiHua is an only child, her parents encouraged her to move to Japan because her mother had worked there many years ago and really enjoyed it. Thus, as an undergraduate, LiHua left Beijing and enrolled in an intensive Japanese program in Kyoto. She eventually moved to Hirosaki where she is currently a graduate student of global business. She wants to stay and continue to work in Japan (perhaps in marketing, but she is not sure) because she likes Japanese culture and is happy there. She says, ‘I like Sakura’ (the Japanese word for cherry blossoms, probably referring to the spring festival season when people go to the parks to have cherry blossom viewing parties) and, ‘People are very friendly.’ Plus, after learning Japanese for ten years, she wants to use it, and she thinks there are more opportunities to take advantage of her bilingualism in Japan than in China. Since living in Japan, LiHua says that her whole way of thinking has changed. She likes how people in Japan have good manners, such as not eating on the street (she never viewed this practice as problematic until she went to Japan, where people consider this bad manners). In addition, in Japan, they stand in straight lines when they are shopping. When LiHua goes back to China, she waits in lines too because she has gotten used to these new ways; however, she adds, ‘I look like I’m stupid’ because no one else forms a line. Although LiHua loves Japan, and wants to live there permanently, it has not always been easy. She remembers once when she was working at a Japanese restaurant named ‘Izakaya,’ a customer who knew she was Chinese

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told her ‘I hate Chinese.’ This saddened her greatly although she knows there is a similar sentiment towards Japanese people in China. Since then, similar comments have been made to her on several other occasions, and she has always responded by defending China but maintaining a friendly tone. When asked why she does this, she responds, ‘I think I have to say it because I’m Chinese – I like China.’ If she could give any recommendations for people that want to migrate, she would tell them that, like her, they will find a lot of surprises and sometimes sad things. What is most important is acceptance. Being accepted does not mean you cannot defend your country of origin if people say bad things about it, but it is important to explore your new country, try new things and new ways of thinking.

Discussion Politics and migration Looking back at the history between China and Japan, it is not surprising that LiHua encountered some negative attitudes toward Chinese people. Separated by only a narrow stretch of ocean, for over 2000 years both countries have been greatly influenced by each other (e.g. the Japanese brought back to Japan Buddhist teachings, writing system, architecture and planning). However, there is also a long history of conflict, with the first battle taking place in ad 663 and most recently, a long chain of invasions and war crimes by Japan in China between the years of 1894 and 1945 (Boyle, 1972). Although Sino-Japanese relations have changed over the years, issues such as the Senkaku Islands dispute continue to rekindle negative feelings between the two countries, and thus it is not surprising that LiHua encountered this in her daily life in Japan. The point worth mentioning here is that shared history and political crises (even minor ones) often have dire consequences for migrants and their feelings of acceptance in their new country, such as the way the historical relations between China and Japan often resulted in uncomfortable moments for LiHua. To give a personal example, when I lived in Turkey in 1998, the leader of the Kurdish workers party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, was captured in Kenya and then for a short time, protected by the Italian government who refused to turn him over to Turkish authorities because of the death penalty. This spurred a short but very intense period of antiItalian sentiment in Turkey at the time. I remember distinctly going outside and seeing a line of protesters burning Italian designer clothes and bags, and I heard about someone setting fire to a Fiat. Because I spoke Italian with my

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family, there was a brief period where we felt we needed to speak Italian very softly and not call attention to ourselves. My husband worked in an Italian Culture Center in the capital city (Ankara) and I remember being frightened about his safety there. This event was only a small blip on the international radar, and fortunately the anti-Italian sentiment quickly faded (perhaps in the mutual business interests of both countries), but for two to three months, it had serious consequences for our lives in Turkey. It is important to recognize that migrants suffer when bad relations occur between their country of origin and their receiving country, and we must remember that our students in these situations may undergo higher levels of stress and anxiety during these periods of political unrest, war, or conflict of any kind. In addition, the political climate toward the migrants’ home country can affect the physical and psychological health and safety of your students, and how welcome they feel in the receiving country. Therefore, it is important that we know where a student is from, and secondly, follow current events so that we can let students know we care about them when serious world events are affecting the health and wellbeing of these students. In the case of LiHua, political relations between China and Japan had a direct effect on how people treated her in Japan, and thus it is important for teachers to counter hostile behaviors to help students feel safe and to be aware of the political climate toward students’ home countries. Besides politics, other events such as natural disasters can affect your students as well, because they may not be able to concentrate if they know loved ones are in danger. For example, at the time this book was written, I had a student living in Nepal, right after the 2015 earthquake (he was in an online class I was teaching). I made the simple gesture of asking my student if his family was ok and if there was anything I could do to help. In addition, sometimes these events lead to more serious needs and in these cases teachers would need to connect students with staff and resources such as counselors, etc. However, if we do not take the time to find out where our students are from in the first place (or follow current events), we may have no idea why they might be experiencing duress.

6 Refugee/Asylum Seekers

When people think of migration, they often think of people that fall into this category. Refugees are ‘generally people outside of their country who are unable or unwilling to return home because they fear serious harm’ (Refugees & Asylum, 2014) and they are people who ‘are escaping to freedom’ (Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 2001). In contrast, asylum seekers meet the above definition of refugee but are already in the receiving country (Refugees and Asylum, 2014). Thus, the main difference between the two is that refugees apply for this status before they leave the CO while asylum seekers do this after they have already escaped/fled on their own. For the purposes of this book, these two categories have been merged because regardless of where the application for refugee/asylum status was made, the motivations were the same: to escape a dangerous or harmful situation in the home country. The following refugee/asylum seeker stories take place in very different countries and contexts, offering a wide and sobering view of the types of experiences these migrants have.

Miljan and Dijana: Bosnia → United States Miljan and Dijana1 are a married couple from Sarajevo. Because they came to the United States together, they chose to tell their stories together. They were successfully able to obtain refugee status to come to the United States because they could prove that they were in danger in Bosnia due to the fact that they were a mixed couple (two different religions). Miljan is Eastern Orthodox and Dijana is Muslim, although neither of them were religious, and before the war it was very common for people of different religions to inter-marry in Bosnia. During and after the war, this mixed religion combination put one of them in danger, depending on where they lived. 45

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Miljan and Dijana have two daughters, Samra and Elena. Six months into the Bosnian war (sometime in 1992), their daughters left Sarajevo to live in Belgrade with friends (and a cousin) of Miljan’s who invited them to stay so they could be safe. At the time, Sarajevo was ‘becoming too dangerous and everyone was trying to get all the children out because there was shooting and bombing everywhere.’ Miljan and Dijana stayed in Sarajevo because Dijana still had a job at the post office (Miljan lost his job as a train conductor – he was fired because he was not Muslim), and one of them needed to work. Moreover, Miljan’s elderly mother was there, and they did not want to leave her, but they also thought the war would end quickly and all would return to normal. It did not. Instead, their daughters (who were 15 and 19 at the time) were separated from them for four years. Although they could speak with them on the phone, they were not able to see them at all. Ironically, although Miljan’s mother lived only 10 kilometers away from them, they could not see her (or even talk with her on the phone) because she lived on the Orthodox side of the city which was separated from Muslim territory (where Miljan and Dijana lived) by the Miljacka river. Miljan acknowledges that he might have been able to get permission to cross over to visit her, but it was very dangerous, and he knew that he would not be able to return if he went. During the war, Miljan and Dijana (like many others) suffered greatly. There were long periods of time where they did not have food or water or electricity. Most days they ate pasta with no salt or anything else. Dijana says, ‘You know what means hungry? When I can count all my bones. And I have to go to work. And I don’t have anything to eat.’ While Dijana was working, Miljan was digging trenches for Bosnian soldiers, a night job that he was forced to do at gunpoint or else go to prison. If he had been on the Orthodox side, he would have had to become a soldier. But because he was of Orthodox religion on the Muslim side, he was made to dig trenches and not allowed to be a soldier, because they did not trust him to carry a gun. Years later, when they moved to Serbian territory (Bosnian Orthodox territory), Dijana (who had worked in the post office for years) was forced to go and work in the fields picking plants. Miljan was given a gun, but he refused to take it, telling them that he was too old, and luckily, they accepted that. Miljan says that many people in the US assume that if one is from Bosnia, one is a Muslim. Miljan specifies that that is not true, such as in his case. When talking about the war, Miljan says, Everything is about religion… Civil war is exactly like in the United States was 1860, 1864 it’s done. That is Civil war but in our country, people try to show… we have Civil war, No. This is a religio[us]

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war. Everybody hate each other. Muslims hate Christian Orthodox and Christian Catholic, Christian Catholic hate Muslim people and Orthodox people. Orthodox people hate, hate, not doesn’t like, hate! My father, when I was young, he taught me never hate anybody. You can [not] like, but never hate. According to Miljan, during the war, the ethnic labels ‘Bosnian Croat,’ ‘Bosniak,’ and ‘Bosnian Serb’ were all code names that stood for (respectively) Catholic, Muslim and Eastern Orthodox religions. Miljan believes that the war was caused by religious differences that came to the surface after the fall of communism and the Bosnian president’s (at the time of the war) desire to make Bosnia the first Muslim country in Europe, ‘which Catholics and Orthodox people and the US were not in favor of.’ After four years of being apart, they were reunited with their daughters in Belgrade. On the subject of reuniting, Miljan says ‘I was born second time.’ They barely recognized their daughters, who had grown from adolescents to women in the time they were apart. After a few years of trying to apply continuously for refugee status, someone told Samra that going to Canada would be much faster. Since they had begun to believe that they would never get out, Samra applied only for her and her sister, thinking that they probably would not get a visa anyway, as they had heard that they would need to pay large sums of money in order to get one. Contrary to what they thought, soon after applying they were contacted by the Canadian embassy in Belgrade and granted a visa. After several years they settled in Vancouver, Canada, and became members of a large Bosnian community there. Because Miljan and Dijana could not go with them, the family was separated once again for several years. Shortly after Samra and Elena left Belgrade, Miljan and Dijana were contacted by the American embassy. After having applied multiple times in the past, they were finally called in for an interview. When asked where they would like to live, Dijana says, ‘We didn’t thought [sic] about that… America is huge country.’ A friend who ‘knows more than we about America’ told them that American people are the friendliest in the middle of the country, and so they picked the Midwest. Thinking back, Dijana regrets that they did not say San Francisco or Seattle, which would have been much closer to their children. Instead, because the interview was so sudden, and they were so happy to be able to get out at all, they ‘didn’t think with our head’ and ended up in the Midwest, some 2000 miles from their daughters in Vancouver. After receiving their visas, they traveled from Belgrade to Milan, Italy and arrived in New York on August 31, 2001, and then transferred to the

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Midwest. One week later the September 11 attacks happened. Dijana remembers how shocked and saddened they were by the events, particularly because they thought they had just escaped war, and that they would be living in peace. ‘When you spend some times in the war,’ she says, ‘and you know how that is all going on. It was really hard morning for us to listen [to] that and watch that because that morning our youngest daughter called and she said there is nothing. Gdje god mi odemo tu je rat. To je štrasno teško.’ [Wherever we are going it is war. It is really difficult]. When asked how their life has changed since moving to the US, both Miljan and Dijana agree that it has changed a lot. Firstly, they had to learn English. They specify that it was especially difficult as they were in their 50s/60s, and it is harder when you are older. When asked whether they felt frustrated sometimes, Miljan says, ‘No! Never.’ However, Dijana says: Not frustrated. Most times, you feel ashamed. This is because it is harder to learn the language. I like to talk to people. And you know to speak, but you don’t know how to speak the right language in the right country. That is the deep feeling. It looks like you are not knowledgeable and you don’t know anything, but you are. They also had to re-learn basic skills, such as how to answer phone calls, find a place to live, find a job, meet other people and speak with them. In addition, after having worked for 30 years or more in Bosnia, in professional jobs, and being close to retirement, they had to start all over again in entry-level factory jobs. When asked what they would like to tell the world about migration, Miljan stresses, Do not start any war. Let’s talk. I like, I love Bill Clinton… I love him. Because he called [in] 1995 the three presidents… in Dayton, Ohio and told them, you will stay here, not move… He stop war. Not Europe. He stop. He stop war in our country. I have experience. I am old. I t[ell] you. Talk, talk, talk, before take gun, tanks, planes, everything. Talk. Dijana remarks, It’s really hard to say but it’s hard to change place where you are born and where you are going to live. And in our case, we thought that it would be better if we go and continue our life in some peaceful place where people, where people do not look at you by your name, by your religion. In our case, we have really nice life here. It’s really nice. We try

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hard to work. To learn English still after several years. It’s hard. Only is the worst part, we are not near our daughters, our family. We live here alone, but we find really nice people here who help us, who welcome us, with nice smiles. Not asking why are you from where you are. That is not important in your life. It’s important what kind of person you are. And your choice in whom you want to be. With whom you want to give a nice word. And we are now happy. Building on this, Miljan adds: You know I work hard, I work very hard. I’m not young. But I told you two things for me in the United States. It’s the best thing in the world. I am an American. After that, if I like to ask you, what is your religion, you can tell me, it’s not your problem or you can tell me, I am Catholic. I am Protestant. But I am an American.

Discussion Erasure Erasure is when ideology renders people, actions or events invisible (Gal & Irvine, 1995). In the case of the Bosnian war, Miljan recognizes how erasure works (although he does not call it that) in making people forget the role of religion in the conflict. Because ethnic labels such as ‘Bosnian Serb’ and ‘Bosnian Croat’ became so prevalent during the war, they became naturalized, and although everyone clearly knew immediately that ‘Bosnian Serb’ referred to someone of Eastern Orthodox faith, it was the ethnicity that was highlighted in this metonymy, which resulted in the backgrounding of the real distinction that was being made. This erasure also acts as a form of silencing, since the real issue (aka religion’s role in the war) is rarely discussed or even mentioned. When asked how people knew which group you were a part of, Miljan and Dijana said their last names immediately indexed their group membership, whether or not they themselves felt a part of this group (or ever even actively engaged in the religious practices of this group). Dijana, for example, never went to mosque, prayed or followed Islamic cultural practices such as not eating pork. Thus, the continual entrenched use of these ethnic labels led people to forget that this distinction did not previously exist – that people such as Miljan, who was considered a Serb, had never lived in Serbia and did not associate himself in any way with Serbia. Before the war, as Miljan and Dijana point out, Sarajevo was a haven where people from many different religions lived as one, together in marriage

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and community. Religious background was never discussed because it did not matter. Both Miljan and Dijana feel that the war changed that, which is one of the reasons why they do not see themselves returning to Bosnia.

Being smart in a new language When talking about their period of adjustment in the United States, Dijana mentions feeling ashamed because she cannot express herself the way she could in her native language. This is a common theme throughout this book, and language emerges as a source of power or the opposite. In Dijana’s case, she felt she could not come across as intelligent in English and that people would never really know the type of thinking she was capable of because she could not articulate her knowledge well in English. Often migrants complain about not being able to argue or be funny in the receiving country language, and thus never really being ‘themselves’ in the new language. People living in countries where their first language is not the dominant language often feel at a linguistic disadvantage, not only because they are unable to convey humor but also because they might lack the language skills necessary for communicating their basic needs in the receiving country language or transitioning into professional careers similar to their previous employment (Rymniak, 2011).

Reuniting is re-birth When Miljan speaks of reuniting with his family, he says he was born second time. This statement illustrates the metaphor reuniting is re-birth in which Miljan compares reuniting with his children to being born again – as if his whole life began again from the beginning. Entailments of this metaphor include the excitement and joy of a new baby coming into the world, and a new and hopeful future for the newborn child, in this case, Miljan. Family reunification (after long separations) can be exuberating, exciting and joyful (such as in Miljan’s situation) but it can also be traumatic, and manifest itself as a ‘long, painful and disorienting ordeal’ that is ‘tainted by loss’ (Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 2001: 66, 69). Taking the time to understand your student’s family situation (e.g. Who are they currently living with? Who are they separated from and for how long?) can go a long way. Whether they are K-12 or adult students, separation from parents or children can be traumatic and it’s important to take the time to learn the family situation of one’s students (see Misi, Ch. 8, pp. 95–96). Transitions between separation and reunification can trigger different reactions including excitement, anticipation and hope but also anxiety, anger,

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depression, somatic complaints and illness. If we know the family situation of our students, we can help them if they experience these type of reactions. In addition, in general, we need to continually recognize the power we have to advocate for our students by using our vote to endorse immigration policies that support families and don’t encourage or result in family separation.

Imran: Iraq → United States To Imran, Iraq was a ‘big prison’ where his ‘future was black.’ During his childhood, Imran was taught that the United States was a ‘big devil’ and that anything bad that happened in the world (such as natural disasters like earthquakes or storms) was caused by the US. He remembers being given spray paint as a schoolboy to write on the walls of the streets, ‘Down, down, down with the USA’ and being told to draw the American flag and walk on it. In 2003, all that changed for Imran. He was 18 years old when the Americans first arrived in Iraq. He had just finished high school (where he had studied English for many years), and his house was one street away from the checkpoint of the Green Zone. He was very curious about the soldiers stationed nearby, so he would often go through his English book to find things to say or ask, and then try them out with the soldiers. The experience of talking with the soldiers regularly made him re-think what he had learned his whole life about all Americans being bad people. He began to question what he had learned in school. He began to question his history books. This led to more conversations and more questions that he asked the soldiers about how they were required to dress and act and whom they could marry and what jobs they had to do. Imran was surprised to hear how much freedom the men had in the way they wanted to lead their lives and in their daily routines and the lack of government interference in their lives. These new realizations were the beginning of his ‘dreams’ to go to the United States. In 2007, Imran graduated from college. Imran was chosen to speak at the ceremony, and he mentioned how he wanted to go to the United States (to his dismay, this announcement was greeted with laughter). After graduation, Imran knew he had two choices in Iraq in order to make money. He could (a) join the Iraqi army, or (b) join the Iraqi police. He chose neither. Desperate for other choices, he became depressed, and he often joined big crowds, hoping there would be an explosion and he would die. Thinking about this dark time, Imran remembers an Arabic proverb: (roughly translated as ‘Either my goal or Najaf’). Najaf is an Iraqi province that contains

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the largest cemetery in the world (filled with posters of young men killed in war, and beautiful flowers on the graves) and thus the expression is more or less about achieving your goals or going to the grave. Imran could not see how his dream of going to America would be realized, and so he began to wish for death. Fortunately, after some time, Imran realized that there might be a way to get to the US after all. He began to hang around Americans as much as possible, and his English became quite good. Someone told him about becoming a linguist for the US (meaning he would be a translator), and so he applied for the position, took the Cambridge English test, did an interview, passed a polygraph test, and he was hired. His first step toward a new life had been taken. Working as a linguist for the US military during the Iraq war was an intensely dangerous, and often thankless job. Linguists like Imran were embedded with particular units, and had American uniforms, but they were not given weapons. Instead, they had helmets that identified them (and also marked them as potential targets) as linguists. According to Imran, linguists were often targeted by Iraqi snipers because they were the only link between the Iraqi forces and American forces and ‘the American forces knew this.’ Apparently the prize given for the head of a linguist at the time was $10,000 – a price groups such as Al Qaeda were willing to pay to ‘get the linguist, videotape him and cut his throat.’ During the war, even as a linguist with no weapon, Imran did many dangerous jobs. He did not care; he was not afraid of death since he felt the alternative of just living in Iraq with no hope was worse. He directed traffic, he examined suspicious objects to make sure they weren’t IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices), and he was an intermediary between the US and ex-Al Qaeda militants that wanted to become Iraqi soldiers (who blamed him for everything that he was ordered to say even though it came from the US forces, not him). One time in 2007, Imran was working in downtown Fallujah, and he saw a car driving very slowly and refusing to move despite repeated honking. As Imran’s vehicle approached the car, the man in the car blew himself up. Imran heard the explosion, but he could not see anything as all became dark. Thinking he had lost his eyes, he managed to escape with the help of the driver. He soon realized that it was not his vision he had lost but that he had shrapnel lodged in the right side of his face. There was a big piece of metal stuck in his cheek, and he was bleeding from his arm and head, unable to hear anything. Imran approached a navy medic asking for help and was told ‘You are my least priority now, I do not have enough suppl[ies] to fix you.’2 Imran found a piece of cloth in the trash and placed it on his bleeding arm and waited for medical air evacuation. He was flown to a hospital in a

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helicopter and stayed there for 4–5 days as they wanted to be sure that there was no gunpowder in his blood system. It was his time in the hospital that led to his next job. In order to kill time in the hospital, he requested an English dictionary to learn English medical terms. The doctors, who were military doctors with ranks, noticed him, and asked him if he would like to stay there and work for them in the hospital. Imran jumped at the opportunity and became a translator for Iraqi soldiers who were hospitalized due to injuries from IEDs or snipers. One downside to doing this job was that he had to undergo frequent background checks and polygraph tests. Reflecting on these experiences Imran notes: And… believe me it was the – the worst experience that I ever have working for Americans is doing this background checks and doing the polygraph test. They make you, the guys or – and the people who does [sic] this, young people, about maybe 30, 29, and they make you feel like you are the worst criminal in the… world. They have some techniques, and – and – way of addressing you that just makes you feel so guilty. Despite the humiliating tests, Imran began to see hope in his life. He found out about a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program in which they accepted 50 people (25 from Iraq, 25 from Afghanistan). One of the requirements to apply for this program was to have a recommendation from a two-star general or from the US Ambassador, which was very difficult to obtain. Luckily, the major that Imran worked for at the time said he would help. Soon after, he had his visa, but the real danger of getting out of the country was daunting. In order to leave safely, he took a bus with the Iraqi army (hiding behind luggage so that he would not be targeted by former Al Qaeda militants who would be hostile) and made it to Baghdad for his visa interview. In Baghdad, he sneaked into his family home to rest before the interview, attempting to avoid relatives (his mother and brothers had escaped to Syria, while his father was in Egypt) because he knew they would not approve of him working with the Americans. However, once he opened the door to his parents’ home, he found himself staring at his uncles’ faces. He quickly made an excuse for being there and told his uncles, ‘Please do not tell anybody that I’m here.’ Everything was fine for a few hours but about 11 o’clock his cousins called and said they were coming to pick him up. Imran was suspicious (also because they would be taking a risk coming since curfew was at midnight) and pleaded with them not to come, but they were very insistent. Imran became frightened. He remembers, ‘So I freaked out. I was like, they do not think twice about selling me or killing me, or doing

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anything.’ Because of these fears, he quickly called a friend who arranged for him to stay in the Green Zone while he waited for the interview. When he finally made it to the interview, Imran remembers there was another man that was being interviewed at the same time. The man was told that he needed to pay $400 for the visa, or he would need to wait another six months. Unfortunately, he did not have the money. Imran felt empathy for this man and paid the fee for him. Imran recalls with happiness how moved the man was that he paid for him, and how the man thanked him over and over and promised to pay him back. The man couldn’t believe he would do this for him – he couldn’t believe in such human kindness. The next morning Imran went to pick up his temporary visa and saw the man again. The man paid him the $400; they hugged and wished each other luck. Imran’s journey to the US in 2009 was long. He flew from Iraq to Jordan and stayed overnight. From Jordan, he called his family in Syria to let them know his situation. Up until that time, he had not told anyone of his plans because he was afraid they would tell his relatives and that there would be trouble. From Jordan, he flew 12 hours to Chicago. Once he landed in Chicago, he had to wait several days for his green card to arrive. Once it came, he realized that he did not have anywhere to stay and he did not know what to do. He called an American soldier (a captain) whom he had known in Iraq and who had told him to give him a call once he was in America. After speaking with the captain, he received a ticket for a flight to the captain’s town (a medium-sized city in the Midwest). Once he arrived, the captain took him in, refused to accept money for the plane ticket, and took Imran around the city sightseeing. He stayed with the captain for two months, during which time the captain refused to let him pay for anything and showed him only kindness and hospitality. After a while, Imran began to grow restless, and after looking for a job for several months (he had a difficult time because he had no credit history, no job history and the local university would not accept his transcripts from Iraq), he realized that joining the Army was his best option. He took all the necessary tests and was quickly sworn in. Immediately after, he applied for visas for his brothers and mother. Soon after, his family arrived, and Imran managed to find a place for him and his family to stay. The Army wanted him to leave at this time for training, but he pleaded with them to let him get his family settled first. With only $3000 in his pocket, he began training his brothers how to drive, how to grocery shop, drawing out maps for them and enrolling them in classes at the local community college so that they could survive in the US without him when he went away. This time in the Army was different. He was sent to a military intelligence school and was given body armor and a weapon, just like any

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other American soldier. During his second round working with the US Army, he worked as a linguist with high-ranking people such as the brigade commander responsible for Kirkuk province. Speaking about this time with the brigade commander, Imran says: But my assignment was to be the brigade commander[’s] personal linguist… So, whenever he goes outside to talk to meet with Iraqis I would go outside with him. So him and I became very close friends. He’s very high rank guy. Yeah, some of the soldiers they do not like this, because I’m not – they do not consider me fully American, and here I am like hanging and going to the restaurant, going to the chow hall or dining hall, dining facility, and eating with the brigade commander… Then, John McCain came once to Kirkuk, and he had a linguist from the Department of State. But the linguist was… the linguist didn’t know how to translate. He misunderstood some of the facts… So one of the Iraqi generals, he speaks English, and he speaks decent English, and he said, ‘I do not understand him. I need Imran to translate,’ so John McCain said, ‘Who’s Imran?’ And I stood up, and I took over, and I translated his meeting. Then the next time when he came to Kirkuk, he requested me by name. He said – he called my brigade commander, and he said, ‘I need you to send me Imran.’ So I went, and I translated for him… I got to talk to him, he gave me a like a coin, and… I was amazed that John McCain kn[ew] me – knows me by name! Then also, maybe John McCain told him or something, but the Ambassador, the United States Ambassador in Iraq, also when he came, I do not know if he requested me or not, but they sen[t] me to translate for him. Yeah. And, uh, he was also interested in knowing where I’m from and how I came to America. After several years in the Army, Imran bought a house for his family: It was a big deal for us and for them, for my mother especially. Because we never lived in a house in our entire life we never lived in a house. We always lived – even in Iraq, my mother owned a house, she had her own house, but we never lived in it. We always lived in an apartment. So, I bought the house and she was very happy. In 2013, Imran was honorably discharged from the Army, and he decided to study nursing. Reflecting on how his life has changed since he came to the United States, Imran is emphatic that it has changed ‘360 degrees to the better.’ In Iraq, he was devoid of any hope and he wished for death:

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I wanted to die, and I wanted to go to a dangerous places [sic] because my life was not worth it. And I was telling myself if I die, so what? Just like any other dog. Uh, but now in, living in America, just changed my life – changed the way I think, and I never knew… this concept of achieving your goals and pursuing your goals, and reaching your peak performance, and all this. I never knew about… strategies for life. For Imran, life in America is full of hope and he tells his family that they have a great future ahead of them. When asked what advice he would give to other migrants he advises against isolating themselves in their social/ ethnic groups. ‘Know the culture and the language to fully integrate yourself and your family in the community,’ he suggests. He recommends they shop at American stores like Walmart (as opposed to only Iraqi stores), and he believes that it is possible to integrate into American culture while still maintaining your home culture. In his case, Imran still speaks Arabic, cooks Iraqi food, and jokes the way Iraqis joke (because American jokes still do not make sense to him), while at the same time being an active member of the local society. He and his brothers volunteer at different places such as helping new migrants re-settle, and for Catholic Social Services. His most important piece of advice is for migrants to ‘seek education’ so that they can have a decent job. In regards to people that come to the US without proper documents, Imran has this to say: Based out of, you know, on my experience, I used to blame illegal immigrants. But now I understand that they also just like me, they also seek to better their lives, and to seek… a new beginning. …So I do not, I do not blame them. And really, America is the greatest country in the whole world.

Discussion Attitudes toward other migrants Imran’s final comment acknowledges a change in attitude toward migrants that have not been able to immigrate through authorized venues. Many migrants that do arrive with proper authorization often have a difficult time not passing judgment on those who do not, often because they feel that they put in their time and money to obtain the proper documentation and that others should have to do the same. Although not all of their stories were told in this book, there were three participants (N.B.: 3 out of 84) (Emma, Elena, Winston) who were able to obtain proper documents for

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migration and who felt that others who did not were in the wrong. Results from the interviews for this book coincide with the literature in that a small percentage of migrants who do come through legal venues are not able to empathize with those who cannot. However, the majority of migrants, regardless of their legal status, realize that not all migrants have equal opportunities and that many have to resort to other methods in order to survive, and search for a better life. In the case of Imran, while he initially passed judgment on others, through his experiences working with refugees and other migrants, he has come to experience empathy for those who do not have the possibility to migrate with proper authorization. Thus, interaction with migrants who are able to explain their situations and educating students by exposing them to stories such as those found in this book can increase empathy and help people to disassociate migration with crime since in most cases, migrants who travel without papers do so because they need to, not because they want to.

Humor and language Research tells us that the linguistic competence and cultural competence required to understand humor involve a fairly high level of linguistic, sociolinguistic, strategic and discourse competence (Deneire, 1995). Imran’s comment that even after being highly proficient in English, he ‘still can’t understand American jokes’ brings up a frequent theme (touched upon briefly in Dijana’s story) of how migrants often do not feel they are themselves (or as bright, smart or funny) in their receiving country language even when they have become proficient speakers. Research reveals that humor is one of the most difficult things to translate (Ballard, 1996; Laurian, 1992; Lendvai, 1996; Leibold, 1989; Zabalbeascoa, 1996) and that in order to understand and find jokes funny in a new language, a high level of proficiency is required along with a deep cultural understanding and knowledge of current events and cultural contexts. Even with a high level of proficiency, sometimes humor is difficult to translate into different cultural contexts. For example, many TV sitcoms are highly successful in one country but are not well received in other countries (Golden Girls in Germany is one example of one that was well received). The ability to understand humor and to be funny is also a great source of cultural capital that receiving country residents have. However, language teachers often underestimate the importance of incorporating humor into their teaching (research such as Schmitz, 2002 and Wagner & Urios-Aparisi, 2011 provide compelling evidence as to its value), and there is a need to explicitly teach students information that will help them to understand

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and use humor in the receiving country. To do this, teachers must help students to ‘recognize, legitimize, accept and appreciate the fundamental differences between cultures, and be ready to bridge those differences in order to “feel” as people in other cultures do,’ which will allow them to understand humor better (Deneire, 1995: 295). This then can help to provide needed cultural capital that can aid in integration and even daily functions such as finding a job. Incorporating funny expressions in meaningful contexts and then teaching students what it is that make them funny and how exactly to use these expressions properly is one way to help students gain this competency. One activity that used to work well in my classes was to have students jot down idioms or expressions that they hear, and bring them to class. Or alternatively, teachers can find common expressions used in humorous situations and bring them to class. Then the teacher explains briefly the meaning of the expressions and divides students into groups (this activity works well for levels beyond beginning or novice). The groups then create a skit using this expression in context. What I have found from doing this activity is that often the students understand the expression, but they do not understand how it could be incorporated into communicative situations. Doing the skits allows teachers to see their misunderstandings and explain exactly in which situations the expression would be appropriate, and why certain expressions are funny in certain contexts. The important thing to remember here is that this is something that must be done explicitly. We cannot expect our students to just pick up on these things on their own.

Immigration is a journey When Imran tells his family that they have a great future ahead of them, he is expressing the common metaphor found in the data immigration is a journey. Of course metaphorically, the future is something abstract, and we cannot see it in front or behind of us, but the sub-metaphor future is in front, is a common way that people conceive of time and make it easier to talk about. In the journey metaphor as it regards immigration, the teacher is the guide on the journey of integration, adaptation, language learning and so much more that is encapsulated in what we call the ‘migration experience.’ This is relevant for second language teachers because they are the first people the students have contact with, and they must help migrants get over these obstacles so they can move forward. Thinking of the immigration experience itself in terms of a continuous journey is one way to remember that students’ experiences with migration do not end just because they have settled in the

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new country. They must then navigate the new country’s rules and systems, learn to deal with discrimination, unemployment and other obstacles, as well as experience homesickness, separation and identity negotiation. Understanding that migrants often view this entire process as a journey can help teachers to be aware of all the difficulties that migration can bring, and to not assume that these difficulties go away once a student has gained residency or citizenship.

Arman: Afghanistan → Pakistan3 → Italy After a brief time as a refugee in Peshawar, Pakistan, Arman left his wife, children and parents there in 2008. Before then he had studied Islamic History at a university in Afghanistan, where he had also learned English. With a few friends, he departed on a harrowing journey that took him across mountains and desert, leading him to Athens. From Athens, he traveled by sea to Italy on a boat with 50 to 60 other people (including women and children) from many different countries like Iraq. He thought he could have a better life elsewhere, due to the war in Afghanistan and difficult conditions in Pakistan. Arman chose Italy because ‘the people of Italia is good. Like, … Pashtun.’4 Arman points to their similar long history (‘we have 5000 years history…[like] Italians’), and hospitality as similarities. At the time of the interview, Arman was living in a house with other Afghan refugees like himself. He was working full time in the market in Rome where he enjoyed doing business while at the same time trying to learn Italian. However, he said his life was boring and that he wished he could be with his family. ‘Everything is different. The culture is different. I live far from my families. That is very hard.’ In addition, he does not feel that there is enough support for refugees in Italy, and he works very long hours. When asked if he had the chance to do it again, would he come to Italy, Arman says quickly, ‘No.’ He then reveals that a year ago, his father died, and his mother now has heart problems. His children are six and seven, and he has not seen them in three years. Had it not been for the war, he would never have left his family, and it is clear that Arman feels deep regret for not being present when his father died, to help his mother and raise his children. Although he thought about sending his family to Italy, he knows that he does not make enough money to support them at the moment so he will have to wait. He plans to return to Pakistan to visit them soon. If he could tell people one thing about human migration, he says ‘Nowadays, everywhere, there is war, war, war, everywhere…’ Arman’s story ends here, on a somber note, with much silence and reflection.

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Discussion Silence As I noted above, Arman’s story ends rather abruptly. There are several reasons for this. First, his interview occurred in his workplace (in an open market in downtown Rome). The location was not ideal, but I determined that the benefits of being able to hear Arman’s story outweighed the inconvenient nature of where he was willing and able to do the interview. Thus, I am sure that part of the reason for the shortness of the interview was because he was anxious to get back to work. Secondly, it was clear from the expression on his face and his body language, that talking about his family and about war was traumatic for Arman, as it is for many migrants. As a qualitative researcher, I felt an ethical pull to let him stop the interview rather than put him in a vulnerable position of re-living an experience he was not ready to re-tell. Earlier in the interview when I gently tried to get more details from him, I could feel his anxiety increase and the emotions coming up to the surface. When he became silent, I decided it was time to let him go and that he had told me as much as he wanted or was ready to tell at that time. Thus, putting on my ‘researcher’ hat, I wanted to share this with readers so that they can understand the nuances involved in doing these types of interviews as well as the incredible sacrifice it is on behalf of the participants to open themselves up again to talk about traumatic and very sad life experiences they have had in order to help others learn from them. As such, I think it is important for researchers like myself to be attuned to silence as a signifier of an ending point in interviews, and as a way of politely telling the researcher ‘I have had enough.’ That said, silence is an important reason why many stories such as Arman’s are never told. Many migrants prefer to remain silent rather than re-live traumatic events or report crimes or injustices committed against them, and of course we must respect their right to do so. However, as teachers we need to be aware that our ‘silent’ students are often carrying with them trauma and experiences we could never imagine. While we cannot and should not push students to tell their stories, sometimes they want to tell them, and if they do, we should give them this opportunity by showing them that we care and by truly listening when they are ready to talk about their experiences.

Regret Arman’s story is only one of two collected for this book in which the participant expressed regret in migrating. Arman’s regret lies in his close

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family ties, and the fact that he had not been able to make enough money to support his family if they came to Italy. Thus, Arman remains alone, and it was heartbreaking in the interview to witness the utter despair and sorrow in his voice as he recounted his story and talked about his parents and children in Pakistan. Like Arman, many migrants begin with the idea that they will make money and eventually send for their families but this goal is not always realized. Unfortunately, research has shown that separation from family and community can be a potent stressor for migrants (Grzywacz et al., 2005). Thus, although many migrants like Arman move to other countries ‘in hopes of securing a brighter future for their families,’ research suggests that ‘immigrants long for that which was left behind and that the strain of separation is mentally taxing’ (Grzywacz et al., 2005: 275).

Mafia Capitale and migrants in Rome Because of its location and the numerous human rights groups stationed there since the 1970s, Italy has become a major receiving ground for migrants from around the world and one of the most important destination countries in Europe. In fact, it is frequent to hear of migrants perishing in the sea outside of Lampedusa (an island close to Sicily in which many migrants arrive) such as on February 9, 2015, when 29 migrants died of cold while being transported by patrol boats to the island (Strage al largo di Lampedusa, 2015) or April 19, 2015 when as many as 900 migrants died off the coast of Libya on their way to Italy (Yardley, 2015). Since the cancellation of ‘Mare Nostrum,’ a military and humanitarian operation that was put in place to rescue the migrants and arrest their traffickers, more deaths have occurred because the Italian coastguard lacks the resources to rescue them safely. This is due to austerity in response to the financial crisis but also as a response to conservative claims that the operation aided smugglers who ‘did not need to get their cargoes to shore, merely to abandon them where the ships of Mare Nostrum would pick them up’ (For those in peril, 2015). All of these recent events led Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to call for action in a compelling Op Ed piece that ran in the New York Times in which he made a plea for collaboration and consultation in the efforts to coordinate response to asylum seekers, stop human traffickers of migrants and invest more in the ‘growth, development and stability of the African continent’ from which many of the migrants are fleeing (2015). In terms of migrants that settle in Italy, as of September 2014, there were just short of 5 million migrants in Italy (representing 8% of the total population), with the highest annual migrant growth rate in Europe (Indicatori demografici, 2015). Numerous aid organizations such as the

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International Organization for Migration (IOM) have worked together with the Italian government to assist migrants that are continuing to come to Italy from around the world. Of those migrants working in Italy, 77% work legally, two-thirds (about 52%) of which are employed in the service industry (In Italia, 2010). Migrants in Italy contribute 5.6 million Euros in taxes per year and provide significant benefits to the country, which has an aging population and a slowing economy. Unlike many Italians, migrants relocate readily to areas where labor is in short supply, ‘bringing a just-in-time supply of skills’ (AlAzar, 2010). They work in the areas of hotel services (16%), domestic assistance (10%), manual labor (9%), industry (8.3%), construction (8%) as well as skilled labor (2.2%), medicine (doctors and paramedics) (1.7%), and small businesses which they own (0.5%) (In Italia, 2010). In addition, they play an important role in the world economy due to remittances sent home by workers, and they can have a positive impact on their home countries by setting up small-scale businesses upon their return (Al-Azar, 2010). Unfortunately, migrants in Italy have also been susceptible to crime, and in December 2014, a scandal broke out in Rome when the local mafia group (referred to as ‘Mafia Capitale’) working in collaboration with members of the Italian local government was discovered to be profiting from the vulnerability of migrants such as Arman. According to the Italian press, the Mafia Capitale made a profit of 40 million Euros from migrants and local Roma (Ansa, 2014). This so-called ‘immigrant racket’ involved controlling the social cooperatives that ran refugee reception centers (CIEs) and Roma camps. In essence, the Mafia controlled who got the contracts to provide aid to migrants, and took a cut of the profits as payment. United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) spokesperson Lauren Jolles has criticized these corrupt practices saying, ‘Hosting refugees is an inescapable duty, not merchandise for criminal affairs to the detriment of the refugees.’ In contrast, there is much literature that documents the systemic negative representation of migrants in Italy as a burden to Italian society (Catalano, 2011; Colombo, 2013; Montali et al., 2013; Quassoli, 2013; Richardson & Colombo, 2013) but very little discourse that relates to crimes against this vulnerable population. In fact, the negative representation of both migrants and Roma (aka Gypsies) and the frequent blame they have received for crime in Italy has worked neatly to distract Italians from mafia groups, who are the real culprits, and who have capitalized on the vulnerability of people in situations like Arman, both to construct a negative image of immigrants that distracts from their own crimes and to take advantage of them (Catalano, 2015). It is therefore essential to understand that public discourse about migrants is often political and serves the interest of groups that

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produce the discourse or have access to the media. When reading public discourse about migrants and particularly refugees, it is important that we take the time to find out who is producing the discourse and identify their underlying interests. In addition, we need to ask the question, how are the migrants represented in this discourse? And who will benefit from representing them in this way?

Notes (1) These pseudonyms were chosen after discussing them with the participants. Both Dijana and Miljan were not sure of ‘Dijana’ because it is not a Muslim name (and Dijana is Muslim) but then Dijana decided to keep this pseudonym because she felt it was common for Muslim people to have non-Muslim names, and she wanted to make a point about this. Therefore, the name Dijana stuck. (2) After the explosion, the American forces wanted to court-marshal the navy medic who did not treat Imran and wanted him to start the process by signing the paperwork. The navy medic approached Imran and asked to be forgiven. He had a new baby and wished to finish his job. Imran explained that it was the Major who wanted the courtmarshal and not he himself, and he did not press charges. (3) More than one receiving country is denoted only in cases where migrants lived there for at least a temporary period of several months. In the cases where migrants only passed through a country as part of their journey to another country, these passing countries are not denoted in the trajectory. In the case of Arman, he lived for several years in Pakistan, and originally did not plan to move until much later and thus it was also a place of immigration for him, although he does not talk about his time there other than to say it was difficult. (4) Pashtun people are an Indo-European ethnic group found in Afghanistan and Pakistan and consisting of about 60 tribes. Arman is Pashtun, and he identifies Italians as similar culturally to Pashtuns.

7 Family-Reunion/Child Migrants

This category (also referred to as dependents and family formation or reunification migrants) (Kofman, 2004) includes ‘spouses and dependent children usually under the age of 18 years’1 (Kofman, 2004: 245). Participants in this group were immediate family members brought in by the primary migrant, not for their own reasons. This means that the couple is already married and the spouse and/or children migrate in order to join the primary migrant. For the purposes of this book, this category also includes children that are documented or undocumented, and brought to the new country when they are very young along with their families. According to Kofman, the study of family migrants has been frequently neglected, often because economic theory neglects the family because ‘activities within it cannot be measured in monetary terms’ or because emphasis is placed on the primary applicant (2004: 248). Family-related migration is becoming more and more common, and more politicized. The following stories provide details to inform us of the types of experiences family-reunion/child migrants undergo.

Bertha: Mexico → United States Bertha came to the US from San Julian (Jalisco), Mexico in 1975. She was only six at the time. Her father had been working in the US for a while, and had been sending back money to her family in Mexico. However, her mother missed him and decided that she would visit him in the US, with the hopes of staying. The day they left it was raining hard, and there was a loud thunderstorm. She had planned on only taking Bertha (leaving the others with grandparents), but since Bertha’s sister, Isabel, was crying because of the storm, she took her too. She was only allowed to take two of the children so could she not take them all. They took a bus to Los Angeles, and someone 64

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(Bertha can’t remember who) helped them cross the border where they then stayed at someone’s house for a few days. Bertha’s father was in the Midwest, and he sent his cousin Nicholas to come and get them and drive them across the country to their new home. Bertha had heard of ‘El Norte’ before, and always associated it with money, because people that went there always seemed to have it or send it. Her own dad, for example, had a nice bright red beautiful pick-up truck and cool sunglasses. They stayed in their new city for a while as a family, and then Bertha’s mother gave birth to Bertha’s baby sister, Lupita. When Lupita was two, they found out that she had cerebral palsy. At that point, Bertha’s mother decided they should stay in the US, and they needed to bring Bertha’s other siblings up as well. Bertha remembers the excitement of preparing for their arrival and her eagerness to show off the new English skills she had acquired in going to school. Bertha has many memorable experiences from this time. She remembers everything was just so strange – like bologna sandwiches, ice cream and Halloween. She recalls her first Halloween in the US when they were coming home from the laundromat. Bertha, her mother (and sisters) did not know about Halloween: So, we saw these guys – high schoolers, and they’re walking around with pretend machine guns, and you know, they’re going trick-ortreating. And they came around and they said something to my mother and they pointed this fake machine gun at her and she’s got her laundry, her big, you know, her bag. It was a black Hefty 2 ply… Well, she had her laundry that we had, you know, she had just done. And so, she didn’t know what they were saying, so she started whacking them with the laundry [laughs]. Bertha had been to school in Mexico before she migrated, so she knew what school was. However, there were considerable differences in what schooling meant. In the US, Bertha had to speak and learn to read and write in a language she did not speak at home. She remembers putting on earphones and listening to lots and lots of stories in English, and then being pulled into another room to play ‘Candy Land’ (which was her favorite game). Recalling her first experiences in American schools, Bertha recounts: The school treated us well, of course if they didn’t treat us well, we couldn’t understand them, so we didn’t know [laughing], and my older sisters, we were all in the same grade together. We were put in 1st grade, and, but then, after they learned English, they got… they advanced to a higher grade than I did. So, my oldest sister didn’t… get into the grade

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that she should have been in and so then, we, we just went… we went to public school for probably a year, and then we went to private schools after that. …I remember 5th grade… very vividly, that the students, especially those boys, would ask me for help, and I always thought, ‘I’m from Mexico. You’re asking me? But it just stuck… And so, they would ask me and I would help them and I always thought, wow. It must have been the school system. Going to school in Mexico had been much easier. They just all walked to school together but in the US, they had to take a bus. Because both her parents worked and had to take the bus very early in the morning for work, the children had to wake up, get ready to go to school, and make sure they were on time to catch the bus on their own. This often resulted in them missing school: I recall that my sister Alejandra and I would hide behind like, an electricity box. It was big enough that we could hide there. And, we would wait until that bus would leave, and then we would just go back home. Well, my parents never knew and even if, I mean somebody had to communicate with them… they were never home. So then… they were working and there were many times when we missed that bus. There was a girl, red-headed girl… Her name was Sarah actually. And there were so many kids that were, you know, so many of us that Sarah would come over to probably help us and tell us that we needed to get to school so we wouldn’t miss that bus. We were just the naughtiest kids! Although Bertha’s school experiences were largely positive, she did have some experiences that she realized after the fact were not so positive. Reflecting on how often migrants see things through rose-colored glasses at the beginning, she says: You know, you think that it’s great. In my opinion, when I look back and when people come from other countries, and I see this with the immigrants and refugees that I work with, they come here and they come to this beautiful country, everybody wants to come here, and they come in with blinders, just like I did when I was six years old. And it takes years, it takes years for them to look at those experiences perhaps and to say, you know, perhaps that teacher which in high school for me was a huge huge disappointment, to be challenged on my writing skills, you know, being I was accused of plagiarism. But

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for myself knowing that I actually did all the lay work, that I did all the research and that my writing skills were questioned by that one teacher because she didn’t like Hispanic students. As I grew older, I understood it a little bit better. When Bertha was 11, their father decided that the family should all go back to Mexico, but he did not tell them this; instead, he told them they were going on vacation. On their way to Mexico (close to Monterey), eight members of the family (everyone except her father and one of her sisters) were involved in a terrible car accident, and they were all hospitalized in Monterey. In regards to the accident Bertha remembers: We all did, I mean, we were in the, there were no seatbelts… in the cabin, in the back… And my mother said that [after the collision] whenever she turned around and looked in the mirror, and just to see where we were, she just saw piles. She thought they were piles of clothes and it was just us… I think it was six of us that were just spread out. Well, I was the last one. They couldn’t find me and I was rolled up apparently across the highway. Unfortunately, although most of them recovered, Bertha’s brother remained paralyzed due to the accident. Because he required special care and resources only available to them in the US, living in Mexico was no longer an option, so they remained in the US. Bertha remembers how wonderful the people in the town were and how they stood by her family, helping out in any way they could: When you’re one of the few Hispanic families in a community, and oftentimes you think, and you hear from people say, ‘Oh, well they didn’t treat us right…’ For us, it was completely the opposite, and it wasn’t just that situation, it was just that, it was a very welcoming and open community. The welcome wagon, even when we first moved there in 1980… they were just always wanting to come see us and visit us and visit my parents and get to know us and then of course there is this accident and everybody just pulled together. The, the church that we were involved in… my mom and dad always would talk with the nuns, so they just rallied everybody together. The school, then, made arrangements to come and give my brother classes… teach him how to play the drums, distract him, because he was pretty much bedridden. He was just laying down, and then they sent him off to a rehabilitation center at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester…

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In addition to the support her family received from their community, Bertha credits her parents for much of her family’s success. I understood also that my parents were there, all along, even though they had to work those 16–18 hour days sometimes that they were really there behind us to push us along… you know the adults might not have had an opportunity to get that education, maybe it was a third grade or sixth grade education, but you do not have to go to school to encourage your kids to do their best. Her parents sent the children to a Catholic school, and in order to afford this, the entire family had to help out. In the summers, they would get contracts with farmers to all go out into the fields together as a family to work. The money was always used for education and ‘quality expenses.’ To Bertha’s mother (and most of her siblings), finishing high school and going to college was like ‘the light at the end of the tunnel.’ Even though they suffered through various crises at different points in their lives, they could always depend on their education to get them good jobs so they could give back and help out their parents and whoever in the family was in need. Thus to Bertha, education was one of the keys to her success. She stresses, Just that pushing us and I know refugees… they push their kids at really almost whatever cost. You know, if it means just serving beans and rice and tortillas for a good six months… but it’s because you’re, you’re providing for your kids and pushing them along to graduate from high school and get into a college. It’s going to be circular and they’re, you know, all of the good things that those kids do, they’re going to come back to the family and provide for the family, as well. Bertha has much advice to give other migrants in similar situations. First, she stresses how important it is for migrants to know their rights in the new country, such as the right for workers to have a safe work environment and a certain standard of treatment, and the right to live in a safe home: When you’re new in this country, you do not know what kind of housing you’re getting for your kids, you do not know that just because you came from a safe, perhaps a kind of farm community you do not know that if your landlord doesn’t have screens on the windows, that that’s not safe. Especially if you have little girls in your house, and when, like I had a sister who was taken out of the window and basically abducted from the house for a few hours… I had another sister who was raped at

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the age of 12, this happened within five years. I woke up in the middle of the night to see, just, probably within a foot away from me, a man who had been walking around in our house, and all of that kind of stems back from unsafe housing conditions, but my folks didn’t know what, what would be safe. They would complain to the landlord and the landlord didn’t do anything but they didn’t know what their rights were. Even though safety was number one for them. Secondly, Bertha emphasizes the fact that there will always be crises that arise. She firmly believes that this is where the importance of family comes up: I know that family is so important. I want my own two kids, I mean, one who’s 20… they’re both boys… one who’s 20 and one who’s seven, and I want them to know that they always can count on… they can always count on me… they can always count on their grandparents, they can count on aunts and uncles, but I want them to get to know who their cousins are and who my cousins are and their kids, because eventually, they’re going to have to rely on each other, um, to get through a crisis and, you know, if they want to start up a new business, it’s that, those resources, because family is the greatest.

Discussion Family, educational aspirations and other factors In her interview, Bertha frequently alludes to the importance her parents placed on education, and the sacrifices they made in order to provide a good education for their children. Bertha’s parents saw the completion of high school and college as a ‘light at the end of the tunnel,’ and they had high aspirations for their children, many of whom completed college and now hold jobs in professional fields such as social work and university advising. Bertha’s story is not unique in that she had parents that cared about her education and supported her in her educational endeavors, despite having a low income and frequent tragic events that added to their financial burden. However, according to Goldenberg et al. (2001), many people falsely believe that low educational aspirations of parents are one of the factors that contribute to the ‘disproportionate underachievement of many ethnic and racial minority groups in our schools’ (2001: 575). In their longitudinal study of immigrant Latino parents’ aspirations and expectations and their children’s school performance, Goldenberg et al. (2001) found that just as in

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Bertha’s case, Latino parents (like most people) attributed high instrumental value to formal schooling, and this belief was not diminished by time spent in the US or perceived discrimination. They also found that parental expectations did not influence child performance. Thus, an important lesson from Goldenberg et al. is that we must not assume that low levels of parental expectations are part of the reason for some immigrant children’s low achievement levels. For ‘students and families with low income levels, who are ethnic minorities, immigrants, and without a history of participation in higher education’ the journey to higher education can be complex (Goldenberg et al., 2001: 580). In Bertha’s case, she was lucky to have had a supportive family and community as well as largely positive schooling experiences that made her feel (for the most part) successful and motivated from the beginning. Thus, when attempting to understand why immigrant students often lag behind in academic achievement, Kanno and Kangas (2014) and Perez et al. (2009) point to factors such as elevated feelings of societal rejection, low parental education, high employment hours during school and low chances for rigorous academic preparation as contributing factors to some migrant students’ difficulties in achieving academically. In the case of Bertha, it is most likely that despite facing many of the conditions listed above, her success can be contributed to the overall support of her parents (rather than simply their academic expectations for her), as well as support from her friends and community, which Perez et al. (2009) attribute to higher levels of school success. In addition, many other stories in this volume point to family support – particularly those whose families migrated with them or joined them shortly after – as a big factor in their success, and interestingly separation from family (particularly in societies where family ties are deemed culturally valuable) was the top reason given by the few migrants who regretted their decision to migrate (e.g. Arman). In spite of this, the politicization of immigration has led to immigration policies (such as those carried out by the Obama administration) that continue to separate families by deporting parents whose children are citizens and making conditions difficult for immigrant families to be united. Recently, it appears that the Obama administration is making an attempt to re-consider these practices and the Department of Homeland Security has begun a ‘profound shift’ in its enforcement of immigration laws, choosing to focus on convicted criminals, terrorism threats or those who recently crossed the border, while leaving established migrants with families alone (Markon, 2015). While the administration does not have a good record in the past in regards to breaking up families through deportations, this new shift toward integration for those migrants already in the US appears to be a welcome change.

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Gaining access to help, knowing your rights In her story, Bertha emphasizes how important it is for newcomers to know their rights in the new country and to gain access to information such as how to find safe housing, how to find out what services they are eligible for, and important survival information that is specific to a particular area that will allow them to settle safely in the new country. One example I can remember from my own teaching in the Midwest is that I always taught my students in the spring and summer the difference between a tornado watch and tornado warning (in the former, you don’t need to worry, in case of the latter, you must take cover). I also helped them to figure out where they should go in their home in case of a tornado. These are things that migrants do not always know, especially if they are from very different geographical regions and climates. Another example is when I taught newcomer children from Mexico, I would sometimes see the children come to school in the beginning of their first winter without gloves or proper winter gear to protect themselves. I always made it a point to nonchalantly make these things available for students (most schools have some kind of resource for these situations) whose parents may not have been prepared for Midwest winters. Hence, we need to be ready and willing to help migrant students navigate the new country and decipher cultural codes as well as how to get access to services. Being available or willing to do this for your students can sometimes make a crucial difference in adaptation. Appendix B includes websites where teachers might refer their students to get help with housing and other issues. The websites give information for the US, EU, UK and South Africa, but teachers working in other countries looking for information could help students find local websites by doing a search for ‘immigration services.’ Because second language teachers are often the first locals that newcomers get to know, it is not unusual for them to need advice and aid in a variety of areas. Helping students gain access to and navigate websites like those in Appendix B (since many – but not all – newcomers are not highly proficient in the local language) would be instrumental to their success and well-being in the destination country.

Immigration is an illusion When Bertha mentions that migrants often tend to see only the positive things in their experiences (but then they realize that there were some negative things later) she says they wear rose-colored glasses or have blinders on. Rose-colored glasses and blinders are metonymies (object for action, in which the glasses or blinders stand for new understanding) that motivate

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the metaphor of immigration is an illusion. This metaphor reflects the perception of immigration as a new way of seeing the world (e.g. if you see things through rose-tinted glasses, the world seems softer, prettier and gentler). Bertha used this metaphor to explain (and perhaps understand better herself) why she did not complain or get too upset when she was a child and experienced discrimination, such as when she was falsely accused of plagiarism by her writing teacher. Because migrants often have such traumatic or at the very least, life-changing experiences and they have often given up so much to come to the new country, they sometimes choose to put on the rose-colored glasses in order to concentrate on the positive things that their new life has to offer. However, these experiences still change them, and often it is not until they are adults (such as in Bertha’s case) that they are able to understand what actually happened and why, and perhaps even experience a delayed negative reaction. Understanding the conceptualization of immigration as cultivation can help teachers understand why migrants often don’t want to ‘rock the boat’ or complain about unfair situations at work or school. That is, if someone has been told that the receiving country is a paradise, taking off the blinders and seeing it for what it truly is (reality – with flaws and all) can be disappointing, and therefore many choose to keep silent about inequality and discrimination.

Badr: Morocco → Spain Badr’s father lived in Spain for a long time before Badr (and his family) was able to join him from Morocco. When he was 13, Badr left his city of Uzdah, and together with his family, was reunited with his father in Spain. As a child, Badr had never left his neighborhood except to go 200 kilometers away to his grandfather’s house on summer holidays. Hence, moving to Spain seemed like ‘an illusion,’ so different and so new. Because he had very high expectations of a much better place than his home, he was disillusioned almost immediately. Badr remembers reaching the port in Marina, ‘I cried because I started to remember what I already knew – that I had definitively abandoned my childhood, my neighborhood, my city, everything.’ At first, life in Spain was very hard for Badr. Even though he was only 13, he did not go to school because ‘if I wanted to study, it was like starting from zero. In respect to the age that I was, because it was like starting from like… preschool. Because I didn’t understand Spanish.’ Badr says that at the time, there were no programs in his town for students like him to receive help learning Spanish and adjusting to Spanish schools, and the government was not interested in taking immigrants in and adapting them to Spanish society,

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There wasn’t and there still isn’t. There isn’t this – there’s not this interest for example I saw in France in other places, people that have a very… very deep interest in those themes. For example, when there’s an immigrant that doesn’t know how to speak the language, the first thing that they do is get them to study. The government puts itself in charge of paying for it. And so it seems to me the truth is a bit horrendous, that a country that holds you and takes you in, millions of immigrants, more than five million, doesn’t take an interest in teaching those immigrants the languages to be able to communicate with them. It continues the same because… fundamentally, there’s no version of the state in which they say ‘come, let’s teach immigrants’ … From what I know it doesn’t exist. A school that dedicates itself to teach those immigrants that come from China or from Japan doesn’t exist… In the city where I live, there isn’t one. It doesn’t exist in this city. So, instead of going to school, Badr remained at home. He now recalls that the passage of time was difficult. In order to keep himself entertained (before he was able to work), he used to ride around on his bike and hang out with his friends. He recalls, I was vagabonding in the streets. Man, thanks to God I ended up o.k. [laughs]. We didn’t put ourselves in any bad places, but that… there were three years… of my life, that were empty, without anything, from home to the streets, and dedicating myself to a dictionary to learn, and then… when I wanted to integrate myself into the workforce, because there was nothing else, well I wanted to work, to do something, because I felt… useless. Useless. And so when at the town hall of the city where I was living, they offered me a job, in exchange for, … let’s see, how would I say, there was a school for adults, to study there, and study… for example, gardening. So, in exchange for six months of free studying, … six months working for the town hall. Well then I incorporated myself into the workforce, and so… it’s like… when you’re working, you get to know Spanish people, you speak Spanish, if you do not understand, more or less, you ask, it’s more or less that, knowing how to communicate, and they explain it to you, slowly, what a word is and what the meaning of another is, and you go on learning bit by bit. Speaking about Spanish culture, he says: The culture is also different from what we have and it’s difficult for people to accept you, because of the different culture… Socially or

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racially, people do not… they do not reject you, but… here in Spain, especially, they’re not used to other cultures… Many years have passed, and there’s a massive influx of immigrants, it’s climbed in these ten years, in these last ten years, and still no… you know, there still isn’t a group of immigrants here that we take… for example, like in Germany or in the United States, or in other countries, in France for example, in which immigrants form part of the… French society or of German, for example, that are already almost third generation, that are already almost French, more than… than of their country of origin. You know. And this is the problem, well, I think that in the long run, they’ll see more foreigners than Spaniards. Reflecting on his life now, Badr is decisive that there has been a distinct change. Earlier, he used to live with his parents whereas now he lives alone with his own wife and children. He and his wife are now focused on creating their own family, caring for the family and making a home. She has a job and he has his, and they dedicate themselves to the kids and to their life. They speak a mix of Arabic and Spanish at home. This is because the kids go to school and speak Spanish while they hear Arabic at home. He would like his kids to know Spanish better ‘because their mother tongue [Arabic] will always be there – they will be able to speak it even if they didn’t want to.’ He wants them to know both languages. Unfortunately, Badr speaks with his children very rarely because he spends most of his time out of the house working. He goes to the fish market at 6am and gets done from there by 2–3pm when he goes to pick his kids up from school. He takes a siesta and then goes back to work and returns home by 11:30–12 in the night when they are asleep (he works in a restaurant). It is the same with his wife, whom he sees only for four hours a day and then on Sunday. When they have a day of rest, they go to visit their relatives who live close by or speak with the ones who live in Morocco on the telephone. Badr does not remember Morocco at all because he has spent more than half his life in Spain. He goes back rarely and when he does, he feels like a tourist, like an uncle who goes to visit. In terms of advice for other migrants, he recommends that when someone goes to another country, they should focus on co-existing, having a good attitude and living honorably, Do not try to introduce something new to the country because society already… it already has its… histories, its downsides, because… you come here to work or do something, you dedicate yourself to do it, period. Because I have lived here 19 years, and truth is that I haven’t had

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any problems with anybody because I dedicate myself to… to my life, to living my life, and to co-existing with others and to my work. And another point, the bosses, because they already know you because you work well, and they respect you, and you also do not have to… do not have to make miracles happen to integrate yourself. Integrating yourself is respecting others, and co-existing with what there is… Do not try to inculcate people… because that bothers people… You, another person, we always think that our culture is the best. We always think that because we are individuals, it’s true, and it’s not like that. It’s only in order to co-exist you have to respect yourself… If you want to discover another culture, well, you go to that country, you discover it and you see it, and if you like it, you like it.

Discussion Adaptations for migrant students in Spain While large-scale immigration is fairly new to Spain (in comparison with countries such as the US), children of migrants constitute 7.2% of pre-school children and 11.6% of elementary students in Spain (The Social Situation in the European Union (EU), 2010). Of the immigrant youth in Spain, 43.9% come from Central or South America, 25.3% from across the European Union and 20.2% from Africa or other countries of origin. By country, the largest numbers of Spanish migrant students come from Morocco, Ecuador, Romania, Colombia and the United Kingdom. These recent demographic changes, particularly an increase in immigrant youth, have resulted in targeted reforms intended to accommodate the many language minority students now in the region (Instituto Nacional de la Estadística, 2010). Thus, although Badr noted that there was not much being done to help migrant students in his town, since 2000, educational policies such as the LOE or Organic Law of Education (Ministry of Education and Culture, 2006) have cropped up, designed to encourage quality, equality and inclusive education across Spain. In response to this law, a number of programs have been created, including: a curricular support program (PROA); an afterschool language maintenance program for students of Romanian and Moroccan origin (ELCO)2; intercultural programs that offer cultural enrichment in the educational community; and ‘welcome programs’ that provide native language materials as well as information about the curricular and extra-curricular options that might enhance students’ educational progress. However, despite these programs, as of yet, there is no regular

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assistance provided by second language specialists as in the United States. (For an example of a government-sponsored welcome program in the United States, see http://www.welcometousa.gov/) In terms of educational structures and policies, Gibson and Carrasco (2010) found that the United States and Spain share common features educationally. Their ethnographic research in high schools in California and Catalonia investigating conditions for migrant youth in both systems revealed that both countries’ largest migrant populations, e.g. Latino youth in the US and children of Moroccan and Latin American migrants in Catalonia, faced inequitable conditions; achievement variations occurred along class lines, e.g. children from poor and working-class backgrounds in both countries achieved the least. Furthermore, despite shared instructional strengths and explicit aims to foster equal educational opportunities, a synergy of school ideologies, structures and practices produced similar unwelcoming experiences for migrant students.

L1 maintenance Although most migrant parents value their home language and culture, not all parents are aware of the explicit effort that must be taken in developing and maintaining their child’s L1 or where they can send their child to receive L1 development and maintenance. When talking about the languages of his children, Badr’s comment that ‘their mother tongue will always be there – they will be able to speak it even if they didn’t want to’ is revealing. Although research supports the idea that languages which people have been exposed to in their youth remain in the brain (even when people are not conscious of it) (Kar, 2014), this excerpt exposes a common myth that many migrant parents have: because children are exposed to the language at home, they will automatically be fluent speakers of it and will not need to make any active efforts to maintain or develop it. As Badr notes, he wants his children to know both languages. However, what he doesn’t realize is that unless an active effort is made, his children may not learn to read and write in their first language (because the Spanish school system in his area does not offer Arabic for heritage speakers), and thus many of the cognitive benefits that come with knowing two languages will not be transferred because the children will not reach bi-literacy or a high level of proficiency in the native language. In addition, because his children are learning Spanish in a subtractive context (in which Spanish will eventually replace Arabic, at least in academic contexts), the positive effects of their bilingualism will be lessened (De Angelis, 2007: 118). Thus, although Badr is clear that he values both languages, his lack of understanding about how language maintenance

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works (and more importantly, the lack of value placed in Spanish society for the maintenance and development of Arabic for heritage learners) may result in his children never reaching a high level of literacy in their mother tongue, which is such an important key to second language success (Cummins, 1991; Freeman & Freeman, 2006; Goldenberg, 2008; Thomas & Collier, 2012; Thonis, 1994). As language teachers, we need to help educate parents as to the importance of L1 maintenance and literacy, and encourage them to continue literacy development (if possible) with their children at home. In addition, teachers need to help parents know services or programs that might be available for their children (e.g. dual language, Confucius Institute) so that they don’t have to do it all alone, and also so that they may find literacy resources to work with their children at home. Besides pointing parents toward bilingual resources for their children, teachers can help parents understand that reading in the L1 will aid reading in the L2, and that speaking/reading/writing/listening in the L1 at home, will have positive benefits (as opposed to the myth propagated by some ‘English only’ proponents that it will have the opposite effect).

Immigration is an illusion Before leaving Morocco, Spain was an illusion to Badr. Not unlike Bertha’s view of the world through rose-colored glasses, everything seemed new and exciting to Badr. However, because Badr had such high (and perhaps unrealistic) expectations of Spain, he was unfortunately disappointed almost immediately after arriving. The metaphor immigration is an illusion/ a dream was common in the data (not just in Badr’s story but in many, many others). In the United States it is common to talk about the ‘American Dream,’ but for many migrants this dream is not just in America – it could be Jamaica, Canada, Australia, Spain or any country free from war and/or full of opportunity. Conceiving of the immigration experience as something surreal – magical or equivalent to paradise is dangerous in that it is almost impossible to not be disappointed when one thinks of a country as perfect in every way. In Badr’s case (unlike Bertha), once arriving in the country, he took his rose-colored glasses off, choosing instead to view Spain realistically, but as a result, he felt deeply disappointed (especially at the beginning). It did not help the situation that Badr’s receiving country city did not have an infrastructure set up to receive students of his age that would have difficulty learning the language and integrating into the school system. Hence, Badr’s situation is a good example of the different experiences that students often have at the high school level, as opposed to small migrant children who

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enter the school system at a young age, and the importance of recognizing differences in experiences migrants might have, depending on their ages and past schooling experiences.

Carmelle: Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) → United States When Carmelle was 18, her family won a diversity lottery organized by the US government that was designed to help families obtain a visa (which was very expensive) to come to the US. Her parents applied for the visa because they wanted to give Carmelle and her sisters a better education. In Kinshasa, the books were old, and many of the facilities were not up-to-date (e.g. biology/chemistry labs). Carmelle’s parents thought the girls would have better resources and opportunities for success in the United States, including better jobs and healthcare. The day before they left for the US (in 2010), Carmelle’s cousins, uncles, aunts and friends visited them, and some stayed over. She remembers how fun it was because all the cousins slept in the same room, although she could not sleep because she was excited and scared of flying and moving to a new country. Everyone was very happy for them because they knew they would have a better life. Before they left, many relatives gave them advice about their new lives. Her aunt told her to remember to study, and to never forget her culture and her people. Their housekeeper told her, ‘Do not forget us. Keep your culture and your language and especially, go to school.’ Because Carmelle was the eldest daughter, many people put pressure on her to be the leader of the family, take care of her sisters and set the example for them all. The next day, she went to the airport. She was so excited that she could not cry, but many of her relatives were crying. From the beginning, everything was overwhelming. This was her first time in an airplane, and she remembers she did not even know how to fasten her seatbelt. She recalls that the flight attendants spoke in English, and that her father answered, ‘Yes’ to everything, even either–or questions, such as ‘Do you want coffee or tea?’ Flying was awesome and scary at the same time. First, they flew from Kinshasa to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). When landing in Addis Ababa, Carmelle was shocked. There was an actual airport there, whereas in Kinshasa, the structure was very rudimental. She had always heard that people were poor and suffering from famine in Ethiopia, but their airport was modern and full of amenities (like any European airport, she recognized later). She remembers thinking how beautiful the Ethiopian women were. On the plane to Addis Ababa, she met some White people who had been to Congo to adopt a child. She and her family decided to follow them since they had no idea what to

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do or where to go. They boarded a plane and flew to Rome and then Washington, DC. Unfortunately, when they arrived at the immigration and customs office, someone had miscounted her family on the form, listing six people, when they were actually seven. This small mistake caused a lot of stress because they were all terrified they would be sent back and could not help thinking of all the money they would lose. Fortunately, the mistake was corrected, and they made it to Chicago after missing their first flight. In Chicago, they had a terrible time. They had to figure out their own transport to their town in the Midwest, but all the flights were full, so they had to take the train. Chicago was also very cold, and though it was only fall, they were not used to this. There were many things that were new and strange to Carmelle. She recalls her first experience with automatic toilets in the airport. When she went to the restroom, she tried to flush and could not. And then, to her great surprise, it suddenly flushed itself. She had never heard of such a thing. Then she went to wash her hands: And then I tried to look at people with my eyes in the corner, I try to see what they are doing. Those people were just coming in, put their hand and washing it. I was like, how’s this possible? And then I tried to, to look where to do it. And I think I accidentally put my left hand underneath the, how it’s called? The faucet? The family had a very difficult time finding the train, and Carmelle remembers getting directions from a lady who kept pointing downstairs (she could not understand much else). But when she went down there, there was nothing – just a parking lot. So she went back upstairs and asked her again. She repeated this five times before she became exhausted and frustrated. Something had been lost in the translation. On top of this, her luggage broke, which made walking around to get information very difficult. After losing her parents for an hour (they went to find a taxi but did not tell her where they were going), missing their train and having to spend the night in the rest area, Carmelle, with her family, managed to take a train to her final destination. On the train, a kind man offered them his phone to call their family friends who were waiting for them so they would know what had happened. The kindness of one stranger seemed to erase all the bad experiences they had had up to that point. When they arrived, it was very dark and they drove through town to reach their host family’s house. On the way, Carmelle noticed lots of women walking around with barely any clothes on. She thought they were prostitutes, but later she realized that the night she arrived was Halloween, and these women were wearing costumes! After reaching the house of their

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hosts, they were tired but stayed up talking until three in the morning. The next morning, their hosts took them to church where they met other Congolese families who came to visit them. At first, she thought it was strange that there were no people outside in the neighborhood. In Congo, there were always people and kids on the streets and things were happening. They stayed in their family friends’ house for a couple of days until her parents found a house to rent. One of the memorable experiences she had when she first arrived was when she saw a few kids playing in her neighborhood. They tried to talk to her, but she told them that she did not speak English; she spoke French. They told her that was ‘awesome,’ and they wanted her to stay and speak in French to them. This was a fun experience for Carmelle because the children were interested in her and found her knowledge of French to be of value. Soon after they settled in, Carmelle began school. She met with a counselor and was enrolled in classes for ELLs (English language learners) as well as three other classes: math, woodworking and drawing. She found her math class to be easy because she knew the formulas and did not need to know the language in order to understand. She had a difficult time in the woodworking class because the measurement system was different. She was used to the metric system and she felt completely lost using the American measuring system. Because she was so lost in the class, she tried to copy on the test, which was embarrassing. However, she ended up getting an A in the class. Her drawing class was also a great disappointment. When she walked in, brand new to the school, she expected her teacher to pay some attention to her and help her get orientated; however, he just told her to find a place to sit. She had never learned to draw, and she could not understand 90% of what the teacher was saying, so eventually she had to withdraw. Of all her classes, her ELL classes were her favorite, and she thinks that this was true for all the students in the class. This is because the teachers got them – they understood what the students would need and where they were coming from: That was their job, to – to help us, you know we did not know English. And… I felt comfortable to take my time to try to explain something, compared to other class. Yeah. In Level 1 the first semester, my sister and I were also in the same class, so you have your sister in same class and all those people. And I really loved it, because when we had free time, we tried to talk to each other, try to learn each other[’s] language, each other’s culture. I learned some Spanish there, some Vietnamese, but I forgot. Yeah. We tried to learn about each other. It was fun.

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However, adjusting to her new life was not easy. She recalls, But there were times where it was just hard for me, I couldn’t take it anymore, I would just cry. You know, I was kind of depressed. I’m here, I – I have no friends, nobody noticed me because back home at school, people knew where I was, they noticed me. But here I kind of felt like I was invisible. Like nobody wanted me, nobody wanted to – to talk to me. At lunch, good thing I had the same lunch with one of the girl[s] at the home where we arrived, yeah. We had the same lunch, so we were together. But sometimes I wouldn’t find her, I would just be there alone. I would just cry. I remember in one of my ELL classes, we were in the computer lab. I don’t know, I just felt depressed, and I didn’t even want to do the assignment we were supposed to do, I just went to the bathroom and then start crying and crying and cry. I thought that I wouldn’t make it through high school. Back home, she would have been a senior, but when she signed up for school, she was put in the 10th grade. She realized that she did not know English, but it was not as though she had not been to school. After she complained, the school administrators put her in the 11th grade and told her that even if they put her in the 12th grade, she still had to fulfill other requirements and classes to graduate, which would take time. Many of her sisters were also put in lower grades. They all complained about it, but a Congolese family friend just told them to stay there and learn. In the end, Carmelle thinks that he was right. After four years in the US, Carmelle now feels comfortable. She is still shy, but she feels confident wherever she goes, particularly because of her acquisition of English: But, you know, compared to, I do not know, two years earlier, I wouldn’t even think that I could speak English like I do now, or going to the store. Like every time I – I would step my foot outside, I was always praying that nobody will approach me for a conversation, you know? I was scared. We’re missing home, and it’s changed my way of thinking – because back home we are not used to the racial diversity like here. I mean, in Kinshasa the only diversity we have it’s, you know, tribal diversity. We have many tribe[s] all living together. And here you see people of all races and ethnicities living in the same neighborhood. I have Arab, Asian and Black neighbors – everybody. Back home, you know people of different races they live in their own neighborhoods, you know. For example, most White people live downtown… The

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Asians live in their area. So we are not used to live with foreigners in the same neighborhood. Here, now, we live with foreigners. Even at school, we learn a little bit about other culture[s]. For me, I – I thought that all people from the Middle East are Muslim. I thought all women wear the burqa, all of them. But I have met people from the Middle East that are not Muslim, they are Christian, or atheist, or they do not wear the burqa. And I learned about Vietnam. Carmelle’s life has changed drastically. She has become more responsible. Before, she was like a baby – waiting for her parents to do things for her. After she moved, it was like ‘a switch was turned on,’ and she transitioned immediately from child to adult because she was the only one in her family that knew any English. Losing her childhood so suddenly had a negative impact on her psyche. She knows now that she was depressed, but at the time: I was going through depression but I was in de – denial. You know I thought that can’t happen to me. And back home we do not have this thing, like people suffering through a depression. I think we do, but we do not really pay much attention to it. And also the fact that I didn’t really have friend[s], and I was alone. Like doing the college thing… I was kind of believing that I’m not worth it, like you know, that probably I will never go to college. Sometimes [I] think about my friends back home who are graduating already from high school and I was here, still a junior. But that made me… those kind of things tried to put me back, but I do not know how I survived that. I tried to do my best. I went to high school for 1½ years, and I had a high GPA and got scholarships. I even got the NAACP award – the highest award. I was surprised. That’s the thing that made me work even harder. Because, that was my first year in high school, and they nominated me for that award. I just moved here, like, you know, how is that even possible? So when I received that award, that made me wanting for more, you know. Even though it has been a difficult journey, Carmelle thinks that her parents made the right decision. She is now trilingual (French, Tshiluba and English), and she has many more chances for success here than she would have had in Congo. She regrets that she is forgetting Tshiluba, but she makes an effort to keep much of her culture while integrating into society at the same time. If she could give other migrants some advice she would tell them this:

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First, if you do not know much about the country you are going to, try to get ready financially because you do not know about where you’re going and how you’re going to live. Once you’re in that country, try to be open to their culture and accept what they’re doing. Start with normal things like having a conversation with someone, smiling at a stranger, being nice, being there to help people, etc. Also prepare yourself to know that it won’t be easy, especially if you do not know the language and you do not know many people there. It might be easy if you go there as a tourist, but if you go as a student or to live, it will be hard, you will feel the impact. Accept even the things that you do not really agree with. Just accept it… because you can’t change it. If you are not open to their culture, it will be hard for you to know people and for them to accept you.   It will be hard at the beginning. But as time goes by, you will look at your experience and even laugh at it or make light of it. And you will say, ‘Wow, I really came far from a very long place.’ Also keep in mind the purpose of your move… Do not get distract[ed], you know, with having fun. Of course you can have fun, but it should not get in the way of the purpose you had. Do not forget the reason why you moved to the host country. If you moved here for school, focus first on school. Because probably, your parents are still paying for your school and it’s a lot of money. Even if you go to another country, not even the US, I do not know in other country how much the tuition costs, just focus on that, get your degree. It’s only a couple of years. If you go there to work, just focus on that. You can have fun, but first focus on your purpose. Currently, Carmelle is working in the library at a nearby community college. Soon, she will transfer to the local state university and major in nutrition, but she wants to work for the Peace Corps, travel, and hopefully at some point, go to medical school.

Discussion Teacher preparation Carmelle’s account of her school experiences both inside and outside of her ESL class support research findings that many high school teachers (that are not second language teachers) are not prepared to work with newcomer students. A study by Reeves (2006) supports these findings through survey results that showed that many high school teachers were ‘reluctant to work with students who lacked a minimum level of English proficiency’ and

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many did not believe they ‘had enough time to meet their needs’ (137). In Carmelle’s case, simple things like introducing her to the class and asking about her background and familiarity with drawing, would have helped to make her feel welcome. As a new student who was not able to understand a large part of classroom conversations and teacher talk, Carmelle thought that her teacher would want to know this, and would want to find out where she was from, what language she spoke, and how he might assist her in becoming part of the class and in making sense of the content, but he did not. As Reeves (2006) points out, students pick up on teacher attitudes or ambivalence toward them, and when they do not feel welcome or do not feel that their needs are even recognized (Carmelle thought that her teacher would have somehow acknowledged that she might not understand what he was saying and figure out a way to help her), they quickly withdraw emotionally and physically from the class. Since Reeves’ article was published, many high school teacher education programs (such as my own) have made an increased effort to help teachers in subjects other than ESL to understand that they will have English learners in their classes and that it is their responsibility to help these students, not just the ELL teacher’s job. However, training is still needed for teachers to understand some basic ways in which they can make a difference for ELL students and the ways in which their attitudes toward their students can affect learning. Below are a few suggestions as to how teachers can reduce language, cognitive and cultural loads for students: (1) Reduce language load: Provide instruction on grammatical forms or spelling as they arise during instruction. When possible (that is, when the teacher knows the L1 of students) recognize and build off a learner’s first language literacy levels and encourage students to use their metalinguistic awareness to facilitate additional learning or transfer, for example through the recognition of cognates (Musetti et al., 2009). (2) Reduce cognitive load: Provide individualized ‘preview’ assignments that prepare students for the content they will receive (Bang, 2011). In addition, encourage students to draw upon prior life experiences and knowledge, for example in writing assignments (Miller & Endo, 2004). Finally, employ routines (and model them for students before they are required to complete the tasks) that provide opportunities for repeated comprehensible input (Curran, 2003). (3) Reduce cultural load: Create an environment that welcomes cultural and linguistic diversity. To do this, seek out information about students’ cultures (Cary, 2000), make use of cultural informants to compare and

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contrast common social and school behavior patterns and expectations (Tong, Huang & McIntyre, 2006), and be sensitive to students’ preferred ways of learning. Additionally, teachers should seek out support services and resources for recently arrived migrant students and their families, and collaborate between family, school and community for student success (Stagg Peterson & Ladky, 2007; Suárez-Orozco et al., 2010; Wainer, 2006). To support linguistic diversity, invite students to teach a ‘daily expression’ from their L1 or greet students in the morning in another language and make the linguistic landscape of the classroom reflect the languages represented by students. Besides the above suggestions for teachers, sometimes just taking the time to know where your students are from, and what languages they speak can communicate a message of acceptance and value that can help students feel welcome and part of the classroom community. What is important here is that this is something that all teachers that come into contact with migrant students need to think about at all levels of instruction. Many times teachers in general education classes such as English, Math or Science believe that this is the job of the second language specialist or resource teacher (in the case of Spain). However, if teachers have migrant students in their classrooms, it is their responsibility to adapt instruction so that these students can participate, feel welcome and be successful. It is becoming more and more likely that teachers will have migrant students in their classes at some point, and thus it is important for teachers to receive training on how exactly to reduce the language, cognitive and cultural loads for students.

Depression and migrant students ‘Immigration is a transformative process with profound implications for the family. Migrant children experience a particular constellation of changes that have lasting effects upon their development’ (Suárez-Orozco & SuárezOrozco, 2001: 66). Separations and reunification, the daily stresses of immigration, learning the new rules of the receiving country, changing family/gender roles, can all be part of the migrant experience, and can cause pain and disorientation (Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 2001). In addition, the journey itself (e.g. crossing the border) can be highly traumatic and some migrants experience potential threat of danger, detention and deportation or are beaten, detained and/or humiliated (Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 2001). Others experience high levels of violence in their new neighborhoods and school settings as well.

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Carmelle suffered from depression due to loneliness, increased responsibility and the difficulty of studying in a language she wasn’t proficient in. Carmelle’s experience with depression is not unique for migrant students, particularly those that must face the daunting task of becoming proficient in the receiving country language (Williams & Butler, 2003). Studies such as Dewaele and Oudenhoven (2009) suggest that it is not only the trauma of immigration itself that can cause a decrease in the emotional stability of migrant students, but the process of ‘linguistic and cultural acculturation’ that can be overwhelmingly stressful as well (2009: 457). Hence, the loss of social network connections in the sending country is related to increased rates of depression for recent migrants (Tran et al., 2014; Vega et al., 1987). Migrants face the double risk factors of losing previous social connections and having limited access to new social networks because of language differences. Berry and Kim (1998) discuss acculturative stress resulting from the cultural and psychological changes individuals face through their continuous contact with different cultural groups. However, protective factors, including prayer, social support and closeness with parents have been found to increase first-generation migrants’ positive wellbeing as compared to subsequent generations with similar demographic and family backgrounds (Harker, 2001). As Carmelle points out, these feelings can be overcome with time (as language and cultural proficiency improves), and in the end, she has never regretted her experience. Dewaele and Oudenhoven (2009) support this notion, asserting that although the process of learning the language and culture can be daunting and sometimes result in lower levels of emotional stability and self-esteem, the benefits that come with multilingualism (e.g. increased open-mindedness and cultural empathy) far outweighed the disadvantages. For Carmelle, receiving a simple award for her efforts resulted in a change of attitude and renewed hope in herself, which leads us to the next point.

One person’s kindness goes a long way In her interview, Carmelle talks about how the kindness of one man on the train, who lent their family his phone (as well as the positive effects of receiving an award), went a long way in erasing some of the other unkind experiences they had on their journey. Human kindness is important for everyone to experience and can make an important difference in everyone’s life. Because of their vulnerable position, coming to a place that is unfamiliar and needing so much, often one act of kindness can change migrants’ entire attitude toward a receiving country and the events of their lives forever. It is important as teachers to never forget this, and to take the time to help

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migrant students (or point them to someone who can help them) with issues of daily life, but more importantly, talk to students and ask questions. If we do not know what they need, or what their background is (e.g. what country they come from, why they came, what language(s) they speak), we cannot begin to understand their needs or to extend to them the kindness that could transform their experiences.

The value of interviews and reflective practices for language learners When Carmelle and I met for her to read her story and give me her feedback, I was surprised by the fact that the only changes she made were in regards to her direct quotations. For example, she did not like the fact that she said ‘like’ frequently (in a very colloquial way that was indexical of her high level of English proficiency as well as her youth). She also recognized many grammatical errors in places where she spoke and two ideas did not seem connected. I explained to her that these were her words as directly transcribed from the audio recordings of her interview, and that spoken and written speech are quite different. However, since it was her story to tell, I let her know that we could change anything she wished to change, and she asked me to make a few grammatical corrections, connect a few sentences that seemed disjointed, and take out many of the instances of the word ‘like.’ The fact that Carmelle was so surprised by the way she actually spoke when she encountered the words on paper caused me to have an epiphany about the value of this type of experience for language learners. Hence, having students interview each other, transcribe their interviews, and then read their own words is a reflective practice that could result in higher levels of grammatical self-awareness (among other things). Of course spoken and written language are very different, but in the case of Carmelle, reading her sentences allowed her more time to reflect on how she actually spoke and the grammatical structures she used. Thus, this activity is of high value not only for getting students to reflect on their lived experiences, but also to create self-awareness of how they actually speak in order to de-fossilize errors and make improvements. This practice is frequently employed in writing centers when working with language learners (Blau et al., 2002).

Acceptance and silence Another theme emerging from Carmelle’s interview where she gives advice to other migrants is the theme of silence as a form of acceptance. Here Carmelle encourages new migrants to ‘Accept even the things that you do

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not really agree with. Just accept it… because you can’t change it. If you are not open to their culture, it will be hard for you to know people and for them to accept you.’ This piece of advice (given to help others integrate) reveals that often (but not always, as in LiHua’s case), migrants are willing to silence themselves in order to integrate into society and be successful, even though they know that the way they are sometimes treated is not just. This type of acceptance of the new culture, even when injustice is present, is a form of silence, and a way of keeping the story from being heard, such as in Arman’s case when he was unable to tell his story because of reluctance to re-live painful experiences. In LiHua’s case, she did not feel the need to be silent in order to be accepted, but she did acknowledge the strong need for acceptance. Often migrant students such as Carmelle don’t want to complain even when they see they are receiving unfair treatment in schools and elsewhere because they want to be accepted and they see this as a barrier. Students like Carmelle that experience injustices in school will never feel comfortable talking about them unless they know and trust their teachers. Carmelle’s interview discloses how some of her teachers in her general education classes sent powerful messages to her by not acknowledging her different language and background when she first arrived. It is clear that if Carmelle had had an injustice to report, she would not have felt comfortable doing so with a teacher that didn’t care enough to find out where she was from. Building caring relationships with migrant students by listening to them, providing them with opportunities to share their experiences if they want to, and helping them with needs outside the classroom are some of the ways in which teachers can encourage this silence to be broken so that students feel comfortable advocating for themselves in the receiving country.

Immigration is a force immigration is a force is a metaphor that appears often in scholarly discourse about migration (e.g. push and pull factors). For people talking about their migration experience, words such as shock and impact often come up. Carmelle uses this metaphor several times to talk about the dramatic switch she had to make from being a child, to growing up very quickly in order to help her family settle. This sudden change was a force that had a negative impact on her, and was one factor in her experiencing depression. Carmelle’s (and Thinh’s to follow) experiences of having to translate for their parents at young ages (and being expected to have a very high level of vocabulary in both languages) was traumatic and put great pressure on them. Teachers must remember that translation and other expectations parents (and often

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teachers) have for their children/students require high proficiency and cognitive levels and carry a high cognitive load. Students tire easily and although they understand both languages, translating between the two is not always easy and requires much practice, skill and training. This metaphor reminds us of the incredible energy, strength and dynamism that migration requires of its participants.

*Thinh (also refugee/asylum seeker): Vietnam → Thailand → United States Thinh came from Vietnam and had refugee status, but because he came as a child, brought by his parents, he is also cross-listed in this category. In addition, because he stayed in Thailand for 3–4 months awaiting sponsorship to come to the United States, Thailand is listed as one of his migrating countries, even though Thinh does not talk about his time there. Thinh’s father was a captain in the South Vietnamese Army. He was eventually captured and put in a communist re-education camp. After six years in the camp, he was released and then given papers from the United States government allowing him to leave the country (because he was considered an enemy of the state). At this time, Thinh, his parents, and nine siblings (two sisters stayed in Vietnam as they did not want to move) traveled to Thailand to await sponsorship. After three or four months, they received sponsorship by the Catholic Society in their state. From Thailand, they traveled by plane, stopping in Japan, then California, then finally their destination in the Midwestern United States. Even though Thinh was very young when he arrived in the US, he remembers what a ‘struggle’ it was. He and his family did not speak English, and they had to rely on others for translations. They had never seen a telephone or city lights. Thinking back, Thinh recalls how shocked they were by everything in their new home, ‘bright city lights – we didn’t – pretty much we were, we were ignorant of all those modern amenities – or everything. Everything was amazing.’ Most memorable to Thinh were his experiences in school. When he first arrived, Thinh had already been to kindergarten in Vietnam, but his parents decided to let him repeat kindergarten. Everything was different at school. The language was different; the diet was different. His parents did not have much energy to focus on their children’s education as they were busy trying to make a living for the family. So, when the kids were home, they all did their own thing, meandering around the house, playing with brothers and sisters. Whereas in school, it was more structured and controlled. In school,

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they had certain goals. Thinh remembers feeling overwhelmed with speaking the new language, meeting new people, learning how to read. He also had a difficult time making friends. Thinh recalls that there was one boy that did want to befriend him, but he did not like him. He then asked his father how to say ‘I do not like you’ and returned the next day to tell the boy this. Another memory Thinh has is of when they first moved to a new house, but for some reason the bus driver was not informed of the move. By mistake, Thinh was dropped off outside his old house. He felt traumatized as his parents were not there and so he just started walking in any direction, crying, but eventually he made it to his new house. When he was crying he remembers hoping that someone would look at him and ask him if he needed help, but no one ever did. He believes they probably thought he was crazy, A little Asian boy walking, screaming his head off the whole time. So, the next day my parents gave me a little pin that they pinned to my shirt, you know, and I would have to show the bus driver that this is the new address and stuff, so. You know, looking back it felt, it felt really embarrassing but at that time it was a great idea, you know. Thinh also remembers that they did not have much money, and because of this he often had to wear secondhand clothing, many times girl’s clothing. Today he has many amenities but when he looks back to that time he thinks, ‘Wow, I had very little and I was relatively very happy at the time too!’ Talking about his time in ESL classes, when Thinh was in third or fourth grade, he decided he did not want to be in those classes anymore (and he had just moved schools) because he felt that he had ‘grasped the language at that time.’ Also, he notes: I didn’t want to be put into ESL classes anymore because I felt like I… I do not need that crutch anymore. So at that time – it’s not that I felt successful at the time, but I felt like I did not want to be at a disadvantage you know, because I always felt like those classes always – you weren’t treated the same way, you were always the foreign kids in that class whereas all the other kids went to different classes. And so I didn’t want to be a part of that. I’m normal, I can speak your language, I can do everything that the teacher would say, you know. So it didn’t make a difference to me that I spoke another language.

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Thinh has never been back to Vietnam, and neither has anyone in his family. He explains: I have never been back. Well, my parents never made the effort so they instilled in us to – don’t need to know, don’t want to go back, there’s nothing there for us anymore – and also they’re always afraid of the money that it would cost to go back there. Not the travel expenses but mostly the people that you would meet. People in Vietnam expect a lot out of people that would go to a different country. They come back they all think you’re millionaires and you are expected to reward them in a way. You know, you got to give each – everybody at least over 100 bucks for them to be happy. Because they cannot afford to give so much to all of their relatives, Thinh’s parents have been afraid to go back, and so he has always thought it was better for him not to go. Thinh’s advice to others migrating to the US is to learn the language and culture before you come. That is, ‘what people expect of you in the other country, just the behavior.’ He feels that TV can play a big role in teaching English and culture, and he recommends that migrants watch as much TV as possible. ‘It taught you what you knew about… certain stereotypes and everything, so the language was learned there, the culture was learned there, pretty much everything was given to you on that tube.’

Discussion Feelings of foreignness in school Thinh’s feelings about ESL class speaks volumes about the dangers of being labeled ‘ELL’ (English Language Learner) and the social and academic isolation that can occur from being singled out as different. Research has examined stigmatization and the ‘ESL ghetto’ pointing to a number of problems with second language instruction such as a lack of rigor, linguistic/ academic stagnation, long-term ‘tracking’ and social isolation (Faltis & Arias, 2007; Sharpiro, 2012). In Thinh’s case, because he came so young, he was able to quickly feel comfortable in English environments and so he felt that his participation in ESL classes not only differentiated him as ‘foreign,’ but also kept him back. Kanno and Kangas (2014) note the way that chances for rigorous academic preparation are systematically reduced for English learners, and how, often, programs such as Arizona’s Structured English Immersion (SEI) model restrict ‘student access to English-speaking peers

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and to academic content learning for significant portions’ of their learning (2014: 851). ELLs are often not given the chance to reach high levels of instruction because students passing out of ELL classes are often immediately fed into remedial level classes of the same material, and then to the next level and so on, never reaching the highest levels in high school because they always start from remedial levels due to ELL class placement (2014: 862). In addition, many ELLs are often steered away from challenging courses in the name of ‘protecting ELLs’ because linguistic issues might get in the way of their learning difficult content (2014: 862; see also Olsen, 1997; SuárezOrozco et al., 2008). Furthermore, many students and their parents do not advocate for themselves to be placed in challenging classes because of the lack of cultural capital (knowing that they could request these things) and diminished habitus (which conveys to them that things like meritscholarships and high-track courses are ‘outside the realm of what is possible for them’) (Kanno & Kangas, 2014: 867). Although many students like Thinh are aware of the limitations that the label ‘ELL’ can have on their education, they often remain powerless to change the system (Harklau, 1994, 2000; Harklau & McClanahan, 2012) There are several important implications of Thinh’s experience for teachers and policymakers. First, we need to re-think models in which students are socially isolated and excluded from interaction with native speakers and in which they lose instruction time from general education classes in order to receive ESL instruction. Second, there needs to be more attention paid to second language instruction to ensure that it does not lack rigor or involve long-term tracking (as noted by Faltis & Arias, 2007) in which students can never gain access to challenging coursework geared toward students heading to universities. Dual language programs can correct both of these problems, and for many school districts around the world (but not as many as there should be) they remain the preferred model for second language learners. Third, we need to be advocates for our students in terms of helping them reach higher levels of instruction since research provides evidence that many migrant parents do not advocate for their children because of lack of cultural capital and diminished habitus (Kanno & Kangas, 2014).

Language is an object of value There is no question as to the value that migrants place in learning the dominant culture’s language. Many ontological metaphors (that conceive of abstract experiences in terms of general objects, substances or containers) referring to language were found in this book (Kövecses, 2010). Thinh’s

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comment that he grasped the language provided evidence of his view of language as an object to be ‘kept’ or ‘lost.’ These metaphors reveal that language learning is one of the most difficult and most valued aspects of the migration experience. Thus, language teachers and the general public should never underestimate the importance migrants place on learning the local language. On the other hand, mother tongues and other languages migrants know are just as valuable as the dominant language, and should be treated as the gems and special treasures they are – to be savored, doted on and saved. Teachers need to recognize this value and provide subtle signs to students that they value their languages and cultures. Some ways this can be done include providing students with access to books and media in their mother tongue, using multilingual pedagogies (such as those advocated by Ofelia García and Nelson Flores (2012)), filling the room with signs that include the languages of students and asking students to teach others some of their language.

Expectations upon return Thinh’s comments about his parents’ fears of returning to Vietnam reflect a common problem that migrants have upon returning to their countries. Often people have very high expectations for them (that they will have lots of money and be wealthy, and able to give much back to their families), and sometimes these expectations are never met, because the migrants barely manage to make a living in the new country. Thinh’s family knew the expectations, and until they felt they could meet them, they opted not to return. The film Daughter from Danang captures these familial expectations well, in a slightly different context (see https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=2AU_VUe2HX0). In this film, the main character was born in Vietnam to a Vietnamese mother and an American serviceman and adopted to an American family in the US when she was very small. As an adult, she returns to Vietnam to reunite with her mother and siblings, but is quickly devastated to find that they are expecting her to give large amounts of money regularly to support the family even though she has just met them. The main miscommunication occurs because she was not warned or educated as to cultural expectations. Knowing expectations and cultural customs is also a large theme within the interviews in this book. Although this can lead to false stereotypes, many migrants interviewed recommended that migrants read and learn as much as possible about the receiving country’s cultural practices before migrating so as to avoid misunderstandings and false hopes. Had the main character in Daughter from Danang known what her financial responsibilities would be, she might have reacted more

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positively or at least had a choice as to whether she wanted to take on those responsibilities and whether or not she should have traveled to Vietnam, which Thinh’s parents chose not to do.

Notes (1) This definition does not yet account for cohabitation or same-sex couples (Kofman, 2004: 245). (2) Availability of programs such as ELCO depend on the region, and in recent years many of these programs have closed due to austerity measures in the EU zone.

8 Economic Migrants

Economic migrants are those who leave their country in order to improve their quality of life, or for the purpose of employment (often the latter leads to the former). For this book, I will add to this definition those who migrate for the purposes of education (a common step on the path to eventual improved quality of life) and end up staying because they have found employment or view the receiving country as a way of bettering their lives. This category was the most frequent in the data and thus five stories have been chosen in order to demonstrate the remarkable range of experiences that could still be labeled as ‘economic’ migrant experiences.

Misi: Zimbabwe → Cuba → South Africa After secondary school in Zimbabwe, Misi received a scholarship to study math and science in Cuba. She absolutely loved this experience. Although it was a different country with different weather, and a different physical and geographical setting, she knew she would return home to Zimbabwe, so she just made the most of her time there. She did not have a family then so she felt free to enjoy herself and make the most of the experience. Some time after returning to Zimbabwe, she got married and had children. In 2008, the economy in Zimbabwe crashed, which meant that although there were jobs, inflation was so bad, people could not buy much with their salaries, and times were hard. As a result, in April of that year, her husband went to work in South Africa so that they could make ends meet. In August, they decided that she should visit her husband. She did not plan on staying because she had not made arrangements for her children, but she took her CV and other documents just in case, and left her children with her mother.

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It was a long journey; she left on Saturday and arrived in South Africa on Sunday around 9pm and then went to her husband’s place. Around 2pm the next day, as she was preparing to take an after-lunch nap, she received a phone call explaining that her son had set fire to her mother’s house. Her children were staying with her mother, and they were used to living in a house with an asbestos roof. Her mother’s house was made of thatched grass. Apparently, her curious son had just wanted to check whether grass can burn, and he burned a hole in the house. Because of this accident, she could not return to Zimbabwe but had to remain in South Africa to look for a job and find a way to pay for a new house for her mother. Soon after, she found a job, and began to study at the university. Misi has since become accustomed to life working and living in South Africa. When talking about her experiences teaching school in South Africa, she says: And I had to adapt quickly because the system is different. Here, we… they do continuous assessment, we have to give certain tests to contribute the final mark. There [Zimbabwe] we do not do it that way. We only have exams at the end. So the teacher, you know your way around to make sure you prepare them for, just the final exam is the one it counts. So it’s something that you see is different. Here you have to make sure you do those things in time and get those marks, submit them simultaneously, so it’s something it is different. Culturally, there were many similarities that Misi could see between South Africans and people from Zimbabwe, but according to Misi, South Africa is a much more multicultural and diverse country: There are little things inside what they do, the way they eat, the way they dress. They may still do their cultural practices like religious-wise or at home, the way they marry. But the way they dress, the way they accept – some ideas from outside because they are exposed to more people, unlike the[m] – we are almost uniform, we do things almost in the same way, we do not feel that there’s someone with different culture. We just have one culture. The hardest thing for Misi has been leaving her children. Although she eventually planned for them to move to South Africa and live with her and her husband, their incomes are not enough to make that possible yet. She reflects on this decision in the following comment:

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As a parent you say, ‘Ha!’ You weigh the options and see what is better, they have nice place there to stay, and they are in good schools they is well where learn – the learning cultures are still good, so what do I do? Let them go to school, so, but then the separation, you get used to but, it’s not easy. Misi is fortunate because she is able to go back and visit every so often. Every time she goes back to visit, it is very hard to leave her children again, but according to Misi ‘it must be done.’ For Misi, global migration is: …something inevitable because, I know there are some people who are happy where they are, but for some people who believe that there’s something out there that is for them – that they can get out there to make their life better, or maybe to make it a difference. They will always go out there to look for that thing. She explains that the whole experience has been worth it, and she would do it again if she had to, I think I am better, I believe, because I… went to all those places like Cuba, I am [a] better person, I understand other people more and maybe empathize with them more or sympathize with their situations more. However, Misi is tired of working, and eventually, she dreams of going back home when things are better, and when she is able to make a living there.

Discussion Temporary or permanent sojourners In Misi’s story, she distinguishes between her experience in Cuba and South Africa. Two main differences between the experiences exist: whether or not she had a family to think about and the qualitative difference people experience when they visit a country knowing they will definitely return as opposed to when they know they will not (or may not be able to) return. This is a difference worth noting because although most of the participants in this study expressed a desire to remain in their receiving country, some of them could return if they wanted while others could not. Namely, privileged migrants such as most ‘Adventurers’ (including Expats) and several ‘Love’ migrants could go back whenever they chose, whereas refugees and economic migrants are often unable to return home (or they know that

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conditions there would not allow for them to live a comfortable life) even if they wanted to. Knowing whether you can return or not makes a difference in your attitude, and it is often easier to find positive things in an experience, when you know it is temporary.

Sending for the kids Like Misi, many of the migrants interviewed in this book mentioned prolonged (or sometimes brief) periods of separation from their parents or from their children (e.g. Miljan and Dijana). Due to global forces, the journeys of today’s migrants are more complex than they have been in the past (Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 2001), and they are often transnational journeys. Although Misi expressed the belief that she will probably stay in South Africa, if things improve in Zimbabwe, she may very well be able to reunite with her family there. In the meantime, her children’s lives have been greatly affected by their parents’ absences. Because of her time in South Africa, Misi has been able to make sure they have food and a more comfortable life back in Zimbabwe, and she has been able to send them to good schools there, which she would not have been able to afford in South Africa. Many children (such as Bertha) experience the opposite, where they are brought to the new country but have other relatives still behind and waiting to come at a later time (or parents who have been deported or were never able to come) and still others are truly ‘transnational,’ going back and forth between countries and often falling under the radar in both places (in terms of their special needs as transnational migrants) (Hamann et al., 2006). All of the children placed in these various migration contexts face different challenges in schools, such as being linguistically and culturally prepared for their various (and often changing) school settings, and dealing with daily challenges of being separated from parents. According to Hamann et al. (2006), transnational migrant children must gain ‘learning-to-learn skills as well as attention to their selfhood and identity,’ and schools must be conscious of the ‘circumstances transnational students negotiate and will need to negotiate in the future’ (2006: 267). On the other hand, for teachers of adults (such as those in community college, adult education and higher education classes), it is important to realize that being separated from children or other family members can add to the levels of stress and anxiety of these adult students (Grzywacz et al., 2005), a finding supported by Arman’s story. Thus, taking the time to understand your students’ family situation (e.g. Who are they currently living with? Who are they separated from and for how long?) can go a long way in understanding their stories and meeting their educational needs.

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Totò: Italy → Germany → Italy → Germany The story of Totò (short for Salvatore) is one of transnational migration. As a young child in the early 1970s, his entire family moved from Catania, Sicily (for work) to a small town in Baden-Württemberg, in the southwest of Germany and stayed there for five years. After saving some money, they then moved back to Sicily (except for his older brother and sister, who stayed in Germany). Totò remained in Sicily until he was 18. At this point, he was already married, and had a three-year-old daughter. In Sicily at the time, the economy was not good, and for a while he made ends meet by selling clothes in local markets, traveling from Catania to Syracuse, Agrigento and Palermo to make enough money to get by. The competition was merciless, and often he did not have enough money to buy groceries and had to borrow money and food from relatives and friends in order to avoid resorting to crime to make a living. Fortunately, his brother had just opened up a second gelateria (ice cream shop) and needed help. He needed work, and so he told himself, ‘let’s have this experience.’ His daughter’s godfather kindly gave him the money to purchase plane tickets for himself, his wife and daughter, even though he had never been able to pay him back for money that he previously owed him for clothes and fabric for his market stalls. He chokes up talking about how much people helped him in getting to Germany and getting established. First he got help, he says, but now he helps others, like his mother or mother-in-law, if they need it. ‘I do not think about money, for me, they are just pieces of paper.’ Totò did not plan on staying in Germany forever, thinking rather that he would work hard, save some money, and return to Sicily. However, after a while, he began to really appreciate some of the differences and efficiency that he found in Germany: Sadly there’s a lot of difference from Italy... I say sadly because I’m sorry, because I’m very proud to be Italian, I like my country (he refers to it as ‘la mia terra’ (my land)), is everything, but… already after being here two years, even though I spoke little – and I mean very little German, because we were all Italians there… it was… every time I went on vacation I saw… you could see the difference between here and there. Just the organization, above all, and sadly, it hurts. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts because… one thinks that we could have everything there, even more than here, but… you can’t have everything because there… there it’s unorganized, I mean, barely anything works. This appreciation for his receiving country culture, and his stable job in Germany led him and his family to settle there permanently.

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Totò has come a long way since he left Italy. When he and his wife first arrived, they did not have a car; they now have a car and two apartments. After their daughter turned nine, they had a son, and Totò notes with fondness that his daughter has been like a second mother to her brother. When they first came, he did not know German, so in addition to learning how to make gelato, he had to learn German. Totò becomes emotional when he talks about his career of making gelato. According to Totò, if you like doing it, it becomes a passion. If you do not like it, you cannot do it, because you have to spend 12–14 hours a day in a lab, making 500 kilos of it. ‘Il gelato è un arte’ [ice cream is an art], he declares, and in order to make it right, to make it creamy, with the right proportions of ingredients, ‘you have to have it in your blood – or you will not understand how it works.’ To Totò, his business has always been centered on the family. His brother, his nephew, his sister-in-law, all have helped him out over the years; they are all there for each other since the business is all-consuming and rarely leaves him with time for vacation or to return to Sicily. It is the family that holds everything together, and he would like to be able to spend more time with them. ‘Prima la famiglia’ [First the family] he says, restating a common Italian proverb, ‘and then comes the rest.’ He ends his story reflecting on the little time he has and how he would like to dedicate more of it to spend with his family, and he advises others to do the same.

Discussion A note about language and methodology One of my favorite quotations from Nelson Mandela is ‘If you talk to a man in a language he understands, it goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.’ You may have noticed that in the above story several utterances have been left in the original language of the interview (Italian). This seems an appropriate time to say a few words about the linguistic complexities of this project. Being multilingual definitely had its advantages, as I was able to conduct interviews in Italian, Spanish and English whenever necessary. However, as you can see by the over 40 countries of origin, I could not even come close to capturing interviews in the mother tongues of most of the interviewees. Therefore, if interviewees expressed to me that they were comfortable conducting the interview in English, the interviews were done in English. In addition, I conducted interviews in Spanish or Italian (as in Totò’s story) when participants expressed preference for these languages. My graduate assistants were also able to conduct interviews in Chinese and French. However, I would like to

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add that it is clear from the interviews that even if participants are proficient speakers of English (which most participants were), the quality and intimacy of the interviews increased when they were conducted in the mother tongue of the participants. When I listen to Totò’s passionate interview and remember the relationship we built through the interview process in Italian, I cannot help encouraging other researchers to conduct interviews in the participants’ mother tongues whenever possible (even though it is often a daunting task, as in this project in which the linguistic variety of participants was so overwhelming). Of course, one option is to have a translator, but the problem with the translator is that the relationship is not built directly with the researcher. On another note, translations of these interviews are complex, and often subtle references to idioms and cultural contexts are lost in translation (such as the word ‘gelato’ which translates as ice cream, but for those of you that have tasted this delectable treat in Italy, you know it is by no means ‘ice cream’). This is why I opted in some cases to leave the original utterances in the above interview (and others) in order to preserve on some level, the original beauty of what the participant said in his/her native language.

What goes around comes around? Totò’s story is interesting because as an economic migrant he has much in common with migrants from other countries such as Bosnia or Romania who are currently living in Italy and seeking to improve their economic situation and job prospects just like he did in Germany. Ironically, Italy was a nation of emigration up until the 1970s when it became a country of immigration, yet currently there is much anti-immigrant sentiment in Italy due to an increase in the number of migrants and incessant media coverage of their arrival and the needs they bring with them. What is interesting is that even though Italy has a very large diaspora all over the world, and Italians have certainly experienced their share of discrimination and antiimmigrant sentiment pointed at them (see http://video.pbs.org/program/ italian-americans/ for a detailed account of this in the United States), many are still unable to understand and support migration to their country, and some of the same arguments that were used against Italian migrants abroad are now used by Italians toward other migrants. This is by no means a practice carried out only by Italians; rather, this concept of not being able to find empathy for others in similar situations is well-documented in this book, and perhaps part of human nature. However, that doesn’t make it any less perplexing. It’s not clear how Totò would feel upon returning to Italy and seeing all of the new migrants that are there, but I would hope that he

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would look upon the situation with reflexivity and the ability to see himself in their eyes. I will touch on this theme of reflexivity again following Kofi’s story.

Kofi: Ghana → United Kingdom → South Africa Kofi did his Master’s degree in the UK, but it cost him a fortune. After working for the World Bank for several years in Ghana, he decided to do his PhD in South Africa because his brother and his brother’s wife and children were there (unfortunately they passed away before Kofi made it to South Africa). His brother had told him that the quality of education in South Africa was the same as in the UK, but it cost much less. He had visited South Africa several times before for conferences or to visit his brother, and since the rest of his family was all based in the UK by that point, he had no reason to remain in Ghana. Kofi had certain expectations for when he arrived in South Africa. When he arrived at the airport, he expected that there would be someone there with a banner and a van waiting for him, like he had experienced in the UK. Instead, he had to find his own transportation, and when he got to the housing office, he was told that no one had a key for him and he had to find his own place to stay. He ended up staying in a guest house, basically living out of his suitcase for five months. This was very frustrating for Kofi because in Ghana, he had a very good job – he was making $5000 a month, had four trips to the US per year, and conferences and meetings frequently in London. He had a house with seven bedrooms back in Ghana and was used to a very comfortable life there, but in South Africa he had a flat. Going back to school was both frustrating and humbling for him, as he notes: I mean because after a master’s you can’t land a good job like that and then leave the job again… because I left all that and came. And I was struggling, out of my suitcase open and dressing and putting my clothes back. I tell them if it doesn’t sort out by the fifth month, I’m coming back home. And I got a car and… I got to stay here and lectures started… It was pretty rough in the beginning and then fitting in. And I also struggled with the food. I also struggled with the water. I lost 30 kilos. I used to be twice this size. I was 95 kilos when I got here. Now I’m only 65 plus because I worked too hard. One of the most difficult parts of adjusting to South Africa for Kofi was the issue of race. According to Kofi, Ghana was like New York in the sense that

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you could see ‘people from Greenland’ and it was very international as well as mixed with local people. In Ghana, there are ‘different races, different mixes, different colors, and nobody cares what you look like. And you come here and you know there’s the apartheid issue, but you know it’s over. And you do not expect something that lasts 300 years to end in 15 years. So you expect some traces of it.’ However, what shocked Kofi the most was the reaction of Black South Africans (as opposed to Whites). In fact, Kofi thought that White South Africans were warmer to him than Black South Africans. He explains: Because they have the tensions there. And they have the deeply seated mistrust. But so… the other thing is that most of the African Blacks you meet have worked for a number of years and at least have their master’s degree or an honors degree. So they are better skilled than the average South African Black. So you find that the employers, the departments, and everybody gravitates more towards the other Black Africans than the South African Blacks. And in my department, for example, there is no South African Black lecturing because… they do not want to come back to study again. So the other minority and the White South Africans come back to do their masters, to do their honors, to do their PhD, from the honors and from the masters-level, you can count the number of black South Africans there. There is just one but of the other Black Africans who come already has [sic] a master degree. I came with a master’s and 20 years’ work experience so what you could do or what you can help with the department is so many [things]. And then, so you find, what shocked me was… the Black South African… Initially you think okay most of them are Black, I should be able to fit in, and then you get there and then you feel the strong repulsion from the Black South Africans. Kofi believes this comes from the notion many locals have that Black Africans (from other countries) were opportunists, coming to take over their schools and take their jobs. After years of Apartheid, Black South Africans felt that it was their time to gain these opportunities, but because they lacked the qualifications (because of many years of unequal educational opportunities), Black Africans (who had BEE status)1 have taken some of these jobs, resulting in the resentment that Kofi mentioned here. Kofi tries to understand the Black South African perspective: The struggle created [a] very deep structure problem. So there’s a huge skill mismatch. So they do not have the ability, they do not have the

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skills to do certain jobs. Ninety percent of them are low skill workers and most of them are only educated. Other Africans are highly skilled in labor and they still do not stand a chance… You [viewing it from a Black South African perspective] see it in every applicant, there is a master’s degree and 15 years’ work experience. Obviously you can’t compete with him. So when we obtain our chance, finally after so many years of struggle, after 300 years of struggle, here comes other Africans to pick up the golden opportunities that we thought should have probably waited for us. They do not really get, they do not notice that they haven’t really realized that the solution is not, it’s not just to feel entitled but you need to have what it takes. You have to have what it takes to sit in that. To take the opportunity… Political freedom in South Africa did not come with economic freedom. Still 51% of South Africa’s wealth is owned by 10% of the population and it is still almost the same people who had it before. The other 90% share. The South Africans expected that economic freedom would come but it does not come that easily. Kofi also notes the anti-Nigerian sentiment (common in other African countries such as Ghana, as well), and the stereotyping in South Africa in which all Black Africans (not from South Africa) are thought to be Nigerians. He says: So every foreigner is a Nigerian until they find out that you’re not from Nigeria. So as far as the Blacks are concerned every foreigner is Nigerian. You know? And then the first class I had to teach, it was supposed to have 300 kids there. When I got there, there were 20 kids and apparently they thought I was Nigerian, so they all went to the other class. So…, one girl asked me so ‘Where are you from?’ and I said ‘I’m from Ghana.’ And while I was teaching they were just whispering. I was wondering what was going on. They were debating that my accent is different. I’m not tall. My head is not… My head is round… It’s not oblong like Nigerian heads. He’s not too tall. His accent is different. So they were arguing among themselves and they did not want to ask where are you from and I said ‘I’m from Ghana.’ ‘Tsk, I told you he’s not Nigerian.’ So I go to class the next day and the class is packed to capacity. Kofi has also found it very difficult to identify with anyone that was not from ‘his group.’ This is ‘unsettling’ for Kofi because in Ghana, the cultural norm is for the visitor to come first. According to Kofi, visitors in Ghana are showered with attention and hospitality. For this reason, he was surprised by the lack of hospitality he received when he arrived in South Africa.

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Kofi could tell there was a tension in South Africa, but nobody would talk about it. ‘People do not mix up. All the whites are on one side and blacks on the other. In Ghana, Chinese, India, Syrian, Lebanese – everyone is mixed up everywhere.’ After a short time in South Africa, culture shock set in for Kofi, because there was such a ‘huge difference.’ He recalls how customs for greeting people are different. According to Ghanaian standards, once you encounter someone face-to-face, you should stop and speak with them, especially if they are your professor, or someone older than you. However, he remembers meeting a young boy he knew on the street and he just walked past him. ‘It’s disrespectful,’ he adds. Another time, he was walking down the street and some people started saying things (in the local language that he doesn’t speak). He recalls: When you walk by they see me in the morning with my laptop going and they start saying things. They are very angry. They start saying things. One of my students was following me. And so he walked up to me and said ‘You know them?,’ I said ‘No.’ ‘Do you know what they said?,’ I said ‘No.’ He said ‘You guys have come here taking our jobs and you come and dress up and come and pass and because of you South Africans can’t get jobs.’ I said ‘Really?’ So he said ‘No, let’s go back.’ So he walks back with me to this guy who passed the car and said ‘This man is my lecturer. If he leaves, I do not get a lecture. Can you lecture me?’ He says ‘No.’ ‘So okay then stop being nasty to him because if he leaves we are in deep shit.’ Kofi was also surprised by the different cultural norms for women, and the fact that South African women frequently propositioned him. In fact, he says he was approached by several elderly, wealthy, married women (three Black, one White and one Indian) that wanted a Black boyfriend. In Ghana, he says, this would not happen. A woman might give a man a signal, but they would not approach a man directly. Apparently, these women (who he refers to as ‘cougars’ or ‘pumas’) were looking for a Black boyfriend for sex: They’re like sugar daddies. And the middle age women, like 32–35, they are pumas. And they like young Black boys. But they found out that I was actually older than them. I’m 45. They actually thought I was 30-something. So I would have been the cougar. According to Kofi, these women sit around in coffee shops and when the students ‘come down the hills,’ they chat them up, looking for a replacement for their husbands, who were often drunks or did not have frequent sexual

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relations with them. Kofi was also surprised by the ‘uncontrolled liberty’ that South African women have: You won’t see a woman smoking in Ghana. Women do not smoke. If she smoke[s], she is a prostitute. They are the only ones that do that. Nobody else smokes. But you find 17-year-old students in downtown campus smoking, drinking alcohol, or doing what they call binge drinking. They mix up all kinds of hard liquor and… in Ghana you can’t see that. Kofi has a lot of thoughts on South Africans, and the current political economic situation in the country. At the time of the interview, there had recently been a miners’ strike in the Marikana area, in which post-apartheid South African police opened fire on striking miners, killing 34 and injuring 78 people (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/25/south-africaplatinum-miners-strike-anc). Kofi mentions this incident and his fears of escalation, Yeah all the mining companies are joining. It’s going to spill over into several over things. And then before you know it, it’s going to be, they are going to attack the Zimbabweans and then anybody else who’s not from South Africa. It’s going to start from Jo’burg. That’s where it always starts from. It’s a ticking time bomb… If they do not handle this well, it’s going to explode into something else. Because it is an election year and there are people funding the violence. They are making it more violent, more volatile. Kofi believes that South Africans should travel more so they will not look down on others (though he does not acknowledge the money required for this). He believes that often, his students feel entitled, and do not realize that they must work hard, that things will not just come to them – ‘they just want to finish… just to pass.’ He thinks that the psychological impact of the struggle has been compounded with the fact ‘there’s no father figure at home, and the quality of the family life is very poor and the neighborhood, you do not see any role models.’ In this environment, he notes, ‘You are not inspired. You are not pushed to real levels of achievement in life – Nothing pushes you.’ This is why (in Kofi’s opinion), even though Apartheid is over, ‘the barrier is still there.’ Kofi worries about the future of South Africa as well as his own future there. To Kofi, South Africa presents a wonderful ‘rainbow front’ in which a strong effort has been made for different factions to live together harmoniously. However, living in South Africa and being in contact with

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South Africans has made him realize that this is just a front. One needs to look behind what is presented… and dig deeper, Then you realize that behind the front is the real deal. That’s what you’re going to live with and it kind of, Apartheid is over but it is kind of, it’s kind of institutionalized into everything. And nobody talks about it but it’s still there, very strong. The barrier is there. It is so strong. You bump the barriers there and I realized the experience is different if you’re from Europe or you’re from the Middle East or you’re from the US or you’re from Asia. You have Indian professors that fit in perfectly because they’re Indian. You can’t tell their history because an Indian from Durban, South Africa or from India, you can’t tell the difference… And one thing I’m very worried about is how they carry out their frustration on foreign Blacks. The Black South Africans carry out, there is a lot of labor unrest going on right now and the next thing that follows is xenophobia. When they can’t find a solution… and then they carry their frustrations on other African Blacks even here. As if they caused the joblessness. But they are their own problem… yeah they present a very beautiful rainbow front, but they are sitting on a time bomb, a ticking, ticking time bomb. And I do not see it being very safe to live or practice here as a non-South African Black.

Discussion Reflexivity Being stereotyped does not mean you will not turn around and stereotype others. In the case of Kofi, in his story, he tells of how frequently people assumed because he was foreign (which they could tell from the way he dressed and his lack of knowledge of local languages), he was Nigerian, and they therefore associated him with negative stereotypes of Nigerians. Although this clearly bothered him, he was unable to be reflexive and see how some of his own observations of South Africans (such as their ‘entitlement’ or attitudes toward foreign Black Africans) were also stereotypes. In addition, frequently, he applied an ethnocentric view to behaviors he witnessed, such as judging how women should behave according to his standard that ‘in Ghana you do not see that.’ Behaviors which differed from this standard were therefore not correct. In my research, people’s inability to see their own behavior as similar to the behaviors they denounce is at times puzzling (as mentioned in the discussion following Totò’s story). For example, when researching the media representation of

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Roma (Catalano, 2012), I came across a video posted by Romanian migrants to Italy. Although Romanians in Italy have themselves been victims of discrimination (and negatively represented in Italian media) since Romania’s 2007 entry in the European Union, this has not changed their attitudes or behaviors toward Roma, which have suffered much worse conditions in Romania. Thus, while declaring discrimination against Romanians to be wrong, the people who posted the video wanted viewers to see that they were not the same as Roma and, in fact, were much better. Therefore, it was acceptable for others to discriminate against Roma, just as long as they did not confuse Roma with Romanians of non-Roma ethnicity. Although Paolo Freire tells us that ‘true reflection leads to action’ (1970/2012: 66), often times, it is human nature to reflect on the actions of others, yet not recognize our own actions as the same. That is, people often approve of, or fail to reflect upon, the negative actions and behaviors of their in-group even when they have denounced the same actions from out-group members.

A ‘ticking time bomb’ behind the rainbow front Kofi’s predictions about civil unrest and violence are already becoming a reality. He warned that unresolved racial and economic tensions would erupt, ‘They are going to attack the Zimbabweans and then anybody else who’s not from South Africa… It’s a ticking time bomb… If they do not handle this well, it’s going to explode into something else.’ And explode it has. Violence against migrants in South Africa has grown to unprecedented levels, coming to a climax in April 2015 when attacks killed nine people and displaced 5000 (Karimi & Magnay, 2015; UNHCR concern about xenophobic violence in South Africa, 2015). Interestingly, others in South Africa have taken up the time bomb metaphor, using it to incite fear and anger against migrants. Edward Zuma, son of South African president Jacob Zuma, claimed, ‘We are sitting on a ticking time-bomb of them taking over the country’ (Blood at the end of the rainbow, 2015). Somewhat ironically, Edward Zuma is a migrant of sorts, having been born in Swaziland. However, as the son of a key political figure, he is able to claim a South African identity in ways closed to the country’s other migrants. Since the attacks, many South Africans have come forward to protest in response to the attacks, and the South African government has made efforts to thwart blame for the economy and conditions of Black South Africans that have led to the attacks claiming that they were spearheaded by ‘criminal elements,’ while at the same time lacking to provide any details of government plans to improve the situation for migrants in South Africa (Thousands march in South Africa, 2015).

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Migrant students in South Africa Kofi’s story of integration into South African society represents an adult perspective. However, Vandeyar (2012) recounts similar experiences from the point of view of immigrant youth. In her study, she reveals how immigrant students often were able to integrate due to their phenotypic racial features, and often attempted to ‘pass’ as South Africans for reasons that Kofi outlined above (including avoiding discrimination due to their ‘foreigner’ status). In addition, many immigrant students noted being recognized as ‘foreign’ due to their lack of knowledge of local languages, and accent in the use of English, which was often the ‘critical signifier of the Other’ (Vandeyar, 2012: 5). In addition, some of the students noticed that even though they were Black, the ‘shades of blackness’ of their skin often distinguished them from South Africans (Vandeyar & Vandeyar, 2015: 82). In order to fit in but also not lose their own identities, many of the migrants interviewed in the study employed ‘hyphenated identities’ that allowed them to be both South African and their own ethnicity/nationality of origin, including some who employed an African ‘continental identity’ in an attempt for solidarity with South Africans who were ‘African’ like them. Thus, for children who may lack the political, social and economic knowledge (which Kofi had) that allows them to understand local attitudes toward them, Vandeyar’s study (and other work by this author) demonstrates their resilience in the use of multiple strategies to fit in but at the same time remain true to their own identities. Schools are a central social space in which different cultural forms interact; it is imperative that dialogue be encouraged in which immigrant student voices can be heard and conscious efforts can be made to ‘dismantle the barrier of racism’ (Vandeyar, 2012: 8) in South Africa and elsewhere in the world (such as in the United States) where similar anti-immigrant sentiments are frequently voiced.

Jane: Ukraine → United States → Ukraine → Belgium Jane studied in the US for a year, and then returned to Ukraine to find a job. When she could not find work, she took an opportunity offered to her to study in Belgium. She chose an English medium university because she did not speak any Belgian official languages (Flemish, French or German) at the time, but she spoke English because of her time in the US. She had considered going to the UK, but the university was much more affordable in Belgium. In the beginning, she thought that she would just do her

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Master’s degree there and go back to Ukraine. However, after studying for two years, she found a job in a Belgian bank because of her experience in the Ukrainian financial industry and her knowledge of Russian. Even though she uses mostly English in her job, she had to learn French for everyday life in Brussels. For example, when she goes shopping or to the hospital, or needs to complete daily functions, she uses French. Although she does not use Russian often in Belgium outside of work, her knowledge of Russian was key to her employment because in order for the bank to successfully apply for her work visa, the bank had to prove that she possessed special qualities lacking in other Belgians in the banking industry. She feels very grateful because her company was willing to fight for her to get her visa. Jane misses her family very much, but because she is not too far away, she is able to return home twice a year. Even though she loves her country very much and misses her friends and family, she would not move back to Ukraine where, even though prices are the same as in Belgium, it would be difficult to find a job that pays more than $300 a month and the situation there would not allow her to evolve professionally. In addition, in Ukraine, the political situation is not stable and Jane would not have the same level of security. Her family understands why she moved; they know she would not have had these opportunities in Ukraine, and they are happy for her. Back home, her mother teaches at a university, but sometimes she does not receive a salary. Her sister is a judge, which is a very difficult job because of all the corruption in Ukraine. Jane regrets that her younger sister often receives threats and is offered bribes (which she refuses), and in general, has a very difficult job. She notes, For a girl such kind of tough job it’s really – but my sister, she’s tough and she always knew that she wanted to be a judge or something like that so she got it. For the moment she’s happy but it’s true that it’s dangerous even for her. Dangerous in the sense that she gets real threats if she doesn’t do one or another thing, but for the moment nothing happened. Let’s hope it will be like that. Jane feels comfortable in Belgium because ‘they kind of really adapt to the people of all the nationalities around them.’ There are many Moroccans and people from Congo, because it was previously a colony of Belgium. Jane doesn’t feel less important because there are so many people from different countries and she feels that Belgians accept foreigners well, ‘So here you have Muslims, Orthodox Christians – well, everybody’s here and kind of everything goes well without any problems so… it’s fine.’

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Her life in Belgium is pretty calm, and she now has a Belgian boyfriend. She believes that her move to Belgium was much easier due to her experience in the US: I think the experience in the US changed me a lot so I was really scared going there, but when I got there I loved it so much so I thought that it will not be different in any country where I go and actually it was the case. So it was really nice even in Belgium here. So yeah, if I would not have US experience probably I would be more scared. But uh, I was quite calm and yeah – but […] also it depends on the personality. And of course if you have kids or like some more family obligations, it’s more difficult. I was alone, so for me moving was not a problem. She likes the location of Belgium because even if she is sitting in an office all week in the dreary weather, when she gets tired of the rain she can take a cheap flight to Spain or Greece and enjoy the sun for the weekend. If she could give advice to other migrants, she would tell them to make sure to prepare in advance and to know where they are going and have a plan. She remembers a feeling (not depression, but similar) of hurt when she had to leave her country, and she advises people to prepare for that psychologically. In addition, she advises migrants to make friends as soon as possible so that they can receive guidance in the procedures they will have to carry out (paperwork for a job, etc…). She recommends, Stay open, find friends and well, just for sure have a plan of what you are going to do. Moving just like that without knowing what you are going to do is quite scary and I do not advise that. Jane believes that it could be difficult to adjust, if a migrant does not have background information about the country before he or she goes. She also acknowledges that culturally, the differences between Ukraine and Belgium are not so vast, easing her own adjustment. Had she gone to Saudi Arabia, for example, …that would be a bit more because the cultural differences there are quite really big. But for any European country or US or Canada, that’s definitely not the problem. I think everywhere everything is the same – there are some differences yes, but it’s quite fine and it’s not Mars and Venus, it’s fine. You can find your way, just stay open un petit.2

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Discussion Language = opportunity + well-being In a global environment in which English is highly valued, and in Englishspeaking countries (such as the United States), often English speakers are discouraged from learning other languages because English is the ‘global language of the world’ (and ‘everyone speaks English’). In contrast, Jane’s story supports the need for multilingual discourses worldwide. Although Jane spoke English, it was her knowledge of Russian, which is listed as only the eighth most spoken world language (Lewis et al., 2014) that helped her succeed in Belgium, and allowed her to maintain her sense of identity. Jane’s story is proof that the excuse of not needing to learn other languages (or only learning the top most spoken languages such as English, Chinese or Spanish because only they have value), can only go so far. In addition, there are so many other ways to judge whether a language is valuable to a person besides the number of people who speak the language and its market value in terms of a career. As a former Italian teacher, I recall making many people happy because they could now understand the operas they were singing, or pronounce the names of artists they were studying or food and wine when they visited Portofino or Tuscany. To American Indian students (such as those learning Ojibwe in Minnesota and Wisconsin), the revitalization of their language is an act of cultural reclamation and provides a generative, creative power that is often missing in the teaching of culture for these students (Hermes, 2005). It is also a potential bridge for the gap between ‘academic and cultural curriculum’ and language ‘makes students feel a part of, rather than apart from their culture’ (Hermes, 2005: 53). The sheer joy of learning the language of one’s people brings a value no money or career can buy. It puts students in touch with their heritage, and as philosopher/ educator Karl Hostetler (2011) explains, allows them to ‘discover, reveal, and elevate their selves, transform their being in the world so as to achieve the vision that is the essence of living well’ (2011: 175). I often hear educators advise students to study languages based on the value related to careers and I see students discouraged from learning languages for which they have a personal interest or passion, based on the fact that they will not ‘use’ the language (meaning it is unnecessary for obtaining a job), and this saddens me. This is not to diminish the importance of learning a language because it can be a career asset – of course this is important, and this view of the value of language (referred to by Valdez et al., 2014 as the global human capital (GHC) ideology) cannot be ignored. However, this view should not be allowed to superimpose all other motivation. Learning a language for the

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sheer pleasure of using it for whatever personal purpose a student has (e.g. because they like Japanese anime films or because they want to keep in touch with their heritage or talk to their grandmother, or talk to a cute girl that speaks Filipino) should be considered valuable in its own right. Hostetler (2011: 52) remarks that ‘Being in the world and living well is more a matter of opening ourselves to the world, being attuned to what the world offers’. Just like the learning of other types of humanities, learning languages is precious because ‘they make a world that is worth living in’ (Nussbaum, 2010: 143). If we do not encourage the learning of languages other than English for values other than just making money, many lesser known languages or critical languages will slowly fade away. In addition, language teachers should be language learners. Even though most of us are at least bilingual, we often don’t study a language for many years after we graduate and we aren’t continually second language learners. As a result, we forget what it’s like to be one. Taking up again the study of language can lead to incredible discoveries in your own teaching as well as increased empathy for your students. Recently, when teaching a graduate course on multilingualism, I required my students to study a language and keep a journal that tracked their study in relation to what they were learning in class. I decided to do the same, and took up the study of Turkish (again), keeping a language journal and tracking what I learned in relation to what I was teaching. I found it to be a refreshing, eye-opening experience that brought me renewed empathy for my pre-service teachers who I often lectured about working on their language proficiency. In addition, it gave me new insights to some of the techniques I had been teaching because I was now on the flip side of the instructional coin.

Religious tensions in Belgium In her interview, Jane points to the harmony among people of different nationalities and religions that she views in Belgium (‘So here you have Muslims, Orthodox Christians – well, everybody’s here and kind of everything goes well without any problems so… it’s fine.’). However, several years after this interview was conducted, attention has been drawn to Belgium for exactly the opposite reason. After attacks on Charlie Hebdo in France in January 2015, anti-terrorist raids were carried out by Belgian police in Verviers (just 75 miles east of Brussels) in which two suspects were killed, and one injured, and much attention has been given to the fact that more than 350 Belgians have recently gone to Syria to join the fight to establish an Islamic caliphate in Syria and Iraq (Birnbaum, 2015). Since the police raids in Belgium, members of Muslim communities have reported

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their children being taunted at school, and the appearance of anti-Muslim graffiti near mosques. Moreover, Muslim leaders are warning that Belgian proposals to ‘crack down’ on the ‘threat of homegrown Islamic violence’ may actually make the problem worse (Birnbaum, 2015)3. This event has appeared to expose tensions that have been present, but below the surface, so that non-Muslims in Belgium (such as Jane) may not have been aware of them. Some Belgian immigrants reported that if people have light skin and hair, they will not have a problem, but if they look Middle-Eastern, ‘[they] are in trouble’ (Birnbaum, 2015). Unfortunately for Belgium, and for its citizens, whether they are immigrants, Muslim, Christian or of Belgian origin, the politicization of terrorist acts only serves to worsen the divide, and increase negative attitudes on both sides of the spectrum. As mentioned before in regards to LiHua’s experience in China, events like this can unfortunately change the environment for migrants dramatically, and teachers need to be aware of increased tensions that students might be feeling due to current events such as these.

Race, religion and the migrant experience Luckily, in Jane’s case, she looks European, has lighter skin, and is not marked as different by religious dress such as a hijab. For this reason, perhaps she was able to see harmony in Belgium and found it easy to adapt. For others, having darker skin or other physical characteristics that single them out as different from locals often amounts to having a much more difficult time, and often a very different perspective on the receiving culture and environment. A good example of this different perspective based on physical appearance is the story of Farideh (a white, light-skinned Iranian migrant to South Africa whose story was not one of the selected ones for retelling). She recounted how she was met at the airport and escorted to her new home, and generally treated superbly by university officials when she arrived to study there, unlike Kofi’s experience which was punctuated by examples of how he was left on his own. Of all the migrants to South Africa, Farideh was the only White participant interviewed and the only one who expressed an entirely positive experience in which she felt welcome in the country. Many participants whose experiences were not selected to be told (due to the sheer volume of participants interviewed) support the findings of researchers that have studied the nexus between immigration and race (such as Kibria et al., 2014). Migrants from Latin America, Asia, the Caribbean and Africa (such as Antonia, Chiharu, Peter and Nya to be discussed in Part 3) confront a ‘black–white racial order’ that may differ from the social hierarchies of their countries of origin, where elements such as ethnicity,

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class and religion can ‘overshadow the significance of race as an aspect of social inequality’ (Kibria et al., 2014: 159). When migrants, such as the participants in this book, confront the racial ‘landscape’ in their receiving country, they often work to ‘situate themselves in favorable positions’ and find ‘meaningful affiliations’ (Kibria et al., 2014: 159). They may also strive to differentiate themselves from other oppressed groups in an effort to avoid the stigmas of these associations. At the same time, they might forge alliances with other racial minorities to participate in shared resistance against racism and injustice. ‘These varied and shifting identity strategies highlight the dynamic character of racialization, in which migrants both shape and are shaped by race’ (Kibria et al., 2014: 160). As such, racial conditions continue to have a powerful impact on the processes of migrant integration into the receiving society. Oddly enough, this connection between race and immigration is often ignored in contemporary immigration debates that are often framed by an assumption of ‘color blindness,’ but as Kibria et al. claim, this ‘denial of the realities of race and their importance to immigration dynamics and processes in the US does not reduce their significance. It only obscures them’ (2014: 2).

Petra: Mexico → United States A final story of economic migration is that of Petra. Petra’s story is more prototypical of this category (economic migrants), and her story is similar to many women who come from Mexico to the United States looking to improve their economic conditions, and their lives (and the lives of their children) in general. Petra is from a small village in Mexico, with only one elementary school. She wasn’t able to finish elementary school because her family did not have enough resources to buy her pencils and other materials so she could go to school. She came to the US seeking a better life for herself and her children. Petra becomes very tense when thinking about how she came to the US. She had to bring her two small children with her, a one-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son. Luckily, there was someone to help her with the children, but it was not an easy journey. She says she came ‘por el cerro’ (over the hills), which means she did not have papers to come, but she says she is not ashamed to say this. She knew that even if she did not make it across the border this time, she would come again and again because she did not want that miserable life for herself and her children. Continually, throughout the interview, Petra declares how much she loves the United States, ‘este país,’ and she states proudly that migration has been worth it.

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Since coming to the US, her children ‘have never lacked food, a blanket to wrap up in, a pencil, or a book.’ Petra has many memorable experiences from her time in the US, but the most beautiful and memorable of all was when she received her Social Security card. Before this, she did not have papers, and she could not work except for caring for children at home, which did not pay much. She took care of other children from El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico in her home and tried to save money to send back to her parents in Mexico because they were very ill. After she received her residency (i.e. Green Card), everything was beautiful. She learned to drive, and she could get a better job (she currently works at Taco Bell). When talking about returning to Mexico, Petra says, ‘Si a me tuviera que obligar un regresar a México, lo haría solamente muerta’ [If I was obligated to return to Mexico, I would only do it dead]. She will not go back any other way. She would like to visit, but it is not her dream to live there. The US is her country now, and it has welcomed her well, I can say that I was not born here, but I immigrated, I got my citizenship, and I am very happy because I have the same rights as whatever person. I worked a lot. I learned the 100 questions and there are many merits for this. So I love the United States. My family isn’t in agreement with this but in my heart I am happy. Because they say that you are from there … almost all the time but there they do not see the opportunities that I’ve been given. I am studying and many important things. I am happy. I am studying my GED. I am very happy. This is not to say that Petra has an easy life in the US. She works 40 hours a week at Taco Bell (a job which she feels she must keep but does not like), she goes to school, and she takes care of three children on her own. Her children are 19, 17 and 8. It is the little one she loves the most, she says, because he is the most respectful (anyone who has teenagers might be able to relate to that). Many things have changed in her life since she migrated 19 years ago. One of her dreams is to get a better job in an office, working with computers and doing things that make her happy. The day she achieves that dream, she will ‘feel complete.’ But first, she has to finish her G.E.D. If Petra could give advice to others who migrate, she would tell them not to get married young. Petra was married at the age of 14, and she knows this was a big mistake. Being married kept her away from many dreams, held her back in many situations, and presented many barriers. Talking about these barriers she says, ‘las he brincado y las sigo brincando y las voy a brincar las veces que sean necesarias [I got over (literally ‘jumped’) them and I will

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continue to get over them, as long as it is necessary]. To others like her, she would say: I can say to all of the Hispanic people that, sometimes you want to throw in the towel and say ‘no.’ Well, there is no way I can fix my papers, and I will always be illegal. Do not be satisfied with that. You can do it too. There are many things that come along and one could be amnesty, maybe some opportunities from the government here. Do not give up. And even if you do not have papers it doesn’t make a difference in what a person has in their heart and earns from the work we bring. Because we have dreams and the dreams of one to have a house where his family will be well. That is a dream one could have. So do not quit. I did it and I am achieving my dreams that I still have and I am going to get them. Of all her achievements, Petra is most proud of being a mother, although raising her children has not been effortless: I have three beautiful children, and it has taken a lot out of me to bring them up, especially my eldest, who has been involved in a bunch of nonsense. I have been willing to get him out of trouble. Maybe I can say to someone who is listening to me now, not only in this country, but everywhere, when your children have turned to alcohol, pills, drug addiction, all of this kind of trash… do not give up. I can tell you happily that I have succeeded. I took my 19-year-old son away from this type of society, and I never gave up. Do it right then and there. It takes a lot of work. This is the greatest challenge I’ve had, in reality. Please. Do not leave them there. Do not give up. I have considered myself weak many times, but when I see my children in danger, I take all the energy from I do not know where… but I do it. So please parents, do not give up and fight for your young ones who in reality need us so much. That is all I have to say. And bless this country. The same to its people. I love the American people. I do not know why. I wasn’t born here but I love their language. I have met special people here. They have won my heart, all the people I have lived with here in this country. I do not know how I did it but they have given me space in their hearts and race doesn’t matter. I like all of the people. And that is all I can say. When recounting her story, Petra is overcome with gratitude for the people that have taken her in and for the new life she has been able to create. She is a dreamer, she says, and her biggest dream is to write her own book some day that tells her story so her children can read it and know her thoughts,

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every detail as it happened. She ends her story by recognizing how many things she has overcome in her life, starting with being able to migrate at all, and how many things she has achieved. She has so much left to accomplish, but she is going to work hard, and she is going to actualize these dreams because so far, many of her dreams have already come true.

Discussion Food, a blanket, a pencil and a book Petra’s story and the way in which she speaks directly to readers and other migrants she hopes will read it, calls to mind the decolonizing methodology referred to as ‘testimonios’ used in Latino/a Studies (and elsewhere) in which ‘the researcher is displaced by the narrator, who uses the interviewer to get her/his message across to a wider, traditionally external and un(der)aware audience’ (Urrieta et al., 2015: 3). In the testimonio, ‘the voice of the narrator demands to be heard,’ and ‘orality and experience are privileged’ (Urrieta et al., 2015: 3). In Petra’s testimonio, the voice of undocumented migrants comes to the forefront, and Petra reveals the humanizing side to why people migrate without proper documentation, poetically stating that since coming to the US, ‘my children have never lacked food, a blanket to wrap up in, a pencil, or a book.’ This simple phrase captures the physiological and psychological well-being that leads many migrants to leave their country under dangerous conditions and with the knowledge that things will be difficult for them without papers. The fact that she included as most basic necessities of survival, a pencil and a book speaks volumes about Petra’s recognition of the value of education in her children’s lives. Petra’s children were brought to the US without papers, and so for many years they did not have US citizenship or legal status. According to Plyler vs. Doe (1982), migrant youth, regardless of legal status, have a right to public education from kindergarten to 12th grade. However, their incorporation into society after high school is not guaranteed. Petra’s children are not alone in being brought to the US without papers when they were too young to know what was happening. According to Jefferies (2014: 279) ‘an important subset of immigrant youth in US schools is undocumented’ and Suárez-Orozco et al. (2008) assert ‘some youngsters pay dearly for their parents’ decision to bring them here without papers’ (2008: 274). Immigration status greatly affects the educational experiences of undocumented youth, and schools cannot overlook the fact that undocumented migrant youth are disadvantaged educationally in comparison with documented or native youth (Jefferies, 2014). Some of the

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negative effects of being undocumented on school children include the constant fear of deportation, the frequent ‘suspended legality’ (Gonzales, 2011: 608) in which students await legal status, and invisibility. The fear and anxiety that many undocumented students feel as they attempt to navigate a new school system and society often results in what Jefferies refers to as a ‘Circle of silence’ (Jefferies, 2014: 279). This pattern of silence reproduces misinformation, fear and ignorance on the subject that is perpetuated by parents, teachers, administrators and students, and threatens the educational achievement of undocumented students. Jefferies points out the importance of teachers and administrators noticing these students ‘within their walls’ in order to create a ‘plan of specialized counseling and mentoring that will help students and families to navigate their education’ that includes legal counseling and will help students deal with the emotional aspects with which students living in fear of deportation grapple (2014: 293). For many of these students, they are in our schools because of the need (as Petra summed up) for ‘food, a blanket to wrap up in, a book and a pencil,’ hardly something that most people would want to deny a child. Thus, in the spirit of Plyler vs. Doe, we must ‘recognize the damaging effects of the Circle of silence surrounding issues of undocumented students and work toward a more inclusive atmosphere for all students’ (Jefferies, 2014: 293). At the same time, Petra values the educational opportunities she has sought for herself since coming to the US. Before students like Petra are able to study for the GED, they first enter Adult English as a Second Language classes. In 2007, the Adult Educational State Grant Program estimated that 1.1 million students received English language instruction; however, this number may underreport the number of students receiving services from state programs (Ashby, 2009). The goal for many of these students is similar to Petra’s: completing adult ESL and transitioning on to GED classes.

Realizing the potential It is clear from the way that Petra talked directly to other migrants and parents of migrant youth in her comments, that she was aware of the potential her story had to impact the lives of others. In the interest of honoring Petra’s hopes and dreams to help others in her situation, I urge teachers and policy makers to share immigration stories such as these to help people gain the details necessary to understand the immigration experience more concretely, but more importantly, in terms of emotion. As Maya Angelou so wisely counseled, ‘I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel’ (2014: 41). As we will see in Part 3, often

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immigration discourse dehumanizes migrants, backgrounding the humanizing details behind why they left their country to come to the new country. Sharing stories like Petra’s helps create empathy that may result in a deeper understanding of the complexity and variety of experiences of human migration and in restoring humanity to those who oppress migrants (Freire, 1970/2012).

Help for your undocumented students If you are an American teacher of undocumented students that are reaching adulthood (and thus no longer protected by Plyler vs. Doe), there are numerous resources you can draw on to help your students. First, you can connect students with national groups led by undocumented young adults such as United we Dream ([email protected]), Dream Activist (http://www.dreamactivist.org/contact-us/) or the National Immigrant Youth Alliance (NIYA) (Resource guide, 2013). These organizations will be able to answer their questions and help them reach out to other students in the same situation. In addition, some of your students may be eligible for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) (n.d.) (see http://www. immigrationequality.org/get-legal-help/our-legal-resources/path-tostatus-in-the-u-s/daca-deferred-action-for-childhood-arrivals/ for details). According to the website, ‘Deferred action is a discretionary, limited immigration benefit by DHS. It can be granted to individuals who are in removal proceedings, who have final orders of removal, or who have never been in removal proceedings. Individuals who have deferred action status can apply for employment authorization and are in the US under color of law. However, there is no direct path from deferred action to lawful permanent residence or to citizenship. And, it can be revoked at any time.’ Although this act will not solve problems for all of your students, some of them may be eligible and become able to work after applying, so it is worth giving them information about this. For teachers of undocumented adolescent or adult undocumented students in countries other than the US, see Resources for Undocumented Migrants in Appendix B.

Notes (1) BEE status refers to the Black Economic Empowerment (n.d.) initiative in South Africa which was established by the post-apartheid South African government to address the limitations and inequality that exists in South Africa ‘for Black individuals to participate fairly in the economy’ (http://www.bee.co.za/content/Information. aspx). This social program, in theory, allows Black South Africans to be more competitive in the job market, however, a side effect has been that Blacks from other

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countries (who may have had access to better educational opportunities, such as Kofi) can also compete for the same jobs. This has led many Black South Africans to feel threatened by Blacks from other countries. (2) ‘un petit’ means ‘a little’ in French. Here, Jane exhibits code-mixing in which she is experiencing cross-linguistic influence (CLI) from her third language (French) into her second, English. This demonstrates how pervasive her use of French is in her life, and how she relies on various languages to make sense of the world. (3) Since the initial writing of this book, the November bombings in Paris and resulting raids in Belgium have also worsened the situation for Muslims in this country.

9 Third Culture Kids (TCKs)

TCKs are different from child migrants (as categorized in this book) in one important way. Whereas ‘child migrant’ generally refers to children of economic migrants, TCKs are children of Expats or ‘adventurers.’ Polluck and Van Reken (2009) define TCKs as ‘a person who has spent a significant part of his/her developmental years outside the parents’ culture, building relationships to all cultures, while not having full ownership in any…’ (2009: 19). Mobility is normal for TCKs, and it is often expected that TCKs will repatriate. In addition, TCKs are characterized by a privileged lifestyle often with systems of logical support (such as commissary for military families, embassy or missionary compounds), and often are directly conscious of representing something greater than themselves, be it their government, their company or God (Polluck & Van Reken, 2009). Of all the participants in this study, only one fits this description (although not all of the characteristics of a TCK apply to her). Here is her story.

Emma: United States → Japan → (and repeat, many times) Emma’s migration is not linear, and she has spent most of her young life switching between the US and Japan. As a young child, she often left the United States in the summers and stayed in Japan for one or two months. However, when she was 10, her parents divorced, so she returned to Japan with her mom. It was no problem to get a Japanese family visa because her blood relatives are Japanese. The flight from LA to Narita was ten and a half hours long, and then they took an overnight train to her home in Japan (another 12-hour journey). For the first few months, Emma and her mother lived with her grandmother until they could get enough money to rent a house of their own, which they did several months later. This was the first 122

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time in which Emma was really living in Japan, unlike the other times when she had been a visitor. After only ten days in Japan, Emma started school there. Luckily for her, she could communicate well in Japanese because of her many visits to the country and because her mother had spoken Japanese with her. However, she did not have academic knowledge of Japanese, and so she had to work hard from the very beginning to get better. The biggest problem for Emma was the writing system. When she arrived, she was barely able to write in Kanji (this is one of three writing systems, along with Hiragana and Katakana, students must learn; Kanji is especially difficult because it utilizes Chinese characters). Fortunately for Emma, in Japan, students are expected to write everything they hear or see down in their notebooks and continually copy down notes from the blackboard. She believes that because she was forced to constantly write down the characters, she learned more quickly. She remembers that at this time, she was unable to practice English often because at home and in school, everything was in Japanese. However, once she and her mother got internet access (a few years later), she began to use English a little bit. Generally her English classes in Junior High were her main venue of English input. Emma has many memorable experiences (unfortunately many of them were negative) from this first move to Japan, particularly related to school. She remembers that the weather was terrible, and she had to wear a uniform. Probably the most difficult part of her first years in Japan was that Emma was bullied by her classmates, not physically, but verbally and emotionally. The other students called her names and when they formed groups, they would deliberately leave her out. She believes that it was not the fact that she was American per se that led to this bullying, rather, it was because she was different from them (which could partly be due to her having lived in the US). In addition, being half-Japanese (her father is American), she looked different physically, she even had a different name. Compounding the bullying experiences, one of her teachers (whom Emma emphasizes does not represent most Japanese teachers) made students who did not raise their hand stand up in the middle of the class for at least 20 minutes. In addition, if students forgot their homework, they had to kneel and face the wall instead of sitting in class. These practices added to Emma’s anxiety with school even though the teacher applied these practices to all the students. Fortunately for Emma, the bullying subsided as she moved to middle school, and she had a much more positive experience there. In middle school, the teachers and students mostly treated her like all of the Japanese students. Emma never demanded any special treatment, and she never got it.

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When Emma was about to enter high school, she decided that she wanted to return to the US and attend high school there. She was tired of the Japanese school system, and she wondered what high school in the US would be like. Her parents allowed her to make this decision. However, when she returned to the US, she experienced a much worse culture shock than when she had first moved to Japan. Everything was so different. Reflecting on this, she says, ‘it was kind of like I didn’t recognize my birth country anymore’. Although she had friends and family in the US, and it was her country of birth, it still seemed like a foreign country. Coming from a mostly atheist/agnostic family, Emma was shocked at how religious Americans were when she moved back. When she was younger, she never went to church and was perhaps sheltered from such practices or perhaps did not have anything to compare them to. She had never realized how religious many Americans were, and she feels much more comfortable with Japan’s religious atmosphere. Emma notes that the concept of freedom is also different between the US and Japan, and the two countries value it in different ways, We value freedom too but we also tend to value harmony in society, if you know what I mean. It’s like you can enjoy your freedom, but if you’re kind of disrupting the harmony of society, if you’re being a troublemaker, then maybe you should tone it down. You know, here in Japan we value freedom but we also value the group and the harmony of the society a lot more than in American culture and that kind of is closer to my personality or how I am. After high school, Emma returned to Japan for college. This second move back to Japan was much easier. Schooling at this level was similar to high school in the US. She was able to choose her classes, she did not wear uniforms, and assignments were given more often than tests. In fact, her experiences in the US doing things like preparing PowerPoint presentations, debates and writing reports, helped her at the Japanese university she attended. For her, college was like an extension of high school, just in another language. Emma wants to be an English teacher, but first she has to take a very difficult test. After going back and forth, Emma admits that she feels more comfortable in Japan, because she has a stronger connection, As somebody who has lived in both countries, I’ve internalized both countries’ cultures but I still feel more comfortable living here in Japan because it’s a country that’s closer to my values and the kind of a life that I’d like to live.

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Living in two countries has changed Emma. She believes that because she can see things from the perspective of people from both countries, this has made her realize that being different or having differences is not bad. Different countries have different cultures and there can be negative aspects, but that does not mean that they are inherently bad. Another benefit from living in both countries is that Emma thinks she is able to think more critically about what she hears or reads, and when she hears statistics or stereotypes, she pauses to ponder whether these things could really be true rather than just accepting them blindly. She believes that her experiences migrating and living in two worlds has helped her to have an open mind. If Emma could give advice to others, she would tell them to have an open mind and realize that different does not equal bad. When you experience culture shock in another country, it is easy to make negative evaluations and ‘hate’ the culture, but when you get over this stage, you can begin to look at things objectively and have a better attitude. Emma also believes that living in different countries is a privilege. Therefore, it is important to integrate into the receiving culture and at the very least, be respectful to people from there, So, as somebody who has been living in Japan long-term on a visa and who’s never overstayed her visa, it kind of makes me angry to hear the news about illegal immigrants back in the States because, you know, it’s really unfair to the people who’ve legally came to the States, you know, with a visa for a bunch of people who aren’t willing to obey those rules to come over there. So, as somebody living in another country myself, illegal immigrants of any nationality, any race, make me angry. That topic is something that I feel very strongly about. I feel that you should be able to do, or you should have to obey the legal loopholes that you need to live in another country if you want to do that. In Emma’s mind, coming without legal documents to be in the country is disrespectful. However, as in the rest of her interview, she does not acknowledge how her context, coming from a privileged group in which she has legal access to both countries is different from the migrants who are not able to come with legal documents.

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Discussion Reflexivity and empathy A final theme that came up in Emma’s story as well as several other stories is that of reflexivity – that is, the ability to direct thought and attention back on one’s own actions. Unlike Imran, Emma was unable to see the differences between her immigration situation and others, such as Petra, who do not come from privileged groups and were therefore not able to receive a visa. Although Imran did come through legal avenues, it was a long and difficult journey for him. In addition, as a volunteer at refugee centers, he has had multiple experiences interacting with refugees and thus has been exposed to many other types of migrants and heard their stories. Because of Emma’s in-group status in both countries (although she is still different than many of her peers), she most likely did not have opportunities to interact with others coming from immigration contexts different from her own, and so she sees only that she was able to come through authorized avenues, so others should be more like her. This supports research findings that levels of assimilation (i.e. attachment to the target culture) and proximity to other undocumented migrants are strong predictors of attitudes toward legal/illegal immigration (Knoll, 2012; Rouse et al., 2010). The idea of being reflexive by looking at the actions of others and thinking about one’s own actions is a crucial one in developing intercultural competence because without being aware of one’s own cultural practices, it is difficult to compare and understand the cultural practices of others (Moeller & Nugent, 2014). As teachers, it is important that we engage in reflexivity when working with students from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. We need to look at our students and imagine how we might feel, think or act in similar situations. If we had the choice between feeding our family and migrating without proper documentation what choice would we make? If we had been told our entire lives that we are inferior to others and been treated unjustly based on the color of our skin for centuries how would we behave? If we lived in another country where we didn’t speak the language how long would it take us to learn it? How much effort would we be able to put forth to do so when we worked 10-12 hour days and had small children? Before making judgments about right or wrong behaviors, we need to consider the social, economic, historical and political contexts of our students. This is not to say that we need to accept all cultural practices but that we need to take the time to reflect on them in light of our own behaviors and attempt to imagine our own actions in similar situations, making some

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effort to divorce our thoughts from social and cultural cognitions we have been brought up to accept as ‘natural.’ This process of denaturalization or demystification of actions we have always been told were ‘wrong’ is a healthy process of disruption, which works to counter the way in which the ingrained ideology ‘points out, makes us understand something, and imposes it on us’ (Barthes, 1957: 226).

Bullying and TCKs TCKs (also known as global nomads) are transnational migrants who, despite coming from positions of privilege (and oftentimes not facing the same language issues as economic migrants or those coming from lower economic status), often struggle with fitting in and anxiety and depression. In Emma’s case, being different caused her to be bullied. Whether being a TCK or an economic transnational migrant, students such as Emma often fall through the cracks because they do not have the language issues (see Hamann & Zuñiga’s (2011) work that focused on students who spoke both languages well) other migrants often have, and frequently have personal relationships with individuals in the receiving country. Hamann and Zuñiga refer to this as invisibility, and they demonstrate how this can lead to misunderstandings, subtle forms of rejection, and feeling unwelcome. Often (as in Hamann & Zuñiga’s study), teachers are unaware of the transnational status of the student, and because language issues do not bring this forward, their ‘transnational biography’ is ignored (Hamann & Zuñiga, 2011: 147). Emma’s situation, in which she was bullied, is not unique among TCKs (Winter & Mace, 2014) or children in general, although being a TCK is one way to draw the attention of bullies. In addition, research has demonstrated that adolescents are less likely than pre-adolescents to gain group membership in all of their participating cultures (Winter & Mace, 2014), which may be another reason why Emma had more difficulty when she went to live in Japan because she was entering adolescence. For a detailed account of issues faced by the ‘globally mobile’ and TCKs in particular, I recommend Belonging Everywhere and Nowhere: Insights into Counseling the Globally Mobile by Lois J. Bushong. Although the book is meant for counselors, it provides detailed information about issues that many TCKs face (such as depression due to ‘chronic cycles of separations and loss’ (Bushong, 2013: 77)), and it is thus quite helpful for those who work with these students. Cycles of separation and loss (mentioned above) can lead to depression, and therefore it is important for teachers to look for warning signs (see http://www.helpguide.org/articles/depression/depression-signsand-symptoms.htm) but then be sure to refer students to a counselor or

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specialized staff for help if necessary. In addition, any of the work by David Polluck and Ruth Van Reken (most notably Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds, 2009) is valuable in giving teachers important information about these types of students that are increasingly found in classrooms around the world. Other important implications of Emma’s story are that we have to keep an eye out for signs of students being bullied and/or social exclusion in order to counter it in our classrooms. We also need to realize that even though we might mistakenly consider two students of supposedly similar backgrounds to have similar needs and problems, more recent arrivals often distinguish themselves from more established migrant students which can result in bullying as well (Suárez-Orozco et al., 2008). The following website contains tips for teachers to address bullying: http://www.violencepreventionworks. org/public/bullying_tips_for_teachers.page.

10 Love and/or Marriage Migrants

This category includes those that migrate because they fell in love and want to be with a partner they had met previously. In addition, this category includes ‘cross-cultural marriages where one person’s (usually the woman but not always) migration is caused by marriage to the spouse’ (Niedomysi et al., 2010: 1119). Love and/or marriage migrants have traditionally been understudied, and thus many people do not realize that, frequently, immigration motivation has nothing to do with making a better life, getting a job or education. Often, as in the stories shared below, immigration was never the participant’s goal, and the participant was hesitant or did not want to emigrate but did so solely in order to live with the person they love.

Hui: China → United States Hui first came to the US at the age of 20 because of his relationship with a woman. It was a very difficult decision for him to make, and he took a long time to make it. However, he finally decided that if you love someone, you must give that person all that you have, and so he decided to follow her to the US. Hardly anyone agreed with Hui. His friends and family all opposed his decision and thought that he should not abandon everything he had worked so hard to achieve in China – friends, family, school at a local technical college. They didn’t think he was mature enough to make this decision. Despite this opposition, Hui left China. Hui’s departure from Beijing allowed him to experience a lot of firsts: the first time leaving China, the first time being on a plane, the first time leaving his family. His feelings were very complicated when he left – he was sad to leave his home of the past 20 years, and his parents could not leave work to see him off. However, the whole experience of traveling on a plane, 129

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talking to other travelers and going to a new place was exciting, and he wondered what his new life with his girlfriend would be like. Unfortunately for Hui, things did not pan out as he had wished. When he arrived, he and his girlfriend hardly had any time to spend together. When they were together, they fought constantly. It was a painful time for him because he did not know how to live in the new country. He wanted to visit places like Hollywood and travel and see the country but they were never able to make these trips. Hui needed help navigating the system, and his girlfriend did not give him the support he needed, but she was his only contact in the US. So they argued, and they blamed each other for how things were turning out. Life was hard, and Hui was miserable. Eventually, he and his girlfriend broke up. Reflecting on his current situation, Hui says with remorse, My life right now is boring. The life I live right now and what I dream of are as far removed as heaven from earth… I am a blue-collar worker, I get paid, nothing special. The way I live now is greatly different than the life I had before. Before coming to the US, Hui dreamed of being an architect or designer. However, his credentials are not recognized in the US – he needs to have a work permit and a certificate for construction work. He has neither. Hui says now, without his girlfriend, on his own in the US, life is ‘quite simple.’ He wanted a stable job and a solid economic base, but he has neither. Now, Hui doesn’t know what to do – he feels lost, and he does not have the human or financial resources to help him. He feels confused, and he cannot find his ‘path to the future.’ He feels that his life has not measured up to his expectations at all. When he lived in China, Hui thought that he would have time to ‘struggle’ and ‘fight’ for his future. However, after migrating to the US, he has realized that life is short. Language has been an incredible limitation for Hui. He does not know English and does not have the resources to take classes and learn. He feels that his lack of knowledge of English limits him from seeing things, meeting people and in general, he has fewer chances at everything in life due to not knowing English. Although he knows he was lucky to have the opportunity to come to the US (because many others will never have that opportunity), he often feels that he made the wrong decision, especially when he is sick or faces problems that he does not know how to solve, or when he misses his family and cannot see them in person. Often he is lonely, and he cannot find anyone to talk to, but at the same time he thinks it was great to have been able to have this experience. This constant dichotomy of the joy of having

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the mind-opening experience of migration and seeing the world, balanced with the misery of being alone in a new country and culture leave him bewildered and discombobulated. When asked what advice he would give others about migrating, he says ‘我想追求的，我想要的和我现在做的差距特别大’ [what I wanted to pursue, what I wanted is greatly different from what I am doing now], ‘所 以说要特别特别特别小心的去做这个决定’ [so you need to be really, really careful when you make the decision]. If he could turn back time, he would have researched more about what life was like in the US before coming. He advises others, I think most importantly, you should learn about the country, get an idea of the way of living here. When you have an idea of what life is like and realize migration is still what you want, you should come. Otherwise, I do not recommend you migrate blindly. Personally speaking, there are good things in a foreign country although people there may have a different way of life. Some people like the change while others might not. After a while, you will get to know the country and start to like it after you stay here for a little while.

Discussion Love isn’t enough? It is clear from Hui’s interview that it is very painful for him to talk about what happened with his girlfriend, and how they are no longer together. It is also apparent that he and his girlfriend did not expect many of the problems that would arise because he came without a work permit, and lacked resources upon which to draw, including the local language. Migration often puts enormous strains on relationships, whether the relationship was the reason for the migration or not. In Hui’s case, because he came to the US to be with his girlfriend, his whole reason for making the sacrifice evaporated when their relationship fell apart. This is one reason why Hui often feels lost and lonely. He did not imagine himself alone in the United States, without friends, family and knowledge of the local language. Language is a huge limitation in Hui’s life in the US, and he wants to learn English. What many people do not realize is that when people migrate, they are often not aware of local resources (such as free adult education classes in the community), or often, migrants are aware, but lack transportation to arrive at these classes or are unable to go because of demanding and often exhausting work schedules. As someone who once taught adult education

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evening ESL classes, I remember teaching in an over-crowded classroom full of tired people that really truly wanted to learn English. Some of them brought their children because they did not have anyone to watch them and also sometimes it was the only time of the day they saw each other. To this day, of all the migrants that I have known, I have never met one who did not want to speak at least one official/local language of the receiving country or told me they have no desire to learn. One exception to this rule is adventurers (aka expats, and as children, TCKs), who often speak English or another world language as a first language and do not feel the need to learn local languages. From my own life experience, I can say with sadness that after living in Turkey (teaching English) for a year, I cannot speak Turkish. This is due to numerous factors, e.g. all of my colleagues spoke English, and I rarely encountered a person with whom I could practice Turkish in the university circles in which I circulated. In addition, I worked long hours and had a small daughter. It pained me to give up my time with my daughter to go to Turkish classes after work, even though I desperately wanted and needed to learn. What surprises me is how frequently people pass judgments on the lack of language knowledge of others, assuming that language proficiency correlates with desire to learn the language when this is often not the case. Furthermore, it is surprising to me how many people fail to know more than one language themselves but find it easy to critique migrants for not learning the dominant language. Individual reflexivity regarding language beliefs and discussing these issues with others are essential to understanding that there are many factors which can impede an individual’s ability to learn the local language. In addition, we must not underestimate the time it takes to truly become fluent in a language (research reports at least 3–5 years for oral proficiency and 7–10 years for academic proficiency) (Benson, 2009; Carhill et al., 2008; Skutnabb-Kangas, 2009).

Immigration is war When Hui talks about his need to ‘struggle’ and ‘fight’ for his future in the immigration process, he is activating the metaphor immigration is war. Kofi also utilized this metaphor earlier when he equated the atmosphere for migrants in South Africa to a ticking time bomb ready to explode. Metaphors of war used by migrants to talk about various elements of the migration experience reveal the real fear and danger that many of them face, and we can never underestimate the detrimental effects this can have on a person’s psyche. Working with our students to reduce this level of anxiety is one way in which we can create an atmosphere that might change the metaphor, and lead our students to construe migration and language learning in terms of

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and more positive conceptualizations more conducive to a nurturing educational atmosphere.

cultivation

Nao: Japan → United States Although she never explained why she was in Mexico, Nao met her husband there nine years ago. They later married in Japan and stayed there for a while, but her husband needed to return to the US (his home country) for work. Thus, it was decided that she and their five-month-old son (at the time) should join him there. Nao had to wait four months before she was able to come to the US. It was hard for her to be away from her husband, but fortunately, she had her parents’ help, and she enjoyed the time being with her son and taking care of him. The process of obtaining the visa took a long time, but everyone was very helpful. When the time finally arrived to leave, she was happy that she was going to the US and starting a family – just her husband, her son and her, although her mother came with her in the beginning to help her settle in. Her husband had a job in Chicago, so they flew there directly from her hometown and lived there for several years, before moving to Arizona, and then back to the Midwest. Her second child was born in Arizona, and her third in the Midwest. Luckily for Nao, after each child was born, at least one of her parents was able to come from Japan to help her. She specifically remembers when her dad (an English teacher who brought all his students on a study abroad trip) flew from LA to Arizona to visit her for one day to see his granddaughter. Another memory she has related to her father is the last time she saw him during a visit to Japan with her two children before he passed away. She was supposed to have left a week before, but her son had a fever so they had to postpone their return to the US another week. She ended up leaving on her birthday, I had to fly to Chicago and it was [a] really bad snow storm, and I had to take two kids by myself and line up in this, you know, huge line at the airport and wait for three hours to talk to this person or whatever, to get a hotel room. And yeah, I spent my birthday in Chicago and then, that was a horrible birthday, but yeah, that departure there was, yeah, my last time to see my father, so that’s kind of memorable. Nao does not consider herself to be an ‘immigrant.’ She moved for marriage and to be with her husband. In her mind, this is not the same. According to Nao, the most difficult part of the whole experience for her was being away from her family and not having their support. Her husband is an only child,

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and his parents (who are divorced) were not able to help much. Her whole family was in Japan. In the beginning, when she had had a fight with her husband, she had no one to talk to and no one to console her. However, she trusts her husband, and he is very helpful, and this has contributed to her positive experiences in the US. In addition, Nao has never had trouble making friends. In Chicago, there were many migrants, and many people in situations similar to Nao’s, so it was easy to talk with people and commiserate. She did not have a car, but it was no problem in Chicago. She would often go to the park; indeed, she went outside as much as possible. Having small children, she was also able to connect with other mothers to set up play dates and help them make friends too. Her husband was not from Chicago, so he would often take her to parties to get to know other people as well. Nao realizes that her experience of living abroad has made her appreciate ‘her country’ (Japan) more. She misses her people, she misses the Japanese language, and she often feels that she cannot express herself in English the way she can in Japanese. For example, when talking about ‘fire’ in Japanese, she says there are six different ways of expressing this one English word, depending on whether it is fire from the sun, from a light source, from candles, etc. When she tries to explain her words to her husband and someone else, she finds these little details about the language difficult to explain. For Nao, Japanese is beautiful. She would love to teach her children Japanese, and to show them the beauty of her language, but so far they have not learned very much. Another thing that living in the US made Nao appreciate is the importance of family. Even though her family is very far, they are still so supportive and living far away has made her acknowledge and enjoy their significance in her life. However, becoming accustomed to different customs and traditions has not been effortless for Nao. She points to traditions in Japan that she values, such as when people move into a neighborhood they should go to their neighbors and give them things (e.g. food) to let them know they have just moved in. She found out later that the opposite is true in the US, and she should have waited for them to come and greet her. Nao has also had some negative experiences related to her ethnicity. In the past, some people have grouped Japanese people like herself together with other Asian nationalities assuming they are one and the same. Nao explains that even though this stereotyping bothers her, she does not let it define her, and she believes that how one reacts to these incidents makes a difference,

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There’s lots of bad experiences like you know, just being Asian, not knowing Japanese, they just combine Vietnamese, Chinese, everything together and a lot of veterans you know, just see me and say okay, you’re Asian. Those bad experiences well, but yeah, it’s not just them, it’s just how we take it. Instead of getting upset over this type of treatment, Nao recommends that people attempt to understand from whence the misperception is coming, and why people do this, rather than being angry. Nao has often had trouble understanding cultural codes in the US and knowing how to respond appropriately in various communicative contexts. When her father passed away, people expressed their condolences by telling Nao they were sorry. In return, she said ‘Thank you for being sorry.’ Recalling this experience she says, Yeah, I think I said something different that you’re not supposed to say, but as a Japanese you say thank you for feeling sorry for me kind of thing. Yeah… but… my husband just look at me and say ‘Hey, what are you saying?,’ kind of thing. But, yeah that is [the] difficulty between the cultures and the language. If I directly translate my language, then it doesn’t work that way. Nao’s father’s death was very difficult for her partly because she could not go back to Japan right away. She could not go to the funeral. Nao advises the spouses of other international couples to be sure to ‘understand them well’ if a parent passes away. Being away from family is very difficult, but having to experience the death of a family member and not be able to share in the grieving of a beloved family member is heartbreaking. The loss of control for Nao was also breathtaking – to lose someone and not be able to do anything about it and to not be able to leave right away… she wouldn’t wish this on anyone. She advises those in similar situations, I’m not asking to put your spouse on a first-class… airplane and send them back. I mean, if you could that would be great, but not many people could do that. At least just talk and understand their… feelings. I’m really fortunate that my husband understand[s] the importance of my family and he tried to go back to Japan as much as possible even though we have three kids. So, yeah, I’m really fortunate. Some of my friends can’t go back… There are lots of difficult, you know, difference[s] between your life and your husband’s, but to understand… each other is the most important thing to go through, [to] face difficulties.

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When Nao faced difficulties, she relied on her friends who are in similar situations (e.g. international marriages). She talks with her friends about things her husband does not understand; her friends listen and commiserate. In addition, she uses Skype frequently, and this has helped her to stay close to her family. There have been times when Nao has thought about taking her kids and returning to Japan. However, she knows this would worry her family, so she has tried to deal with all the problems, and she has become stronger because she has had to do everything without her family. If she were in Japan, she would complain to her family about the little things, but now, she has to sit down and organize things in her head, what she has done wrong, and how to solve the problems herself. This has made her grow up. Nao’s children have dual citizenship between Japan and the US. However, when they turn 20, they will have to decide which to choose, as Japan will not allow them to be a citizen of both countries. It is important to Nao to teach her children Japanese cultural practices. For example, she has had to teach her children the proper way to hold chopsticks so that they are not perceived as rude when they visit Japan or Japanese families, Like you know, having two chopsticks at one food. That’s only when you, uh, when people pass away and they cremate the body, then they use the chopsticks for the bones. But, people here doesn’t know about it, but… if you do something like that in Japan, it’s a big you know, big thing. So, I want them to know… all those cultures and rules of Japan. The greetings, that’s something that I’ll always say to the kids. Japanese people are always you know, really strict about the kids, what we call ‘reigi’ (Japanese word meaning courtesy) something manners. So, I always tell my kids strictly about the manners, so that when they decide to go to Japan and live in Japan they will be able to get through all those [sic] stuff without any problems. All the good things about Japan, also the bad things about Japan as well so that they can appreciate and they can choose what they want in the future. I don’t want to just eliminate all these… stuff from them. So I try to teach them both the culture and, not just from my culture, I try to get every other country’s culture as well and teach them so that they have to, you know, they are curious about it and maybe they will travel around and see all the world. Because, I know that the United States is a free country and it’s been great, it’s been treating me great, but there [is] you know… [a] world out there that maybe [will] amaze them more… Nao extends what she teaches her children to migrants everywhere. She believes that people must have an open mind, and find the positive in

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everything, instead of focusing on the negative. She leaves us with this final thought: But after all… if you have an open mind and try to understand other people then, then it will [turn] out great. I mean, everything will turn out great.

Discussion Language, thought and communicative patterns Nao’s thoughts on ‘fire’ and the way in which it is expressed in so many rich ways in Japanese (and the subsequent way that she feels this is lost when she talks about ‘fire’ in English) call to mind the principle of language relativity (known to many as the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis). This principle holds that the structure of language affects the way that its speakers conceive of their world. While a strong version of this principle (which is referred to as ‘linguistic determinism’ and implies that all speakers of a language think the same way) has been largely discredited, a ‘weak’ form of the hypothesis (that reads more as ‘language influences thought’) is widely acceptable among linguists and language scholars (Kramsch, 2004). In recent years, more sophisticated versions of the original language relativity hypothesis have been published (e.g. Hill & Mannheim, 1992) and the idea that language and thought are related has experienced a resurgence in applied linguistics research since the late 1980s due to developments in related fields such as the incorporation of work by Vygotsky, Baktin, cognitive linguists such as George Lakoff and Dan Slobin, linguistic anthropologists (e.g. Jane Hill, Alessandro Duranti) and many others (Kramsch, 2004). Although scholars such as Dan Slobin agree with Boas’ idea that ‘in each language, only a part of the complete concept that we have in mind is expressed’ and ‘each language has a peculiar tendency to select this or that aspect of the mental image which is conveyed by the expression of the thought’ (1911/1966: 38–39, as cited in Kramsch, 2004: 244), many agree with Slobin that ‘we cannot prove that language and thought are co-extensive, nor that language determines our worldview, but we can show that, in order to speak, speakers have to attend to those dimensions of experience that are enshrined in the grammatical categories of the language they speak’ (Slobin, 1911/1966: 38–39, as cited in Kramsch, 2004: 244). It is this type of distinction that Nao is getting at when she says that she finds it difficult to explain the ‘details’ involved when she talks about ‘fire’ and other words that she feels are expressed so much better in

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Japanese. These types of experiences are common for migrants as they maneuver their way through the language learning process and its interminable intertwining with the new culture. Besides the frustration that Nao feels when trying to translate concepts from her first language to English, Nao also experiences difficulties with intercultural communicative competence (ICC), which has been defined as the ‘ability to interact with people from another country in a foreign language’ (Nguyen, 2008: 127). Although she understands perfectly what people are attempting to communicate when they express sympathy after the loss of her father, she did not have the ICC to answer in the appropriate way. Nao’s feelings of embarrassment are not unique, and bring to mind Saville-Troike’s (2003) notion that ‘communicative patterns are not necessarily tied directly to language forms,’ for example, ‘native speakers of Arabic, Yiddish, Farsi, Indonesian, or Japanese, often use English more indirectly than a native speaker of English’ (2003: 30). As globalization continues to connect people with diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds in classrooms and beyond, Nao’s experiences remind us of the need for teachers to think more about providing language learners with appropriate verbal and non-verbal responses to daily cultural events and rituals such as funerals, births, weddings and other cultural events.

Learning cultural norms is a journey When Nao refers to her children’s future experiences learning cultural practices and conventions such as eating or greetings, she says she teaches them Japanese cultural practices so that when they go to Japan or decide to live there, they will be able to get through all those [sic] stuff without any problems. By using the words get through, Nao reveals that she perceives cultural learning as a journey in which learning is understood as proceeding on a path, almost as if her children are inside a thick forest of misunderstanding that they must traverse (and face obstacles while doing so) in order to be enlightened by their new learning which they will reach at the end of the path. As I will discuss in Chapter 11, the metaphorical notion of immigration is a journey (and sub-metaphors that belong to this overarching metaphor such as learning cultural norms is a journey) emphasizes the dynamic nature of migration and the ways in which migrants attempt to understand and talk about it. Most often, the literal journey (from country of origin to destination country) is the very beginning of the lifelong journey of immigration and adaptation that many migrants undergo.

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Alessio: France → Italy → United States Alessio is the oldest child of migrant parents. He was born in France because his Italian parents met and married while working in France for many years. Soon after Alessio’s birth, they returned to Italy (living in Tuscany), and after a few years they came to settle in Alessio’s mother’s hometown in the central Italian region of Abruzzo. Alessio’s parents were classic transnational economic migrants – they had lived in France in order to find work and improve their economic situation. While in France, they worked with people from all over the world, such as Polish and Moroccan migrants and like these migrants, they experienced discrimination such as name calling (they were called ‘spaghetti’). They also lived in separate enclaves largely separated from French society. Unlike many of their relatives with whom they lived and worked in France, they returned to Italy, bought a house and soon after, Alessio’s father was able to find work in his brother’s company. When they were young, Alessio’s parents did not have the opportunity to finish school. Due to the war, and the economic climate in Italy at the time, his father was only able to complete up to the third grade while his mother finished the fifth grade. Both of Alessio’s parents grew up speaking non-standard varieties of Italian, and for them, standard Italian is a second language, with French being the third. Alessio often jokes that his mother and her sisters (who stayed in France but would often visit during the summers) did not complete a sentence in one language, but each utterance was a mash-up of French, local dialect and Italian. He recalls that he and his siblings frequently made fun of their parents for grammatical inconsistencies or incorrect usages of Italian words. Alessio’s parents had a piece of land where they had a small orchard of cherry and olive trees (from which they made olive oil), and they grew many vegetables such as beans, potatoes, artichokes and zucchini. They also had a modest vineyard from which they made their own wine. Alessio grew up largely in this small town in the heart of the Apennine Mountains. A regular day in the summers of his youth consisted of roaming around in the forests outside the town with his friends, making bows and arrows (and unfortunately for their targets, shooting unsuspecting small creatures), swinging on vines and swimming in the middle of a cold mountain stream where they made their own fishing rods and caught and roasted their own fish. Alessio knows where in the town or nearby mountains to find anything you can eat such as wild asparagus, the right kinds of mushrooms, figs, blackberries and loquats, depending on the season. Alessio has three siblings (two sisters and a brother), and although his parents did not have much money, he had a happy and mostly worry-free childhood. Because he was from a rural area, it was normal for him to make

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extra money working in the fields at various times of the year (picking grapes, olives and various other tasks), and he helped his family frequently with chores and taking care of the land. When Alessio was eight years old, his father had an accident at his job where he installed insulation. He fell from scaffolding high above the ground and broke a leg, an arm and various ribs. He was only around 45 years old, but because of the severity of his injuries, he was unable to work for the rest of his life. Although the government provided some assistance (through disability pension), Alessio’s mother (who had mostly stayed home with the children and managed the farm) had to look for small jobs here and there in order to get by. Despite this tragedy, with the help of friends and family they were able to continue on and although times were sometimes hard, Alessio and his siblings never went hungry or in need of anything. Alessio was not someone that planned ahead. Although he had been advised to study at a technical school (where he might have become an architect), he chose an agricultural vocational high school (Istituto Tecnico Agrario) where he studied how to make wine and olive oil and the basics of farming. After high school, Alessio got a job in a furniture factory for a while, assembling and delivering furniture. While he was still working he was called into military service (which at the time was an obligatory year for all men) and became an ‘Alpino,’ or part of the mountain division. Although it was not an easy experience (e.g. trudging through the Alps in sub-zero temperatures), Alessio talks fondly of his unique Alpino hat with its tall black feather (which, he says, ‘you cannot touch or it will burn you unless you are an Alpino’). He is proud of having been an Alpino, and he loves to reminiscence about his adventures in the military and the friendships he made during his year of service. After he completed his military service, Alessio was uncertain about his future, but he managed to get a job at a mill factory where he learned how to process and cut wood. He knew that he did not want to work there forever, so he decided to enroll in a nearby university and to study languages. He had always enjoyed speaking French with his cousins, and so he began classes in the language department (but also because it was one of the few choices at the nearby university) and by the summer of his second year he had taken four exams. He did not know it, but that summer his entire life would change. Alessio had a friend that lived in a nearby town whose job it was every summer to open the doors to the school where American students (mostly young women) studied. Every summer he seemed to have a different American girlfriend (via his school connection) so when he invited Alessio to come with him to meet the new students at a local café (because he

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needed a ride, and Alessio had a car), Alessio was more than willing to accompany his friend. That night he met his future wife, Resa, a student in the American group – and they began a back and forth romance that took him all over Italy to follow her in her study abroad trip. She did not speak Italian very well, and Alessio’s English was limited to the few expressions he had learned from songs, such as ‘Don’t break my heart.’ Thus, there were frequent miscommunications, such as the time on their first date he told Resa ‘a domani’ [see you tomorrow], which Resa took to mean as ‘see you later’ since they had not made any explicit arrangements to see each other again. When Alessio showed up at her hotel the following night, she had already gone out, thinking that she might see him around, while he had thought that ‘a domani’ would be understood as ‘I will pick you up tomorrow evening.’ Another time, when Resa was studying in Venice, Alessio and his friends decided to travel to Venice to see the Pink Floyd concert (and Resa). The entire trip Alessio’s friends teased him about seeing his girlfriend so when he arrived, Alessio (then 22) had to act cool in front of his friends. Resa thought he was particularly distant (and reminiscent of John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever), but then later when his friends left, he compensated for his earlier coldness. It was a memorable night featuring the surreal music of Pink Floyd on a stage on the water followed by a giant fireworks display and culminating in a romantic moonlight kiss on the steps of the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute overlooking the Grand Canal. After six weeks, Resa had to return to the US to finish her studies. Alessio was devastated, and he cried when she left, telling her he would do everything in his power to come to the US to visit her. After six months of continuing to work and study, Alessio saved enough money to buy a plane ticket to visit Resa in the Midwest. Although he had been to France and Spain on school trips and for a relative’s wedding, he had never been on a plane, and he had never crossed the ocean. This first trip to the States was enchanting, and Alessio fell deeply in love with Resa. After returning to Italy, Alessio and Resa decided that Resa would go back the following summer to be with him in Italy. Since she had just graduated from college and did not yet have a job, she stayed in Italy five months, solidifying her Italian and building a relationship with Alessio’s family. Their relationship continued back and forth for another year, but they grew tired of being apart. Because Alessio still had three more years of school left (whereas Resa had finished, and had found a teaching job in the US), they decided they would move to Resa’s hometown where they would get married and start their life together. Before meeting his wife, Alessio had thought about leaving his town eventually, but he had never thought about moving so far away – and

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certainly not to the US. He had a close family relationship with all of his siblings at home, and he had a good and comfortable life in Italy with close friends. When he told his parents he was leaving, his father kept repeating ‘No,’ as if he could not believe that Alessio would really leave. When he did finally leave, just like every time he leaves when he comes home to visit, his mother cried, and his father’s face turned red from emotion. As he said many years later in his ceremony for his US citizenship, ‘people have many reasons for going to the US, but I came for love.’ About his choice to come and live with Resa in the US, Alessio says: ‘È stata una scelta che ho voluto fare e di cui non mi sono mai pentito’ [It was a choice that I wanted to make which I have never regretted]. When Alessio went to the airport to move to the US, his two best friends accompanied him. It was a sad moment because it meant leaving behind all the people he knew to begin a new life. A few days after arriving in the US on a fiancé visa (they were engaged, and legally had to marry within 90 days for Alessio to obtain a Green Card), Alessio enrolled in an intensive English program at the local university. He remembers that on one of his first days of class the teacher handed out various cards and commanded the students to do what was written on the card. His card read ‘shake hands.’ He and his partner were not sure, but then they began waving their hands in the air and shaking them wildly. His teacher burst into laughter as Alessio describes, Mi ricordo quando ho visto la professoressa sbellicarsi per il ridere, sapevo che avevo sbagliato qualcosa [I remember when I saw the professor split her sides laughing, I knew I had done something wrong]. Learning English was going to take some hard work. Recalling this long and arduous process, Alessio says, ‘it was like going through P.T.S.D. – it was a truly traumatic experience.’ This was a difficult time for Alessio, not only because he was learning the language, but he could not yet drive (as they did not have a driver’s test in Italian, he had to wait until he learned English to take the test). Plus, he was living with his in-laws (Resa’s parents would not allow them to live together until they were married) and was dependent on them (and Resa) for everything. He remembers one time when he went out to a bar with Resa, he wanted to do something on his own. He told Resa he would order a beer. He went to the bartender and he told her ‘One beer. Budweiser.’ So that is what she gave him. One beer (on tap) and one can of Budweiser, which was one more beer than Alessio had wanted. He just stood there looking at the two beers and then began to gesture wildly to try to explain. Resa stood in the background laughing hysterically. He felt ‘helpless’ because he was unable to do even this small task on his own.

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At times, he was homesick, but after a while his English improved, he was able to get a driver’s license, and he started to meet people and become more comfortable ‘with the community and with society.’ After living more than 20 years in the US, his life has changed greatly. He was fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to finish school, receiving a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree and eventually get a good job teaching Spanish (which he had learned quickly due to the similarity between Spanish and Italian and the large number of Spanish-speaking friends he had acquired). He feels that getting a good education and a good job were some of the great achievements of his life. In addition, because of his migration he has had the opportunity to meet people from many different parts of the world (partly due to his passion for playing and talking about soccer, which has served as an effective friend-making tool in international circles) and some of these people are now his best friends. In retrospect, Alessio has had many amazing experiences, such as the birth of his children, the close family relationships he has with them, his wife and her family, and his ‘network of friends’ from his university days with whom he still maintains contact. He has also always had a job, and has never been unemployed. He says, ‘I can’t remember a day since being in the US that I have had to worry about a job.’ However, living in various locations across the US and abroad, he has had his share of painful moments as well. A few years back, before he moved to his current location, he had to start a new job because his wife was transferred due to her work. Alessio had been teaching for more than 15 years, but his current job was challenging because he was given a class with about 30 students, many of whom had previously failed the class and had negative attitudes toward learning Spanish. He had other classes that were fine, but in this class, there was one student who served as a ringleader, causing trouble and frequently disturbing lessons. One day, the student made several attempts at disrupting the class (such as dropping a book loudly when Alessio was writing on the board) and at a certain point toward the end of the class, the student got up and walked out. Because the school policy required him to call the student back in, Alessio went to the door and called after the student. Some discussion ensued ending with the student approaching Alessio in a threatening manner as he tried to reenter the classroom. Alessio’s immediate reaction to someone coming at him aggressively was to move him away physically. Once he did, the student left and began to yell loudly into the hall, ‘Fucking bastard Mexican’ several times. Alessio was very upset. He knew this was not good, so he got his things and told his students he would need to go to the office. He reported to the principal what had happened, and a teacher’s

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union representative came shortly afterwards to help him understand his rights and know what to say and do in this situation. What happened afterwards was a series of stunningly quick consecutive events that still have the power to make Alessio upset when he has to talk about them today. The parents of the student pressed charges, the district administrators put him on leave with pay while the case was pending, and he had to hire a lawyer. Because of the legal case against him, he chose not to request a hearing in the district to plead his case because he was informed that he would be unable to talk about what had happened since the case was pending. Immediately after the incident a report was posted in several local papers that described him as a ‘part-time,’ ‘new teacher’ to the district and included the student’s side of the story along with the district distancing themselves immediately from the situation. The only side of the story missing from the reports was Alessio’s since he was not allowed to comment because of the pending legal case. Alessio remembers going to court to set a date for the trial. He had been lucky enough to be able to afford a lawyer, and he remembers looking around the courtroom at the other people waiting to set a date, most of whom were there on their own, with no lawyer present. The majority of the people in the room were people of color, a large part of whom were clearly migrants, many of whom were not fluent English speakers. Fortunately for Alessio, soon after the court date was set, it was discovered that the student had previous incidents of harassing teachers and the criminal case was dismissed due to this and other factors. However, Alessio was forced to resign, and he never had the chance to tell anyone his side of the story. Alessio says, ‘after 20 years of living in the United States and feeling that I was American, I realized that I will never be one. The minute something goes wrong, I will always be an outsider.’ Being called a ‘fucking bastard Mexican’ bothered him, and although he is not Mexican, it made him very upset, The discrimination – that is, he was taking a Spanish class where he thought his professor was a Mexican bastard. So, he came into class already with prejudices against the language and the professor. Luckily for Alessio, because the case had been dropped and he had officially resigned (as opposed to being fired), he was able to work again and was lucky enough to find a job soon afterwards. He was also surprised and touched by the outpouring of love and support he received from his friends and community who stood by him during this difficult time, and he is grateful to them for believing in him and for showing him they cared.

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If Alessio could give advice to other migrants, he would tell them that they must recognize that when you are a migrant, there will always be a dilemma, ‘If you are ever going to embrace the country where you are living or you’re going to be always, some part of you will always be from your… original country.’ After 20 years in the US, Alessio is still struggling with this notion, Where do you belong? At a certain point, you realize that you create your own world where you are not completely American and you are not completely, like in my case, Italian. But you are something in between – a kind of a hybrid and you have to live with that experience. And… you will always be… I’m kind of different, and… never fully part of a culture, but always, you will never be fully part of or integrated completely because you will, there will always be a part of you that will be different. And that’s probably the, I don’t want to say the sad part, but the part that I found very, very difficult to, to deal with. His advice to people who are newcomers to their receiving country? As a person, especially if you speak a different language and come from a different culture, the first year of your life in the new country will be the most difficult. But if you persevere and are dedicated to what you want to do, what you want to achieve, you can actually reach your goal. Sometimes you will find that maybe society will be against you. But you still have to have in your mind your goals and what you want to achieve in life.

Discussion Language and independence When Alessio describes the situation in the bar, recounting the first time he was able to do something on his own in the new country (even though he got it wrong), he is really talking about the relationship between language and independence. Many people, like Alessio, who come to a receiving country, are used to doing things on their own – traveling alone, shopping alone, completing daily tasks without the help of others. In Alessio’s case (as is the case with many who go to places that lack good public transportation), his dependence on others was compounded by the fact that public transportation was not easily available, like he had been used to in Italy. Without a driver’s license, he was not able to go many places and explore on

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his own, because public transportation in this area was not easily accessible. In addition, he was not able to fill out paperwork, apply for a job, register for school, or do any other of a variety of simple tasks on his own until he learned English. This lack of independence is a common experience for many migrants at the beginning of their adjustment period, and it can often result in frustration and place strains on relationships because of the burden that is placed on the host relatives or friends that need to help the person with all that they need to do. Because of this, it is important for teachers to know that students may need help navigating the system and learning how to do daily tasks in the new language. Sometimes teachers are the only connection migrants have to English speakers, and simple suggestions such as where to buy certain things or how to acquire a bus pass can provide a small measure in the return to independence for a student.

The intersection between language, race and identity Alessio’s situation with the student can be accounted for through the theoretical frame of Critical Language and Race Theory (LangCrit) (Crump, 2014: 220). This theory ‘challenges fixed assumptions related to categories such as language, identity, and race and argues that these categories are social and locally constructed.’ It also provides an eco-social lens that ‘acknowledges that racism is a real part of everyday society, accounting for the continuum of possible identities and social categories that range from fixed to fluid’ and ‘embraces and seeks out the intersectionality of different dimensions of identity’ (Crump, 2014: 220). In addition, this critical theory emphasizes how ‘local language practices and individual stories are connected to broader social, political and historical practices and discourses through nested relationships that are woven together through webs of social relations’ (Crump, 2014: 220). Moreover, proponents of this theory resist masking issues of race behind issues of language. In Alessio’s case, although he is White, and physically does not look considerably different than his student in terms of skin color or other physical features, the metonymic association between Alessio and Spanish (he spoke Spanish, therefore he was associated with Spanish-speakers) combined with his last name (which could be perceived as Latino) and substantial accent constructed him as non-White in the eyes of the student. Thus, the metonymic chain which led the student to discriminate against Alessio and group him with the student’s category of ‘other’ proceeded as follows, starting with the signifiers of ‘other’: Non-native speaker/last name à Non-white à Spanish-speaker à Mexican.

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Scholars in the field of TESOL such as Motha (2006) have recognized this association between Whiteness and the ownership of English noting Whiteness to be an ‘intrinsic but veiled element of the construct of mainstream English’ (2006: 497). Alessio’s student’s failure at learning Spanish also most likely contributed to the student’s dislike of Mexicans, or perhaps it was his dislike of Mexicans that caused his negative attitude toward Spanish-speakers. Whichever was the cause, his overtly racist comments (which to Alessio’s knowledge were never addressed by the school) represent a somewhat unusual case, because in an era of ‘new racism’ in which racist ideologies are often covertly placed in discourse because it is no longer considered politically correct to voice racist comments publicly (Krzyzanowski & Wodak, 2009), people are often aware and afraid of being called racist. Hence, it has become more common for people to overtly express linguistic anxiety ‘as a new proxy for racial anxiety’ (Matsuda, 1991: 90), complaining about languages other than English being spoken, rather than saying overtly racist comments when they know (or assume) they could get in trouble for them. Thus, Alessio’s case brings to light several important issues related to the migrant experience: (1) discrimination/racism can be (at least outwardly) based on a person’s accent; (2) discrimination/ racism is often based on imposed or assumed identities (as opposed to how the migrant views him/herself). Therefore, we must never assume that migrants/migrant students do not experience discriminatory practices just because they look like the dominant group. Accent, and other signifiers such as association with a minority group (via a common language or career, such as in Alessio’s case), different dress (e.g. hijab) or name (or a combination of several of those elements) can also result in discrimination that can have negative consequences for migrants. Alessio’s story illustrates the real lifechanging consequences that discrimination can have for migrants, even in a case where the participant had multiple resources at his disposal (e.g. the money to hire a lawyer, friends to support him). He is lucky because he is only distinguished as ‘other’ by his accent (and perhaps last name), while a large number of migrants physically look much more different (particularly those with darker skin) and are thus much easier targets. It is important that teachers address issues of discrimination and let other students know it is not ok to make racist comments or make fun of other students because of their nationality, race, religion, etc. In addition, teachers need to become more aware of their own biases and attitudes regarding migrant students and immigration issues and how they might affect our relationships with our students. For example, I have overheard conversations with teachers talking about how people need to speak English because ‘this is America.’ When teachers have this attitude, which sometimes

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involves racism masquerading as opposition to languages other than English, students pick up on it, and become ashamed to speak their L1, which can result in language attrition and a variety of other negative consequences.

Language learning is war In his story, Alessio compares learning English to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and thus the metonymy PTSD stands for the experience of war, creating the metaphor language learning is war. In thinking about the metaphors migrants use to talk about migration, we have to think about the mappings these metaphors might produce in terms of correlating characteristics. For example, if your students think of language learning as a war, who is the enemy they are fighting against? Is it the language itself? Is it you? Would every lesson be a battle that involves danger and a threat on the student’s life? When reflecting on all the entailments that come with the metaphor of war, we can easily see that if the student views language learning this way, he/she may experience great anxiety and suffer because of it, possibly becoming so paralyzed that learning does not occur. Therefore, it is our responsibility to lower the affective filter in our classrooms so that we can make students comfortable so they are ready to learn. For classrooms where content is the focus (as opposed to specific classes in the dominant local language), it becomes more complex. Here, we must find ways to help students be comfortable with participating and ways to lower their stress since learning content is doubly difficult when you have trouble understanding it at the language level. One way to do this for content classrooms is to pair up students with a language buddy that could translate important information if needed. In addition, collaborative groups work well where learning is a team effort and students take turns sharing with the class what they have learned. In these cases instructors can actually teach students to explain things to each other before they are called on in whole group discussions.

Cultural and linguistic identity are puzzle pieces Many migrants have hybrid identities and feel torn between multiple identities. Alessio reveals the metaphor of cultural and linguistic identity are puzzle pieces (an offshoot of the image schema of part–whole) when he acknowledges that you will never be fully part of or integrated completely because you will, there will always be a part of you that will be different. This perception of himself as pieces in a puzzle that will always remain in different places, never together as a whole, is informative of the process of hybridization

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that occurs among migrants. Because of the dynamic and sensitive nature of identity transformation and negotiation that migrants often undergo throughout the migration process and after, teachers must be careful to attend to identity negotiation, and to provide multiple and varying opportunities for their students to interact with people from diverse backgrounds. Furthermore, we need to talk to students about issues or problems they have with other students, and to attend to metonymies that are used by teachers or other students to address migrant students.

Disclosure and follow-up You may have noticed that Alessio’s story is much more detailed than some of the others. This is because Alessio’s story is the story of my husband. I will admit that I struggled with the choice of including my husband’s story because I was so personally involved in it. However, influenced by the words of educational researchers engaged in social justice research, Dolores Delgado Bernal and Valerie Kinloch (Catalano et al., 2015) who argue that it is ‘hard to ask others to tell stories when you’re not ready to tell your own,’ I decided that I must be willing to be vulnerable myself in the interest of reciprocity, and include my husband’s story if he was willing to share it (https://aeradivg. wordpress.com/divgpodcasts/, 2015). Thus, I allowed my husband’s story (which is also partly my own) to be heard. Furthermore, in the interest of researcher positionality, I need to acknowledge that it is not possible to remain true to methodological impartiality in cases such as this (but is there such a thing as complete impartiality? Are not all our analyses and interpretations a result of our context and background?). In an attempt to remedy this, I searched for a solution by turning to my colleague and friend, John Creswell, who is an expert in research methodology. He suggested that I use memberchecking (which I have done with the participants that I have been able to contact, such as Michi, Miljan, Dijana, Imran, Carmelle and others) and that I turn this part of the discussion into a dialog in which I ask my husband how he feels about the story as it is written, whether he agrees with my interpretation and whether he wants the story to be shared. I followed his advice, and what you see below is our dialog. I have referred to myself as ‘R’ (for researcher) and my husband with his pseudonym, Alessio. R:

‘What did you think when you read the story? What are your thoughts and do you think it captures your story well?’ Alessio: ‘The story, if I look at the story, everything you wrote, it is very positive because I was able to achieve the things that I wanted in

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my life – have an education, have a family, a group of friends that help you when you need help, and that are there in happy times such as weddings, parties and World Cup games. These are nurturing moments in life that remain cherished memories. I am very proud of what I have accomplished and hearing this story makes me appreciate how far I have come.’ R: ‘How did you feel when you read the story?’ Alessio: ‘I felt fine. I knew my story so it wasn’t like I was shocked. Maybe, because it has been 20 years of my life that were summarized, I felt good about it, hearing what I have accomplished (apart from some difficulties). It has been a very positive experience overall, and I wouldn’t change anything about my experiences here in the US.’ R: ‘Do you worry about your story being told? What do you think about others who might read it and know these things about you?’ Alessio: ‘No. Not at all. I hope that my experience can be used to help people understand the situation of a person that comes from a different culture and language to a new country. I hope that readers can come to appreciate the cultural differences that migrants bring with them and embrace these differences, integrating them into their lives. In the process of cultural integration there are always negative moments and you have to try to overcome them, and positive moments that you must appreciate. However, the principle advice I would always give is to always keep a positive open mind and appreciate the positive side to the differences that migrants bring.’ R: ‘What do you hope that migrants and students learning English can gain from hearing your story?’ Alessio: ‘Obviously, if they have the possibility to read this story it would be helpful to read this when they first arrive so they can understand some of the obstacles they might have and having read these stories they could respond in a positive manner and have a mentality that is more open toward the host country culture. So, I hope it would help them integrate more smoothly and in a less difficult manner.’

Part 3 The Metaphors and Metonymies Our conceptual system … plays a central role in defining our everyday realities. (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980: 3) Metonymy is everywhere. It shapes the way we think and the way we influence the thoughts of others. (Littlemore, 2015: 197)

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11 Summary of Dominant Metaphors/Metonymies in the Stories

This chapter presents findings from the analysis that counted and categorized metaphors/metonymies from the 77 interviews done for this book. Some of these metaphors you have already read about in the stories in Chapters 5–10, while others are from interviews carried out for this study, but not included in the book due to space. They are presented here in order to provide richer examples (with some context given) of the variety in metaphor types and usage found in this study, and the ways in which metonymy works to motivate them. Analysis of the metaphors used by participants to talk about the migration experience revealed dominant, secondary and occasional metaphors in the discourse (as modeled by Santa Ana, 2002) that with the exception of a few examples, are largely positive. Table 11.1 represents the metaphors found in the data. In this chapter, I will explain and provide examples of the dominant metaphors with the source domain immigration, and I will also discuss dominant metaphors regarding the process of language learning (Table 11.2), which was a focal point of this book, but also of many participant interviews. Finally, I will discuss metonymies not necessarily involved in the dominant metaphors, but relevant to how migrants perceive themselves (identity) and how they believe others perceive them (Tables 11.3 and 11.4). The dominant metaphors found in the data were immigration is a journey and immigration is cultivation. The journey metaphor is a common metaphor found throughout many different types of discourse (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980), so it is not surprising that it is a dominant metaphor in discourse that talks about the migration experience. It is important to note, however, that utterances counted as part of the journey metaphor were those uses that were figurative, not literal. Many participants talked at some point about the physical journey of traveling from their country of origin

153

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Table 11.1  Metaphors with target domain immigration/migrants Metaphor type

Source domain

Examples

Sums

%

journey

I should forge ahead, there was no one to orient you.

192

21.5%

cultivation

I am growing more as a person, as 167 a human being, as a woman.

18.7%

container

They are enclosed within their own society.

130

14.6%

war

They are very hostile.

83

9.3%

business

Investing time and money all over 65 again.

7.3%

physical force/

It bends you in weird ways.

65

7.3%

illusion/dream

I live in my dream, that is how I would describe my life.

52

5.8%

natural wonder

It broadens your horizon.

51

5.7%

visible object

I grasped the language.

37

4.1%

book, water, illness/

closing a chapter in my life, 48 I’m immune to anything, illegal immigrants, Iraq was a big prison.

5.3%

Dominant

Secondary

connection

Occasional disease, criminals, freedom

TOTAL

890

100%

to the destination country. These instances were not metaphorical because they referred to actual physical travel from one place to another. Examples of the metaphorical use of words related to a journey will be discussed shortly. These examples also illustrate how the metaphor immigration is a journey consists of a sub-category of the overarching and omnipresent metaphor life is a journey. Thus, immigration is a significant part of the life journey, which includes a beginning (note that all words in italics indicate they are words used by participants in interviews), middle and end, a path to take, various choices to make along the road, twists and turns and setbacks to overcome, a guide to help on the journey, and eventually arriving at the destination, which in this case is successful integration into the receiving culture. In this first example, Chiharu (who first came from Japan to the US for education but then later stayed because she married

Summary of Dominant Metaphors/Metonymies in the Stories  155

an American) talks about the path she chose that led her to study and then stay in the United States and whether she would do it over again if she could. Note that some of the examples in this section of the book are from the stories from Part 2 while others (such as Chiharu’s) have not yet been told. A little context is given for each of these newly introduced participants. Unfortunately, there is not enough space to include examples from every participant in this book, but the intention is to tell these stories in another book later, so eventually their voices will be heard as well. Here is Chiharu’s comment, Chiharu: Uh… I don’t, I might have taken a different path. I don’t know… but I, I still, I think I still would study in the US. But, but I, but maybe I didn’t maybe choose [this state]. Maybe, um, if the financially, if the money allows then I might go a little bit bigger city where then, um, Japanese community is more active. Here is very, very, very small, so that I think minority like us it’s difficult, you know. Um, whenever I see a bunch of Chinese people here I envy them, you know… Note that one of Chiharu’s regrets about her choice of path is that she lives in a city where there is a very small and somewhat inactive Japanese community. In her interview, she expressed the importance of having a large community of people with similar backgrounds to spend time and commiserate with, particularly when someone is first learning the receiving country language. As in Chiharu’s example, the metonymy of path is also used by Hui (below) to stand for a plan rather than actually traveling down a physical path. After losing the girlfriend he traveled from China to be with, he was confused and left alone to adjust to American culture and lifestyle, Hui: After I came to the United States, I gave up this dream because I don’t know what to do… here. The main problem I have right now is because I don’t have enough resources, I feel confused, and cannot find my path to future… Back in China, I felt I would have time to struggle, to fight for my future, however, after I came to United States, I realize there was time limit to do that. I don’t know the language here, things you can see, people you meet, or things you can do, I mean you have less chances than those who know English. Hui’s example shows how he envisions that there is a clear path that will take him to a prosperous future, but he feels that his new life has led him away from this path and thus he is not able to continue on his life Journey. Language (as mentioned before in Part 2) serves as a trail marker in his

156  Part 3: The Metaphors and Metonymies journey; because he does not know English well enough, he cannot find his way and is unable to continue down the path. Below, as mentioned in the discussion after Imran’s story, he talks about the future as if it is something he can see in front of him.

Imran: Uh, so the life now in, in America is full of hope. And I always tell my family that we have a great future ahead of us. Although this idea of the future being ‘ahead’ is highly metaphorical, it has been used so much its use has become conventionalized and hardly recognized as such. In this blend, life is a journey and things that have not yet happened are farther down the road on this journey. Since our bodies are oriented to travel in the direction that our eyes see (as opposed to walking backwards), considering the future to be something we are facing and heading toward (as opposed to away from) makes sense. Imran, like many of the participants, sees migration as a step forward – a hopeful move in the right direction toward a happier life. Just like in any physical journey, metaphorical travelers face obstacles that block their path (as language has been for Hui). In the case of a physical journey, these might be large stones or fallen trees that the traveler must get around and problem-solve around in order to move forward. In the case of Placida (below), her move from Tanzania to South Africa (as a university lecturer) presented many cultural obstacles that she had a difficult time getting past. Below, she talks about the difficulties of figuring out the financial system as well as her adjustment to cultural norms living in a residence hall at the university, Placida: Because even just coming in for the first time was like forcing the employer and all those things, you know? There are so many lecturers. They want to go for further study and there’s no money. There’s no, so it’s like forcing them to give you stipend or accommodation, the fees or, but at least for this year… at least it’s not so bad but in the beginning it was hard because I had to use my own money for flight, for stipend for the first semester. Staying here is expensive… so it was a bit difficult but I am getting onto the train… Because in Tanzania… I think we care for each other. You know when you wake up in the morning, you have to say to your neighbor. ‘Hi. How are you?’ But when I came here, these people, they don’t care, whether you’re alive or you’re dead. Then I say what kind of people? They say ‘hi’! But ‘hi,’ ‘hi’ is not enough. You have to say ‘Okay, so how are you?’… I don’t know flat mates or residence mates but it sounds like I’m just alone. They never have any problem. I don’t feel like going in the next room and say ‘Do you have sugar? You see?’ So it was,

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nowadays I have to make sure I’m full[y] packed. So it was difficult. It was difficult in the beginning. Placida’s statement that she is getting onto the train is an interesting blend in which the metonymy of train stands for the neural process of understanding how something works. A train has an engine that needs some kind of fuel to start working, and once it receives that fuel, it travels fast. In this blend, the fuel is whatever clicks in your brain when you begin to understand something, and then this gets you on the train. When you are on the train, you can arrive quickly at your destination; thus, the metonymy of train together with the process of getting on lead us to the metaphor of understanding the culture is a journey which is part of the migration process. Like any journey, Placida’s has a beginning, a middle (the time of the interview) and an end, which would be her final destination of adjustment and adaptation to local life. It is important to note that many migrants never reach this destination, and often do not feel that they truly are integrated into local culture and some migrants return to their countries of origin for this reason. Winston’s story (below) is one in which he faced obstacles (coming from Ghana to the US), but because of his drive and determination, he was able to focus and be successful. Winston: Yeah, and I’m a kid… I am from Africa, 100 dollars in my pocket and I’m in this amazingly, crazy, big country. And I had that driving determination. I said someday, I just wish I could someday be successful in this country. Having said that, um, it, it was never an easy journey. I mean there were so many twists and turns along the road, you know, so many disappointments, upsets, uh, you know, setbacks, as you go, just like most people go through the journey, you know, but one thing I never lost focus on was that drive and that determination because I was just so determined. Like Winston, Kofi had to overcome many obstacles in his migration from Ghana to South Africa. For Kofi, the racial division he found in the country constituted a hidden barrier under the surface that few people spoke about but everyone knew was there. He advises others who migrate to think about the consequences their journey might have before they begin. Kofi: In terms of immigration, I tell people to count the cost. You need to count the cost. A country like South Africa presents a very, the rainbow nation front. You know they present a rainbow nation front and you would, you see a very strong effort to kind of get the different factions to live together. They present a

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very beautiful front. If you come here for a holiday, you probably have a nice time. But if you live here with the people, it’s a different story. You need to really look behind what is being presented to you and you must dig deeper to see what’s behind what you’re seeing because… It’s one thing that made me work very fast on my PhD because I didn’t want to stay here for long. I was very uncomfortable. And then you realize that behind the front is a real deal. That’s what you’re going to live with and it kind of, Apartheid is over but it is kind of, it’s kind of institutionalized into everything. And nobody talks about it but it’s still there, very strong. The barrier is there. It is so strong. You bump the barriers there, and I realized the experience is different if you’re from Europe or you’re from the Middle East or you’re from the US or you’re from Asia… And one thing I’m very worried about it how they carry out their frustration on foreign Blacks. The Black South Africans carry out, there is a lot of labor unrest going on right now, and the next thing that follows is xenophobia… When they can’t find a solution… and then they carry their frustrations on other African blacks even here… as if they caused the joblessness. But they are their own problem… yeah they present a very beautiful rainbow front but they are sitting on a time bomb, a ticking, ticking time bomb. And I don’t see it being very safe to live or practice here as a non-South African Black. Above, Kofi expresses his view that there is a connection between labor unrest in South Africa (such as the miners in Marikana and 2015 attacks in Johannesburg) and xenophobia. Fortunately, because he is aware of the historical residue from Apartheid times, he is able to make sense of the situation and clearly understands from whence anti-immigration sentiments toward non-South African Blacks (as he refers to himself) are coming. However, he still feels that the situation is explosive (e.g. ticking time bomb) and unsafe. These feelings coincide with the surface view that he believes South Africa likes to put forward, that is, that they are a very beautiful rainbow front,1 but below the colors lie strong barriers that do not permit him to feel comfortable and work toward his goal. Ultimately these obstacles may keep Kofi from staying in South Africa when his degree is finished; thus, his journey to adaptation and integration into South Africa may never be completed. Yan (who came from China to the US) views her language learning as an important obstacle she had to overcome in her journey of migration. Below she talks about the beginning, how she made progress, and how she is reaching her goal of being a proficient English speaker, Yan: So… I have to go out and make friends and talk to people even with my crappy English. So I have to confirm myself, reaffirm myself I’m making

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progress. And so in the beginning, I feel like I’m keeping asking people. I’m more nervous about asking people, am I making progress from my colleagues. And if people, if my colleagues tell me yeah, you are doing much better, and I feel very good. And one thing I remember, yeah, at a, that’s the class, uh we have debate… and that’s one part of our grade. So I wanted to do very well and we have, I had another partner too, an American student. So we had a team, however, I feel like I also need to play my own role, I can’t rely on him solely… So, so I prepared very well in the presentation and… it went very well and… I feel that definitely boosted my confidence… So that’s definitely like my first step to conquer my fear and language barrier through this public debate. Yan’s journey of learning the language of her receiving country was difficult. It is one of many stories in this book in which the language was viewed as a great obstacle to be overcome. Because language is such a strong theme throughout the participants’ stories (with 205 tokens of the word, language, found), the metaphors/metonymies related to language will be examined more closely later and are represented in Table 11.2 along with a discussion. While Kofi experienced many setbacks in his journey and was not uncertain of his ability to continue, others, like Winston, were able to get past the obstacles and reach their destination. Julietta’s story is similar to the latter. Julietta had a very difficult life in Mexico working in the fields while she cared for her small son. In search of a better life, she and her husband crossed the desert on a three-day journey with food and water on their backs. She had to leave her son (who was one year old) behind with her mother. Here she talks about her first impressions of Americans and refers to moving forward for making progress. Julietta: People were very nice, different. The people were different than those from where I come from because they are people focused in their own lives, in moving forward. They are people that respect, know respect. They have a goal. Something that surprised me about them is that they always, the majority of people here that I have known since I came here, always have a goal. They focus on something and move forward. They aren’t like us who bring different ways of thinking that do people here. Here there is more, they have more rights despite not being in their own country, one has rights. Something in our country that is very difficult, especially for us, women, in our country it is very difficult to feel like we have value. Almost always the man succeeds more and here it’s not like that we because we are equal. There they say, in my country, they say we are all equal but it’s not true. And here, here no because here even the women have more value. Like I told you, my thoughts aren’t the poor thoughts I had

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before. Today I am growing more as a person, as a human being, as a woman. I have value. I have values that I didn’t have before. I am not, I am not married anymore, right, but it hasn’t left me… I move forward for my children because I have two now… My life has changed because every day that I wake up I see another hope. Well this day yes I have to move forward to another day, another day more, and the truth is that because of the confidence that the United States… there is always an opportunity of one thing or another. In the excerpt above, Julietta sees her migration journey as one of personal growth and fulfillment. She perceives women to have more value and equality in the United States, and she appreciates the rights she has been given as a woman in the US. She also perceives a difference in the way Americans view their lives by having a goal they want to achieve and working toward that goal. For Julietta, moving forward in her journey is achieving her goals, gaining confidence and having hope. As with Julietta, Elena views looking forward as focusing on the future and not dwelling on the difficult emotions of the past. Elena (the daughter of Miljan and Dijana whose stories were presented in Chapter 6) migrated from Bosnia to Canada to escape war. Below she talks about how, as a refugee, being given the material objects needed to survive in the country aided her in not thinking about the emotional events of the war, and what she left in Bosnia, and helped her to focus on looking for a job and going to school, as she comments below. Elena: … the Canadian government gave us the money and they… once we found a location where we were going to live, they sent us literally, from a couch and bed to the fork and spoons, like everything, everything. It was, um, iron, you know, for the laundry and, and, uh, everything , pots, cooking pots, everything, everything, everything, so, we, you know right off the bat, we had the lamp, we had the coffee table, we had the dresser, the necessary stuff just to kind of not think about that and kind of focus on looking for a job or school or whatever. So, the only big issue was emotions, that’s it. Like, you can’t kind of replace that with the material stuff, but it did help because, you know, we kind of focused on, on, looking forward and that’s that. In addition to following the path toward their destination, several participants such as Jane (below, coming from Ukraine) mentioned the importance of having a ‘travel guide’ on their metaphorical journey. This travel guide could be a friend or neighbor who could be counted on to give advice about procedures and processes in the new country,

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Jane: So prepare the most in advance let’s say, and then rely on the local people like make friends as soon as possible, and then they will guide you. They will help you with the different procedures or what you have to do where you have to go, and it’s really um, it’s really fine I think. Stay open, find friends and well, just for sure have a plan of what you are going to do. Moving just like that without knowing what you are going to do is quite scary, and I don’t advise that. Although the Journey of integrating and living in a different country never really ends for most migrants, many participants talked about the joy of reaching their destination in terms of fitting in and integrating into the local culture, having a job and being successful. Below, Martez talks about his non-linear migration (from Mexico to Costa Rica, Canada, US and now back to Canada) and how his life has changed drastically because of it. Martez: Man, Jesus Christ… Yeah, I – change doesn’t even start to describe it. It was totally transformed… You know, life has taken me places that I had never – not even dream [sic] you know. I tell everybody that, you know, I must be the luckiest person in Earth. So, I think the appreciation for what I have – had the opportunity to see and enjoy and live, is enormous. I have a tremendous appreciation and that’s thanks to all of the experiences you know. It’s a – I have become a very – I was a very open-minded person and very open to experiences and cultures and everything. And then just the journey even opened me more… you know it’s… I… I don’t know… if you – if you were to ask anybody of my friends you know, what Martez would have been, they probably would not describe you not even close to where I am. Martez is particularly appreciative of the places his life has taken him because he suffered from dyslexia as a child (and no one believed he would overcome this), but then in college, his now wife (who is a veterinarian like him) helped him realize that he needed to approach his studies differently and try to gain a deeper understanding of the topic he was studying. This new way of making sense of what he read helped him to overcome his difficulties and become a veterinarian. His success in veterinary science led him to Costa Rica to work, then to study in the US, to a job in Canada and the US and back to Canada. Thus, when Martez speaks of his journey he is speaking both literally and figuratively, with appreciation and acknowledgment of the opportunities he has had, and how migration has made him see, enjoy and live.

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A second dominant metaphor throughout the interviews was In this metaphorical blend, which is a subcategory of the more common metaphor (found in Santa Ana, 2002) education is cultivation, the process of migration is equated with the natural process of planting and harvesting. In this blend, migrants take on the characteristics of seedlings that must be cultivated over a lifetime in order to bear their ‘full potential harvest’ (Santa Ana, 2002: 310). The migration process is seen as a natural process, and just like plants that need soil, water and sun in order to grow, the experiences of learning about local culture, solving problems independently (because family and friends are not there to help), and facing challenges associated with integration lead the seedlings to ‘sprout and yield their bounty’ (Santa Ana, 2002: 310). However, conditions must be right, such as a fertile soil and lots of water (having the right support, keeping an open mind) for this to happen. Below, Carmelle talks about how being the only family member who spoke English made her become an adult quickly, immigration is cultivation.

Carmelle: And our life changed. I think, you know, I feel now responsible. Responsible? Yeah. It’s – these exp – like this new life helped me in like, to grow up. Like to see life in a different – ’cuz before I was like a baby, you know, waiting for my parents to do, like everything for me. Like to go talk to me, you know. But now when – when we moved here, it was, I felt like I didn’t have a transition time, like – it was like a switch. I had to like, to be an adult like at once. And I think that had an impact on me… Carmelle’s comment illustrates the metaphor of immigration is cultivation and the way in which she has grown as a person because of the responsibility she had to take on at an early age. In addition to the cultivation metaphor, the example also demonstrates another common metaphor found in the data, immigration is a force through use of metonymies such as switch and impact. This metaphor (discussed after Carmelle’s story in Chapter 7) helps us to understand what a quick and vigorous shock to the system immigration often is for people, particularly young adolescents like Carmelle, who have to take on such great responsibility at such a young age. In the next example, Xui (who went from China to Qatar for three years and then followed her husband to the US) talks about how she had to adapt to a new environment, and how this experience brought color to her life, Xui: I think in the very beginning, I feel uh, I feel I need some friends because you know I was separated with my friends who are in China, and I feel lonely. But I think one advantage that working for my previous company because it’s a

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Chinese company. It has a lot of Chinese colleagues who can actually help me and support me. So I think the one way to adjust yourself, to adapt to a new environment is to make some friends there. You have to know some friends there, and to talk to them, and to make your life colorful… I think a second important thing is that you have to try to know about the local culture, otherwise, you could not work there, live there, study there feeling very comfortable… I think it is important. And once you had understand the culture, there you might realize that life there, your life there will be more meaningful and colorful. The metonymy colorful in this example stands for bringing meaning to one’s life (in essence, color for positivity/meaning). Thus, the experience of migration for Xui (as was found for many of the participants) and more specifically, understanding local culture and making new friends, is seen as an enhancement to the individual and his/her life. A recent article published in The Atlantic supports this view of the benefits of engaging in the receiving culture. Discussing research that foreign experiences promote cognitive development and creativity, Professor Adam Galinsky states, ‘The key, critical process is multicultural engagement, immersion, and adaptation’ (Crane, 2015). Although the migrants in this book talk mainly about the enrichment that migration provided to them, I believe that this idea of personal enlightenment can be extended to those who have contact with migrants as well, even if they have not migrated themselves. The same experiences of increased wisdom, making new friends and learning about new cultures can be achieved through personal interactions with people coming from different backgrounds and thus this is an important finding worth passing on. That is, migrants bring with them to their receiving countries endless opportunities for increasing intercultural competency and personal enlightenment of receiving country communities which can enrich the lives of all who come into contact with migrants. Unfortunately, instead of highlighting the incredible social and psychological benefits that contact with migrants can bring (as they demonstrate from their own experiences of interacting with others in the receiving countries), the fact that migrants are an incredible resource (linguistically and culturally) is often hidden and downplayed whereas the so-called burden they put on society is emphasized. Below are a few more examples that demonstrate the transformative power of migration in terms of personal fulfillment, Michi: Um, yeah, I mean I think that, you know, one of the typical things […] as I would assume that is somewhat of a typical thing, you get to reinvent yourself, right. Like you leave everything behind on some – and again this is, you know, the early 90s, you know, eh, it’s not that long ago and yet it is, right,

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in terms of the ability to travel and, you know, it’s much harder to stay in touch with people because of snail mail at the time and you know like not today we… You know, so um… but I did stay in touch with so 4 or 5 people, you know, and I’m still best friends with them to this day, you know, but but a lot of other things have fallen by the wayside, you know. And so, you – it’s inevitable that you sort of change… you know… I mean you do get to create a new self in s– some basic, like you know, some different persona as it were, right? Quyen: I was teaching English as a foreign language in Vietnam. Yeah, I became unhappy because, you know, I was unable to do, um, what I want to do. Well, I, like I want… to be able to choose my own book, to design my own syllabus, but we were not allowed to do that. Yeah, so everything was… So that’s one of the reasons I became unhappy. And also I think it is time for me, you know, um, to learn something new to improve my professional knowledge, and also to refresh myself, to renew myself… Yes, that’s why I left. Cristina: It’s really different. I feel that, you know, I- I- I would not change any of the experiences that I have had that – I don’t think. Um… I think that, like bad experience – that experience that I had in Spain, you know, moving there so young, um… and you know, I had to a lot of things by myself because I didn’t have anybody there. Um, I think that made me a stronger person. So, I feel that if something happens and I am – and I’m alone and I have to move to Yugoslavia, I still think that I could figure out a way to – like to not sink, right? Petra: Yeah, I – I think it’s good for you to go and see what other persons – how other people live and I think the world is so much smaller now than we thought it was and going from one place to the other. In most cases, you see the people are the same, you might have different culture, you might look at things differently, you know as far as some basic core values, but in general, I think being exposed to different cultures widens your horizon and also makes you look at the world in a different way than if you are just exposed to the one culture that – that you have and I think that it made me a better person and, and had expanded how I look at the world and how I see myself. The above examples point to the positive effects of migration and the way in which it enriches their lives, whether it means expanding their worldview, making them stronger or reinventing themselves. It’s worth mentioning, however, that even though the cultivation metaphor was omnipresent in the data and largely positive, not all the participants saw this cultivation as successful. In the following example, HaeWon (who left South Korea to

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move to the US for love but also to search for a better life) is conflicted about her migration experience. She holds that she has a good chance of living a better life in the US, but she still believes that both people and plants grow best in their native soil. Although she believes the trees can still survive, they look different because of the different climate and they are not guaranteed to be better off there, HaeWon: My advice, so… um. I think first, I think we human are made to live and best and function the best where they were born. [Laughter.] As the trees are like that, plants are best, you know, with the most familiar environment. But they can survive. I see some Asian plants and trees here, they look little bit different because of little bit different climate, but they still survive in an adjust way. Adjust way, but still is has four seasons. There are four seasons, and it depends if you are conservative, I think, if you are more pursuing, you know the stable lifestyle, focusing on family, you better stay. But you wanna some change in your life with more decoration and maybe migration be turning point. But it doesn’t. It won’t guarantee your happiness. To be happy, to migrate doesn’t… ah… doesn’t make sense, I think. So, and unless you are not born here or you grew up here from childhood, it’s hard. It’s hard. And the life doesn’t go the way that you want. It happens. It’s like an accident. I never dreamed – kinda wanted dreamed of study here but never dreamed of living here, and so… I think but the world is becoming one, one standardized, so it’s becoming a little less difficult. I think I would be happier there. Although there is not enough space to include examples and discussion of all the many metaphors found in the data, I will spend some time talking about the container schema, as it is where 14% of the metaphors about the migration experience originated, and it is helpful in understanding the migration experience. The first type of container metaphor is the body is a container. In this blend, which originates in our own bodily experiences as being a container that takes in and expels fluids, and the human body and mind is seen as being open or closed as in these examples from Carmelle and Emma where they give advice to other migrants, Carmelle: But once you are in that country, try to be open to – to their culture. You know, try to be open, accept, you know, what they’re doing. ‘Cuz that’s what I did. Start – that really help me, to be open to the US culture. I mean, with – with the one that I agree with. With the, I mean, the normal one, like having a conversation with some, like smiling at stranger, like being nice, being there to help people and those kind of stuff.

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Emma: Hmm, okay. Well, the first thing is, I’ve said this kind of briefly before, but basically you need to keep an open mind and realize that different doesn’t mean bad. I think when you experience culture shock in any country it’s very easy to assume that that culture is inherently bad or ‘I hate this culture,’ but when you get over that anger stage, you start to look at things objectively and you start to realize that just because country XYZ culture XYZ does things differently, it doesn’t mean that it’s bad. You can also step back and see the positive aspects to that different culture as well. In addition to having an open mind, the body is seen as being divided into parts or pieces. This conceptualization can be traced back to part–whole image-schemas2 of our bodily experiences as being whole bodies with parts (e.g. fingers, hands). ‘This idea of parts is then expanded and taken to a metaphorical level because the parts the participants speak of are not physical body parts, but cultural and linguistic pieces that can be separated, fit well (or not) and have different origins’ (Catalano et al., 2016). Thus this metaphor becomes immigration is a puzzle, and its entailment, cultural and linguistic identity are pieces. Moving the pieces around and seeing how they fit together best are all part of the adjustment process for migrants such as Cristina (below), who is originally from Colombia but lived in Spain and eventually moved and settled in the US, Cristina: Your identity blurs. So I feel right now that I am like in a limbo. So, I, you know, when people ask me, ‘Where are you from?’ Of course I say, ‘I’m Colombian,’ right? And I – and I have Colombia in my heart. But the Colombia that I have in my heart was the Colombia that I experienced when I was 21. That’s the Colombia that I have in my heart. And that’s something that is pain – that is painful because like after the years when I have gone back to Colombia… the city has evolved, my friends have changed, my family has changed, I have changed… so… yeah. So, when I walk in the street, and I see a street full of people and all the mess and all the crowd and all the, you know, the all the music and all the messiness that we have there, I feel like, ‘Oh yeah, this is my thing.’ But then when I see them talk to people… it’s like we don’t – like I don’t fit anymore – the way that I used to fit. And that – and that is hurtful. That – that’s hurtful. Um, because I don’t feel either here that I’m the perfect fit and I’m not the perfect fit in Spain either. So, I feel like I’m… like part of my – like – part of me is from Spain – part is from Colombia, part of me is from the United States. Cristina’s excerpt illustrates the container image schema in the sense of pieces being put in the container, aka the receiving country. Because she has lived in

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three countries, she sees pieces of herself in each of these, similar to Alessio’s comments in Chapter 10. Another interesting metaphor that comes up in this comment is the blending of the migration experience with the religious concept of limbo. In the expression in a limbo, Cristina is referring to the region of afterlife some religions believe is designated for souls that go neither to heaven nor hell. Her comment reflects the metaphorical comparison of being in an intermediate state of waiting that compares immigration to a type of death or re-birth (Catalano et al., 2016). This perspective of immigration and cultural adjustment as being in limbo, reflects the difficult and often hurtful process in which identity is negotiated for migrants as they work to fit in, and at the same time maintain ties to their past. Finally, the notion that one’s identity can be seen (and become blurred) is an interesting ontological metaphor (identity is an object/substance) that brings to life one’s notion of identity being something tangible that you can see. To grasp the implication of this metaphor, imagine that your identity is something you can see in a mirror when you look at yourself. How would you feel if you could not see your image clearly, but instead were unsure of what you were looking at? Another way in which the container schema manifests itself in the data is the blend of the country/culture is a container. The metaphor of country is a container was mentioned earlier as a common metaphor found in immigration discourse, but in the following example, the culture of the receiving country is also considered a container that migrants can go in and out of. Here Qiang (who moved from China to the US) gives advice to others about integrating into the receiving culture: Qiang: Yes, and, and the thing is… uh… and I think it’s not a really, really good idea to stay with your own cultural group. That’s not helpful. Um… because… you’re not putting yourself in this social environment. You’re, you’re, you’re putting yourself with a group of people, in a small place, but you, but that doesn’t work for you if you are going to, uh, be part of this big society, you have to be, you have to put yourself in it and be part of it. If you stay away from it, it’s not helpful at all, you’re not going to help anyone. In the example below, Zarrin (who migrated to the US from Tajikistan), talks about when she speaks to her friends in Tajikistan who tell her not to come back, Zarrin: Um, I mean I feel like I grew up here, so I don’t really have anything to compare it to. I do know that it’s better than it could have been because, um I do talk – I still talk to my classmates from back home and um, their lives are not bad, but I mean every time I talk to them they all say you know, don’t think

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about coming back. There’s nothing in here, but the thing is I don’t know what exactly they mean, so I feel like you could still, if you have the education and everything, you could still make a life anywhere, but again I don’t have anything to compare my, you know, my life with, so I don’t know in what ways it’s better. Below, Julietta advises other migrants to treat the receiving country well and be productive, Julietta: If we are going to emigrate from our country, it should be for something productive, right? We aren’t going to emigrate for… because lots of people we come here thinking that because we have a little bit of money… We are going to have fun. We are going to do anything. This makes bad a place that has opened its doors to us. Above everything you have to respect the country that opens its door to us because sometimes we destroy something that isn’t ours. Despite that they have given us shelter, they have supported us, they have protected us and we come to do thing that aren’t so good. If we leave, if we want to leave our country for something better, to take a step up, not a step down. And you can always go forward with one, a, something fixed, right? At the least I have a goal to move toward, not back but forward. Julietta’s comments clearly blend the United States and the concept of a house with open or closed doors (notice the role of metonymy here, allowing us to understand doors as border policies). In this blend, when people give us shelter in their home, it is only natural that we should be respectful and not damage the house. While this metaphor provides a logical way for Julietta to conceive of the way migrants should treat the receiving country with respect, it is frequently used by anti-immigration groups to vilify migrants who have no hope of receiving the proper documentation needed in order to enter the country through official means. They then ‘construe legal immigration as a “front door” entrance to the house, while undocumented migrants are considered to enter through the “back door” and associated with deviousness and deceit’ (Hart, 2010: 138). Metaphors such as nation is a house ‘impose a certain logic on us’ in which everything is either inside or outside the container (Hart, 2010: 139). Thus, because we would not normally leave our doors wide open for just anyone to come in, the implication of the blend is that residents of a country (just like those of a house) should have the right to refuse entry to certain individuals by enforcing restrictive immigration policies. Although we cannot know the origin of Julietta’s conceptions of nation is a house, it is possible that she has picked up this metaphor from media or popular discourse related to immigration. We will now focus on metaphors related to language learning.

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As mentioned earlier, metaphors that relate to learning the receiving country language were a frequent theme in the data. Table 11.2 provides details about the different ways in which the language learning process (an important sub-category of the entire migration experience) was conceived by the participants. The dominant metaphor in talking about language learning was that of language being a graspable object. This ontological metaphor (in which an abstract idea is conceptualized as a concrete object) is not uncommon in discourse about language and is well documented in the literature (e.g. Velázquez, 2013). Below are a few examples of how language is seen as something you can grasp in your hands, keep, hold or lose, Carmelle: He was also saying the same thing, you know, don’t forget us, keep your culture, your language, especially the-the very, um, first thing was like study, go to school, go to school, go to school. Thinh: I went from Lakeview to Bow and that was around probably 3rd or 4th grade or something, that I really felt like I grasped the language at that time. Lack of proficiency in the receiving country’s language was also seen as a physical obstacle on the journey to integration, as Cristina points out when talking about her experiences in Spain and the US: Cristina: You know something that has been different from my experience in Spain and here is that, you know, even though in the beginning it took me a little while to get used to their accent and all that… and even if we use some words that are different, I – didn’t feel that that I suffered anything because of the language barrier. But here, because English is not my native language, I’ve had a lot of – a lot of things that have made it harder for me because of my language… And that – and that’s probably the most difficult – that’s probably the most difficult… thing… here. You know, so I haven’t suffered here like discrimination per say or anything that I did suffer in Spain. So that’s been more positive here, but I didn’t have the issues with language there that I do have here even in my own house because, you know, my husband is American and he – his knowledge of Spanish is limited, so… I feel that I’m, you know, that I’m the one that always has to sacrifice – and – and you know, I feel that I’m fluent in English, but – yeah. But I – but I’m more fluent, like in the things that I have studied. So, I can talk to you about second language acquisition (laugh) in English, right? When I want to talk about like my core feelings, like if I have a problem with my husband and we are arguing about something and I – and I really want tell him how I feel, I fall short on words

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Table 11.2  Metaphors with target domain language learning Metaphor Type

Source domain

Examples

Sums

Overall %

object

I grasped the language

21

40.3%

obstacle

I suffered because of the language barrier 11

21.1%

war

speak, like, you know, like a machine gun. 7

13.4%

person

The beauty of learning languages is kind of like living different lives.

8

15.4%

sign

My accent gives me away.

5

9.6%

52

100%

Dominant Secondary

Occasional TOTAL

a lot of times. And there’s nothing I can do about it, right? And – and that’s really frustrating. Cristina’s comment touches on the importance of being able to express oneself in a language and how often migrants feel at a great disadvantage because they cannot be themselves or come up with the words to say what they want to say. Some of the participants viewed learning the language to be so difficult that they used metaphors of war to describe language, as in the following examples, Chiharu: But then I don’t have this, you know, language ability to fight back. And also culturally, you know, I’m not sup- it’s re – I feel really uncomfortable to, you know, fight against my, you know boss, coordinator. So… feel like I’m always in this weak position, that… that my, where my supervisor always have… I think it’s basically they use my language ability and also cultural background, she knows that I don’t really fight against, you know… Yeah, and she, you know, speak, like, you know, like a machine gun, then, I – I, like (tatatatatatatata), then I cannot really have room to, you know, um… to say my point. Alessio: It [learning English] was like going through P.T.S.D. – it was a truly traumatic experience. Thinh: Well, I mean uh, mostly just the fact that it was a big struggle for us. We didn’t speak the language, my parents had to rely heavily on other

Summary of Dominant Metaphors/Metonymies in the Stories  171

people for translation. Um, I remember that for the most part, I just remember it was really tough for them. The above examples underscore the importance of language learning in the migration process. If language learning is perceived of as a war, understanding the ideological entailments that come with this metaphor is helpful in discerning how truly painful this process can sometimes be for migrants. In Chiharu’s case, the comparison of her supervisor’s language to a machine gun is particularly helpful in understanding the way that people often perceive speech when they have difficulty understanding it (tatatatatatatata – rapid sounds that don’t have meaning, or perhaps represent the sound of a machine gun firing). In addition, in a war, you have opponents engaged in a battle in which one side wins and the other loses. In Chiharu’s example, the enemy (her supervisor) employed a strategy based on Chiharu’s shaky language ability, Japanese cultural practices of indirectness and Chiharu’s acceptance of power distance (that is the extent to which members of an institution or organization accept and expect that power is distributed unequally) (Hofstedes, n.d.), knowing that she would be in a weak position to fight back. The fact that Chiharu perceived her supervisor’s speech to be like the sound of a machine gun is significant. The metonymy machine gun (which includes the mapping of weapon for sound of weapon and sound of weapon for speech) encompasses all of the thoughts and actions associated with a machine gun. The image of words being rapidly fired off one after the other just as bullets are fired from an automatic weapon is frightening, and comprises feelings of weakness, victimhood and loss of control that are often felt by newcomers that must learn a new language. Thus, truly breaking down this metaphor, its motivating metonymy and all the ramifications can help teachers understand how truly traumatic the experience of migration can be, especially when people are not proficient in the receiving country’s language. For adult learners at the university level, it becomes imperative for teachers to be aware of international students in their classes who might perceive their rapid speech as Chiharu (Ch. 11, p. 242) did – a machine gun – used as a weapon against them. Teachers should pay attention to the speed at which they speak, their use of idioms and make an effort to provide instructional delivery in multiple modes. In addition, it’s important to note the power difference that occurs when a student must approach a professor and is not able to articulate well his/her concerns. In these one-to-one conversations with students, teachers can make sure to check for comprehension frequently, write things down as well as say them, and be aware of cultural norms from the student’s culture of origin that might affect communication.

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Alessio’s description above is taken from a part of his interview where he talked about being asked to ‘shake hands’ with his partner in one of his first English classes. Although he laughs about it now, at the time, seeing the mirth on his teacher’s face, hearing her laughter when he and his partner waved their hands in the air, and knowing he had made such a great and embarrassing mistake was traumatic enough for him to compare it to a soldier’s Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. For Thinh, who was a young boy at the time (and also Carmelle, who earlier discussed how having to translate for her parents made her grow up suddenly), having to rely on others to translate, even for the most basic needs was a struggle that he remembers as being very difficult for his parents. For some participants, the war was not always the inability to speak or the process of learning; sometimes it was the way that people treated them based on their accent. The following examples illustrate how often accent (frequently combined with different physical characteristics) can be a basis for discrimination of migrants. Here, Antonia (who migrated from Chile to the US to study) talks about how people hear her accent, assume she is Mexican, and transfer stereotypes about Mexicans onto her. Once they find out she is Chilean, and she is a student, they begin to treat her better, and this bothers her, Antonia: For instance, some people from here think, okay, you are Latino, you are a Mexican, and they have very strong stereotypes about Mexican people, like, okay, you are illegal, and you are not smart because you are not a native… speak, you’re a… you don’t speak English very well, so you have a strong accent, and… it is a little uncomfortable, because I… I have Mexican friends. I have Guatemalan friends... In Spain, Cristina (who is from Colombia) experienced discrimination because of her variety of Spanish (and because of stereotypes related to her nationality), not how she looked, since physically she was no different from other Spaniards. Although she spoke Spanish, her Colombian variety of Spanish and cultural practices from Colombia (such as speaking to her boss in a very formal manner) were looked down on due to the historical colonial mentality toward Spaniards and negative stereotypes associated with Colombians (e.g. drug cartels, prostitutes). She reveals how accent is a potent signifier exposing difference, even when she spoke the standard language, Cristina: My accent gives me away. My way of speaking gives me away. The first time that I went to cut my hair there, the lady asked me if

Summary of Dominant Metaphors/Metonymies in the Stories  173

I was a prostitute… When she asked me, ‘Where are you from?’ and I said, ‘Colombia.’ ‘Oh, are you a prostitute?’ Like, just like that. Below, Kofi talks about how his accent, along with other physical characteristics, worked as a signifier of his non-Nigerian status. For South African students, Nigerians had become the default country of origin for Black non-South African foreigners; hence, any foreign Black instructor was immediately assumed to be Nigerian. Kofi: So every foreigner is a Nigerian until they find out that you’re not from Nigeria. So as far as the Blacks are concerned every foreigner is Nigerian. You know? And then the first class I had to teach, it was supposed to have 300 kids there. When I got there, there were 20 kids and apparently they thought I was Nigerian, so they all went to the other class. … later, one girl asked me so ‘Where are you from?,’ and I said ‘I’m from Ghana.’ And while I was teaching they were just whispering. I was wondering what was going on. They were debating that my accent is different. I’m not tall. My head is not. My head is round. I don’t have big mountains on my head. Yeah, and okay his head is round. It’s not oblong like Nigerian heads. He’s not too tall. His accent is different. So they were arguing among themselves and they didn’t want to ask where are you from and I said ‘I’m from Ghana.’ Tsk, I told you he’s not Nigerian. So I go to class the next day and the class is packed to capacity. As a Japanese woman, Chiharu talks about how her Asian appearance combined with her accent were signs of difference that acted as an impediment to her making American friends, Chiharu: If you are Caucasian looking, you might get lots of attention, and um… Partially my appearance, and also my probably speaking. I feel like I’m a lot better off if I could speak like Americans, you know. So that I have accent, you know, and I cannot really speak too well, so… Chiharu does not call it this, but what she is noticing is her place on the ‘sliding scale of belonging,’ which is largely determined ‘on the grounds of visible and audible sameness’ (Sarkar et al., 2007: 351). This visible and audible sameness or difference represents the intersection of the ‘subject-asseen and subject-as-heard axes’ (Crump, 2014: 217) in which ‘Whites will “hear” accent… if they can detect any other signs of a racialized identity’ (Hill, 2010: 397). Below, Chiharu talks about when she was a music instructor at the university that her students complained because of her accent, sometimes even before she was given much of a chance to speak,

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Chiharu: If I had a student who struggled then, a lot of times they say that oh, we don’t unde- I didn’t understand my profe-, my instructor, you know, she has a really strong accent, and she didn’t explain too well, you know. Like Chiharu, Prunelle (from the Democratic Republic of the Congo) also did not have an easy time making friends with Americans. In this excerpt, she mentions several times how she believes her accent was a sign that affected whether or not Americans wanted to become friends with her, Prunelle: I don’t really have any friends… Because, I think they just don’t want me to be friends with them, because they think I’m not American. And… I don’t have an accent like, American accent… and I don’t really speak good English for them, so… maybe that’s why. I don’t know. Uh, I’m get… I’m… I have, like, non-American friends. I have like some friends from different countries, like they… they’re not from here, like Americans. So, yeah. But it’s hard to have like a good friend from America, because they just, I don’t know, but I think they just don’t like to be close to someone who is not from America, or born here, or who just don’t have an accent… In the next example, Peter (who moved to the US from Jamaica) talks about adjusting to a different way of doing ‘school,’ but also about the intersection between race, identity and language, noting that people assumed that he should sound a particular way because of how he looked, Peter: Yeah, I guess it was, I mean going to school was kind of different. I mean you know, I – I was – I wasn’t used to testing by… uh multiple choice and stuff like that because in Jamaica everything was – was written, you had to get the concept and then you know, write out what the thing was. And also too, is answering questions in class and having an accent and everybody would turn around and look at me because I didn’t fit the image that – or sound what a person of my complexion should sound like, you know and stuff like that… I had more of a Jamaican-British kind of accent, and that doesn’t fit what somebody looks at me you know, whatever it was. As in Alessio’s story in Part 2, LangCrit (Crump, 2014) is particularly helpful here in understanding Peter’s reference to the social construction of language, identity and race. What Peter has noticed is how the boundaries of race, language and identity have been socially constructed by his classmates so that they associate a particular way of speaking with a particular race – which is not his. Peter reminisces about when he first

Summary of Dominant Metaphors/Metonymies in the Stories  175

migrated, acknowledging how the intersection of his race and his cultural background (including his accent) caused him to experience negative consequences. Peter: Yeah, it – it was kind of different, um, it’s not like I was not used to being around persons or Caucasians before because in my family, my great grandfather is from Ireland and so I had been around but I’d never been a minority and so it was a little bit different and the people looked at you differently and people – I wasn’t sure whether they were treating me differently because of my color or because of my culture or what, so it – it was – it, it was different, you know. And Jamaica’s more multicultural than it was here so that makes – that made a big difference as to how I perceived myself and how others perceived me and I you know, I thought at first some people didn’t think I was as intelligent as they were you know, and stuff like that… Quyen, like Peter, also noticed the capacity for accent to carry ‘the story of who you are’ (Matsuda, 1991: 1329) and the way in which people took it as a salient sign of difference, immediately changing their behavior toward her because of it, Quyen: But some people when they hear us start speaking you know, accent English, they started looking at us differently, they become cold… So but I think it’s normal because different people you know, they react differently, we cannot expect everyone to be welcoming and helpful… Up until this point, I have talked largely about the metaphors found in the data demonstrating from time to time the metonymies that largely motivated these metaphors and played an important role in their construction. Now, I will focus on the metonymies that do not involve metaphor but are used to refer to migrants. Metonymy is everywhere, but more often than not, the metonymies we use are so conventional we may not recognize them as such (Littlemore, 2015: 13). Metonymy is also ‘the underlying construal operation responsible for social stereotypes’ (Hart, 2010: 141). The process of metonymy can be seen during stereotyping when one subtype of a category (such as ‘illegal immigrant’) comes to stand metonymically for a whole diverse category (e.g. all migrants) (Chilton, 1996: 268). Ideology of the speakers or writers largely influences the chosen metonymies. The data analyzed for this book is that of talk, and not written discourse, and thus it is important to distinguish between the metonymies that were used by migrants to express how others referred

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to them from the metonymies they used to talk about themselves. Results from the metonymic analysis for this book illustrate this difference and can be found in Tables 11.3 and 11.4. These tables by no means represent all the metonymies used in the interviews (as metonymy is ubiquitous and not all metonymies are significant for the discussion in this book), rather, they look at what is particularly interesting for our purposes, that is, ways in which migrants are referred to by themselves and others, revealing much about their identity negotiation process during the migration and integration period. Table 11.3 informs us that the participants in this study perceive others to view them largely in terms of their nationality, race, ethnicity or birth location, and also in terms of their actions and legal status related to immigration. Below are a few examples of ways in which participants talked about how others perceive them. LiHua moved to Japan from China. Her comment refers to some of the anti-Chinese sentiment she experienced while living in Japan and how when others see her, they see her nationality. LiHua: Um… three years ago, maybe, I uh, had part-time work in Izakaya (Japanese restaurant). A consumer said, ‘I hate Chinese.’… So, I am very sad. Ken moved to Puerto Rico originally just to learn Spanish and study but then ended up getting a job and living there permanently as a professor. The Table 11.3  Metonymies to refer to migrants by others Metonymy type

Examples

Sums

%

NATIONALITY/ ETHNICITY FOR PERSON

 French, Africans, gringo Boricua, Asian

21

39.6%

LOCATION (of birth) FOR PERSON

foreigner, foreign, foreign kid

13

24.5%

ACTION FOR PERSON

Immigrant, rural refugee

7

13.2%

LEGAL STATUS FOR PERSON

Landed immigrant, legal alien, illegal, British citizen

6

11.3%

MISCELLANEOUS

Uncle, Becky, Communist, millionaires

4

7.5%

ATTRIBUTE FOR PERSON

non-native speaker, good kid

2

3.8%

53

 100%

TOTAL

Summary of Dominant Metaphors/Metonymies in the Stories  177

example below illustrates how he clearly does not think of himself as Puerto Rican, but other Puerto Ricans think of him as a type of hybrid, Ken: I feel, uh, I don’t feel Puerto Rican, but I feel that I’m not like my siblings, you know what I’m saying? Uh, and not… just like the way they do from Detroit uh anymore, you know I don’t really… being Puerto Rican, but I… a lot of my friends will call me uh, the gringo boricua. You know, like all my friends in Tuscon, I hung out with primarily all Puerto Ricans with the exception of the guys in my program and you know, ‘ah, mira el gringo boricua’ [look at the gringo Boricua]… This example demonstrates the complicated and dynamic nature of identity negotiation among migrants, as well as the way in which others view them. By calling Ken gringo boricua3 Ken’s Puerto Rican friends are acknowledging that he is White, but also that something about him is Puerto Rican. Most likely they call him this because he speaks the local variety of Spanish well, is familiar with Puerto Rican customs and associates largely with Puerto Ricans. Therefore, while they cannot deny his phenotypic characteristics and middle-class White background, by calling him gringo boricua they are allowing him partial entry into the in-group. Ken himself feels a similar way about his own identity, acknowledging that he is not Puerto Rican, yet he is not like his own siblings. In the example below, Calvin (who moved to Japan and married a Japanese woman) discusses how his life has changed since he migrated to Japan and how his wife’s perception of him as American has led to miscommunication between them, Calvin: I would say that you’re asking how my experience has changed me… uh, I think I’m [laugh]… I think I’m more patient now and more calm… and uh… gosh. I’ve really learned – I’ve really had to be calm and patient because I just don’t understand people and I don’t understand the culture, so if I were to react just all like in the moment, then, you know, I’d have some problems and I’ve just learned that I really have to see things – I really have to step back and look at the whole picture and take a more holistic view of each situation and try to understand people more and what are they really saying and really I have to be more aware of other people, I think I’m – I am more aware. Um, In Japan, there’s a phrase called KY, like Kuuki Yomenai, so it’s – it refers to somebody – it’s a negative um – if somebody says you’re KY, then uh, you can’t read the air.4 And I think in Japan I’ve really developed an ability – uh a better ability to read the air and pay attention to people’s faces, like the kind of the body language and their – their, um, facial expressions and then really listen to what

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they are saying. Uh, I have to – I can’t – like Americans tend to be more direct in our, in our, in our language and in our communication we’re very low-context communicators. Uh, you say what you mean and you mean what you say, but in Japan you know, you really have to listen and you have to see what people are saying and it’s not obvious. You know, and that causes problems with me and my wife if I can just say like, um she expects me to be more direct because I’m from America, so – and then I’m trying to – then I’m trying to communicate to her in a more high-context method. So, for example, if I’m looking for – if I lost my keys, um, she might – like and I want her to help me, I would say – I would say something like, ‘Oh, uh have you – you haven’t seen my keys around here have you?’ And maybe pace around the house saying, ‘Uh, gosh my keys, I thought I had them here.’ But she just kind of – she’ll just be sitting and doing something at the table or whatever, and I’ll get frustrated because I want her to help me – I’m putting out these signals like please help me find my keys, but – then I’ll say, ‘Why didn’t you help me find my keys?’ And she’s like, ‘Well, you didn’t say it directly to me, you know, I thought…’ So she expects me to be direct and I’m trying to – like we’re miscommunicating to each other all the time… she thinks because I’m American, she expects me to be direct. And, I’m trying to – I’m trying to accommodate her culture by not being direct. Do you understand what I’m saying? So, we have this – we’re always miscommunicating with each other even though we’re married, because I’m trying to adapt to her culture and she’s trying to adapt to my – you know, it’s just interesting when that stuff happens, you know… Above, Calvin notes that his wife often bases her own behavior on behaviors she has learned to index Americans (such as being more direct). By thinking of Calvin as American, she falsely expects him to behave in a particular manner while in turn, by thinking of his wife as Japanese, he associates particular discourse styles and high-context behavior with her, which leads to miscommunication. The result of two people attempting to accommodate each other’s conversational styles is often mass confusion, as Calvin points out. What is interesting about this example (and perhaps laudable) is that both Calvin and his wife are aware of the stereotypical communication styles of each other’s nationality, and they each attempt to accommodate the other. In many cases, with international couples, problems arise for the opposite reason. In addition to referring to migrants in terms of their nationality, participants in the study noticed that many people perceived of them respective to their country of birth. This then locates them in terms of inside or outside the container or house, which is metaphorically the receiving country. Terms such as foreigner and outsider not only refer to how

Summary of Dominant Metaphors/Metonymies in the Stories  179

others call the participants, but also how they are made to feel by others. Garrett is an American man who studied abroad in France and taught English in Japan, Korea and China, eventually settling in China. He does not feel that an American living in an Asian country will ever be considered an insider and discusses what would happen if he adapted local behavioral norms for standing in a line as a foreigner, Garrett: I – well because I can’t push because, uh, if you’re – if you’re Chinese, you can push but if you’re a giant foreigner, if you push then you’re the arrogant foreigner who – (laugh) uh thinks he can do whatever he wants. Garrett knows that whatever he does will be attributed to his outsider foreigner status and that, as a result, he must be extra careful with his actions. Alessio also acknowledged this same problem in regards to the incident with the student mentioned in his story. He recognizes that his only chance of fitting is dependent upon his ability to not do anything wrong, Alessio: The minute something goes wrong, I will always be an outsider. Below, Chiharu recalls how being Japanese was always seen as a negative thing, and because of this outsider status, she was always poked by students who took every opportunity to blame their lack of understanding of the material on her accent and associated foreignness. Chiharu: I do a lot. I, I think by teaching Japanese I felt that, oh, this is my – something I could do for the community, or, I feel like I’m, how do I say, I’m playing like a more important role, you know. And also, kinda, I gotta place in the US, you know. When I worked for the music department, school of music, then I always feel like I, I don’t fit in, in the US. You know, I always feel like outsider, you know, in a way, even though you know I work for them… For example, um, being a non-native speaker and being Japanese is always a negative thing, you know, work for – when I work in uh, uh, school of music, so, for example, if I had a student who struggled then, a lot of times they say that oh, we don’t unde- – I didn’t understand my profe-, my instructor, you know, she has a really strong accent, and she didn’t explain too well, you know. I was always poked like that, you know. The discrimination that Chiharu felt due to her nationality and accent (and also her race) is well-documented in the literature (Lee & Rice, 2007; LippiGreen, 1997; Rubin, 1992; Sweeney Plakans, 1994). Studies such as LippiGreen (1997) report the numerous instances where accent is used as a mask

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for racist behaviors that result in harassment and/or denial or termination of employment (also documented in Crump, 2014). A study conducted on international teaching assistants (ITAs) at American universities (such as Chiharu) found that undergraduates’ ratings of their ITA’s speaking ability were only weakly related to their proficiency scores (Rubin, 1992). Instead, ‘powerful ethnic stereotypes’ (related to how the ITAs looked but not necessarily how they sounded) in addition to bias in anticipation of grades they expected to receive were the major factors involved in how the students perceived their ITA’s speaking and teaching ability (Rubin, 1992: 512). Sweeney Plakans (1994) and Rubin (1992) also found that the types of courses that ITAs were routinely assigned to teach (such as courses in science and math departments designed to weed out students or that were a degree requirement) were a factor that contributed to their negative image. In order to counter these negative stereotypes and biases that students often have toward their ITAs (which often end up in them complaining about their accent, as in the case of Chiharu), Sweeney Plakans (1994: 147–148) recommends ‘intervention programs’ in which students are shown videos about ITAs and asked to role-play in the hopes of creating empathy and helping raise awareness of their biases or asked to visit their ITAs during their office hours. In Chiharu’s case, no intervention ever occurred, and eventually she was offered a position teaching Japanese, even though her background was in music and not language. She immediately saw the difference in attitude of her students toward her, since perceived language communication difficulties were no longer an issue, and students in the class had largely positive attitudes toward Japanese. The following excerpt illustrates the transformation of Chiharu’s perception of her Japanese identity from being a weakness to a strength as a result of her career change, Chiharu: I still remember that the very first day of my teaching, you know, the Japanese class – I entered the class just, was almost overwhelming the students all excited, and even after the class they want to talk to me. I’m like oh my gosh, this is so different. And, this is my sixth year of teaching Japanese, but no one complained about my English… So then, right now in Japanese, teaching Japanese, I feel like I could use this, you know, being Japanese and Japanese native speaker, I could use that as my, you know, skill, and my strength. Thus, as Chiharu’s example demonstrates, in-group members’ perceptions of migrants can have a great impact on migrants’ lives and on how welcome they feel in the receiving country. Metonymies that refer to migrants vary from country to country, and the terminology used by the local government and people and their

Summary of Dominant Metaphors/Metonymies in the Stories  181

metonymical associations are not lost on migrants. Below, Martez talks about why he prefers the terminology used to refer to migrants in Canada over that of the US, and how this affects his feelings of acceptance in society, Martez: Uh, it is for me it was quite uh… easy because I had an advanced degree, so it might not compare with other people, but um… They offer me the job and they – I have a letter of offer, so you show in the border and they stamp you and they give you a ‘landed immigrant’ status so you know, that’s a big difference between Canada and the United States. You, in – in the United States you’re a ‘legal alien’ in uh, in Canada, you’re a ‘landed immigrant.’ So, it’s a – so from that point of view you feel very welcome … into the country. Above, Martez notices how being landed is qualitatively better than being viewed in terms of his legal status and planetary membership (e.g. alien). Note that although there are few words more dehumanizing than being called an alien, this term is still prevalent in immigration institutions such as in the US. Besides official terminology used by the government to refer to migrants, Nya (from Chad) notices that because she comes from Africa, people in America immediately assume she is an illiterate refugee. As a doctoral student, she resents being immediately placed in this category once people learn she is from Africa. However, she does not blame them for this stereotype: Nya: Having somebody automatically think that you are a refugee from some rural place in Africa who doesn’t know how to read and write, kind of hurt. But after I stepped back, I understand that even those people, even the actions that they take or the words they say hurt are still well meaning. It’s based on ignorance not because they are mean. Above, Nya points out that not all migrants are economic migrants or refugees. Some students are of high or middle SES (socioeconomic status) and come from families of means with excellent educational backgrounds. Making assumptions because of countries of origin can be painful. In Nya’s case, coming from Chad, people immediately associated her with Africa, and then made the conceptual leap that she was a refugee and that she couldn’t read or write. Referring to herself as a Fulbright grantee, Nya felt the need to emphasize the academic and professional aspect of her identity in order to counter these stereotypes. Although she recognized that people don’t mean to be hurtful, it still hurt. We also need to recognize

182  Part 3: The Metaphors and Metonymies

that just because migrant students might come from high socioeconomic backgrounds doesn’t mean the journey will be easy. These students can also benefit from help and acknowledgement of the difficulties that migration and international study can bring. Assumptions of any kind about your globally mobile students can be harmful, thus a good rule of thumb is to ask lots of questions and make a genuine effort to find out about the student’s background so that you can find out what their needs are. In addition, teachers should make an effort to show their students that stereotypes and hurtful names connected to them will not be tolerated in their classrooms. We have now discussed the perspective of participants on ways in which others perceive them. Table 11.4 represents metonymies migrants used to talk about themselves. Table 11.4  Metonymies migrants use to talk about themselves Metonymy type

Examples

ACTION/PROFESSION FOR PERSON

55 refugee, graduate student, ELL learner, thinker, intellectual, HR Specialist, avid reader, breadwinner, travel participant, announcer, owner, non-conventional thinker

Sums

% 32.0%

NATIONALITY/RACE/ ETHNICITY FOR PERSON

Chilean, Latina, giant White person, little Asian boy, African kid, Russian, Yugoslavian, Chinese

50

29.1%

ATTRIBUTE FOR PERSON

free spirit, self-taught person, cosmopolitan person, drained, exhausted, tired boy, students, very confident, very self-conscious, human being, woman, very shy girl, international student, not married, hybrid

22

12.8%

LOCATION (of birth) FOR PERSON

outsider/slightly outside, a local, foreign, permanent foreigner, expatriate

20

11.6%

FAMILY ROLE FOR PERSON

Mother, very traditional Chinese wife, the only daughter

8

4.7%

LEGAL STATUS FOR PERSON

an F-1 visa, main citizen, American citizen, a legal resident, NAFTA

8

4.7%

POSSESSION FOR POSSESSOR

I was an F-1 visa, Fulbrighters, Fulbright grantees 5

2.9%

RELIGION FOR PERSON

Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Orthodox

4

2.3%

TOTAL

 

172

100%

Summary of Dominant Metaphors/Metonymies in the Stories  183

While some of the categories in Table 11.4 overlap with Table 11.3, the ways in which migrants view themselves is much richer than those found in Table 11.3. While there are still a large number of metonymies of nationality/race/ethnicity for person and location for person, there are many more ways in which migrants think of themselves, shown in Table 11.4, such as in terms of actions, professions, personality traits and family relations. For example, in contrast to the way in which Nya perceives others view her (e.g. refugee), she sees herself in terms of her career and her great accomplishments. Nya: Um, I came here as a graduate student… I am a Fulbright grantee. That is the main reason I came to the – to study in the United States. Michi notes below how publishing his first paper transformed his personal identity, Michi: But, I think that was important for me to succeed, that for one the affirmation that you do something as a 24-year-old, you know writing on Faulkner and philosophy or something and that someone who is experienced thinks this is actually worthwhile and good, you know that – that was certainly sort of the transformative – like how one thinks of one’s – how I thought of myself as a, as a thinker – as an intellectual, whatever you know. Another example of the incredible variety of metonymies used by migrants to describe themselves can be seen in Martez’s comment in which he talks about how his wife helped him to think of his disability as a strength, which revolutionized the whole way in which he thought of himself, Martez: Yeah, my wife. When we were studying she noticed that I have – that I was a nonconventional thinker and that I could not study like everybody else studies so, you know, so she said you know, you cannot memorize you have to understand stuff. So that made me a very avid reader, so I am a selftaught person – so everything I read – so if I get interested in a topic I just go deep, as deep as you can go until I understand it and then it makes sense to me. And then I can translate it. One more difference between how others view migrants and how migrants view themselves can be seen in the following metonymies that include ethnicity or geographical location. The interesting difference here is that while in Table 11.3, people referred to migrants in terms of their nationality only (e.g. Chinese, Japanese), many of the migrants referred to their own

184  Part 3: The Metaphors and Metonymies

nationality in identifying themselves, but they often included nouns that humanized them such as boy or kid, as in the next examples. Thinh: No, no, they just thought I was crazy, so, you know. A little Asian boy walking screaming his head off the whole time. Winston: You know, seeing, because it’s like, your typical ‘quote unquote’ – the American dream and I said, O.K., here I am an African kid here. Someday, I just want to sit back and say, you know what, I think I’ve also experienced the American ‘quote unquote’ dream… Chiara is an Italian citizen whose first migration experience was when she lived in Russia, but then she later traveled to the US to study and eventually married a professor from Argentina and is currently living in the US. In the following example, she demonstrates the complex and multidimensional way in which she views herself now, in relation to her migration experiences. Chiara: Yeah, yeah, and it was, you know, my problem back then, but now that I’ve lived here and I’ve seen how things can be easier instead of… I don’t know if I could stand that. But, so I’m trying to think of myself more, you know, every single day, uh, as a cosmopolitan person whose, you know, I got to live in Russia, I got to live in America, or I got to live in Italy for many, many years, and so I can combine all these, um… experiences and try to use them all, and also, try maybe to detach myself a little bit from, um, being solely and merely an Italian but try to integrate what’s the best that I can have from the American… and what, you know for me, of course for my standards what the best is. The next examples show how migrants often prioritize their identities in terms of their family relationships. It is important to note that there were no metonymies used by others to refer to migrants that acknowledged them in terms of family status. Lubna: I am a mother, I love my kids have education and have education. LiQin: Well, my mom was not so you know, like agree to that. She is more like want me to be with her. My dad was like it’s good for your future so just go ahead. So, yeah they are different… But my mom is like, I was the only daughter in the family, so she wanted me to be with her. Olga: But I think I met my husband, I really really met my goals and ideals that I want to have a family, and I just want to have that, feeling of closeness, I

Summary of Dominant Metaphors/Metonymies in the Stories  185

don’t know how to explain. But I think when I met him, I realized my purposes to be a mother, and to be a very traditional wife. The above examples illustrate the intricate, dynamic and multifaceted nature of migrant identity and the ever-changing ways in which migrants view themselves before, during or after the experience of migration. What is significant about the findings from this chapter is the difference between how the general public often perceives migrants and how they perceive themselves. Too many of the metonymies used by others to refer to migrants stereotype migrants and place invisible boundaries on their identities so that they fit neatly into a single category (e.g. Asian, Mexican) and are clearly placed outside the container where the in-group is located. The examples from this study demonstrate that migrants view themselves in much more complicated ways such as ‘graduate student,’ ‘breadwinner,’ ‘free spirit,’ ‘human being,’ ‘cosmopolitan person,’ ‘hybrid,’ ‘self-taught person,’ ‘Chilean,’ ‘Yugoslavian,’ ‘thinker,’ ‘intellectual’ and in many more ways than just ‘migrant’ or ‘immigrant.’ We must look at globally mobile people the way they see themselves (as revealed by metonymy analysis) – multi-dimensional, dynamic, so much more than just the experience of being a migrant. Being a migrant is only one small part of the participants’ lives, and only one small part of their identities. Knowing this, teachers must look at students for the whole person that they are, and not just the label of ‘ELL’ or ‘immigrant student’ or whatever term is used in your country. Taking the time to get to know our students can really make a difference in how we perceive them, and in the quality of their education, and so we must keep this multifaceted identity in mind when thinking and talking about our students. Studies such as this are important as they bring individual details to the public. In terms of teaching about migrants, fixed categories and ‘Othering’ will not change unless people have more interaction with migrants, and learn their individual stories. As Brazilian artist Vik Muniz states in his film Waste Land, ‘We do not like what we do not understand.’ Thus, teachers, activists and community members in general must increase opportunities for students to interact with migrants and to read migrant-authored stories so that students can understand their experiences and the ‘Other’ can be recognized as a facet of the increasingly multifaceted ‘Us.’ Our students must be taught to value complex diversity rather than assign oversimplified labels that emphasize otherness. In the next chapter, we compare metaphors found in the data to those found in media discourse.

186  Part 3: The Metaphors and Metonymies

Notes (1) The metonymy rainbow nation became popular in South Africa since Archbishop Desmond Tutu first used it to refer to the diversity of the people of South Africa from the original San inhabitants to the many people who migrated and settled there over the years (http://www.southafrica.net/za/en/articles/entry/article-southafrica.netsouth-africas-rainbow-nation). Thus, the double metonymies of color for difference and rainbow for happiness/unity (note that in the LGBTQ community this has a similar meaning, standing for the fact that people can be different and still love each other) lead people to a positive conceptualization of this country, one that emphasizes the coming together of many different types of people (just as many colors come together in harmony to make something beautiful in a rainbow). What Kofi notices, however, is that just as a rainbow is an optical illusion, caused by viewing water droplets from a certain angle relative to a light source, this metonymy is an illusion because it highlights the differences as being positive and beautiful while simultaneously hiding the fact that often there is not this harmony and happiness that the term implies. (2) Image-schemas are recurring patterns of our perceptual interactions and motor programs that give coherence to our experiences (Kövecses, 2006: 207). (3) The term ‘boricua’ is the Taino word for the indigenous inhabitants of Puerto Rico. Many Puerto Ricans refer to themselves as such because this term reflects the mixed background of many Puerto Ricans whose genetic profile includes Taino, African and European markers. (4) The term ‘Kuuki Yomenai’ (literally ‘can’t read the air’) refers to someone who has difficulty reading social situations, such as interpreting body language, taking hints, and lacking social ‘common sense’ (http://www.japan-talk.com/jt/new/kuukiyomenai).

12 Media Discourse vs. Migrant Discourse

Findings from this study have revealed some striking differences between the way in which migrants talk about themselves and their experiences and the way they are represented in media discourse. Table 12.1 compares the metaphors used in media discourse with those collected from this study. Major differences in types of metaphors found between media discourse and talk about migration by migrants themselves include the frequency of metaphors such as water, criminals and illness/disease which appear in both media and migrant discourse; in migrant discourse they only appear as occasional metaphors whereas in media discourse they are dominant ones. Furthermore, the majority of the metaphors in media discourse are negative while the opposite is true in the metaphors used by migrants themselves. Finally, in the metaphors that were the same (even though the frequency of use was different) such as water, war and criminals, the ways in which they were used were often qualitatively different. This qualitative difference provides an interesting look at how the two perspectives differ and can be seen in the following examples from each type of discourse. For example, in media discourse about immigration, water metaphors are largely negative, and blend migrants and migration with water, which results in the following mappings: water

à Migrants à immigration

flow of water

container into which water may enterà

Receiving country

Not only does this metaphor highlight a perspective that views migrants as a single mass, it privileges a view based on the topos (e.g. theme) of danger. Thus, the water found in these metaphors is dangerous flowing water that needs to be stopped, as in the following example: Britain is facing a nightly tidal wave of asylum seekers… (Hart, 2010: 156). 187

188  Part 3: The Metaphors and Metonymies

Table 12.1  Comparison of dominant/secondary metaphors found in media discourse and migrants1 with target domain migrants/immigration Metaphors from media discourse

Examples

Metaphors from migrant discourse

Examples

water

With illegal immigrants flooding into Britain…..2

water

It’s like putting a man in water who doesn’t know how to swim.

parasites/animals

…a big swarm of mosquitoes….3 hunt out the foreign worker…4

----------------------

--------------------

container

For as long as these lenient conditions continue, large numbers of illegal immigrants will continue to arrive on our doorstep.5

physical force/

…try to know a little bit in advance so that the shock is not that violent… …you feel the strong repulsion from the Black South Africans

war

The invasion of Britain by illegal immigrants continues unabated.6

war

I don’t have this, you know, language ability to fight back.

illness/disease

….infested with malaria and yellow fever germs.7

---------------------

---------------------

criminals

the government is reluctant to deport illegals….8

----------------------

---------------------

--------------------

------------------

journey

--------------------

------------------

cultivation

… it’s always a fruitful experience.

--------------------

------------------

container

…you have to put yourself in it and be part of it. …you have to respect the country that opens its door to us.

Negative

(nation is a house)

connection

Positive

(nation as a house)

I might have taken a different path.

--------------------

------------------

business

…I’m investing time and money all over again.

-------------------

------------------

natural wonder

It broadens your horizon. …search for greener pastures…

-------------------

------------------

visible object

…don’t grab… you know, the old things.

Media Discourse vs. Migrant Discourse  189

In contrast to water metaphors in media discourse (which are much more frequent than in migrant discourse in which they only appear occasionally), participants in the study did not view themselves as the water; rather, they perceived of the new country and culture as well as their own ability to integrate as the dangerous water, as in: à New country/culture à migrant ability to stay above water (swim) à integration/adaptation dangerous water

person put into water

Note the contrast between this mapping and the mapping from media discourse in which migrants are the water. The following examples demonstrate this metaphor. • It’s like putting a man in water who doesn’t know how to swim. He will learn to swim, which he would probably not do in his own pond, but if you throw a man overboard, in a foreign ship, this is what makes a person… (Sachin) • I still think that I could figure out a way to – like to not sink, right? (Cristina) Staying above the water in these examples means surviving and adapting to the receiving country; therefore, these examples correspond to metaphors used to talk about life experiences in general rather than the migrants themselves. water metaphors based on the view that migrants are like dangerous flowing water were largely absent from the discourse in which migrants talked about themselves. Another metaphor frequently found in media discourse was that of war. This negative view of migrants views them as the enemy invader, as in this example (which blends with another water metaphor): As Britain fights its own battle to stem the influx of illegal immigrants there may be lessons here for Mr. Blunkett. (Hart, 2010: 146) In contrast, war metaphors found in the data for this study represent a largely internal struggle in which the ‘enemy’ and ‘battles’ are what they have to leave behind, the cultural and linguistic information they must learn, or integration into the receiving society. The following examples illustrate how this metaphor manifested itself in the data: • Yeah. For, for, for… a long time, I guess, maybe a couple months or a year. And then, it’s just like, I’m struggling with myself. And then, I… I don’t

190  Part 3: The Metaphors and Metonymies

know when I start… accepting some, and then accepting a lot, and then I become, uh… active. I, I become actively, like, looking for things that, uh, that is different, that I, that I want to learn about America. And, and a lot of things I become embracing. (Qiang) • So the adjustment process for that was really traumatic… (Chiara) • The struggle for me was the language… (Ken) • I think first of all they need to know it is difficult. Nobody told me that it’s gonna be or easy, comfortable, no struggle. But they need to be willing to fight, you know to overcome different difficulties if they have a goal, they need to have a goal, they need to have a purpose. (Olga) The metaphor immigrants are criminals is also commonly seen in media discourse about migrants, particularly in the US. The example below incorporates the metonymy illegal aliens, which illustrates how metonymy is often used ‘as a device to present one’s own perspective or to influence the views of others’ (Littlemore, 2015: 99). The use of illegal aliens immediately places migrants in the Crime frame (as well as ‘Other’) and is often used covertly by politicians to increase support for anti-immigration policies. Four illegal aliens are arrested by Bay County Sheriff ’s deputies on Monday for string of home burglaries. (Catalano, 2013: 261) Although this metaphor was infrequent in the participant discourse, the few instances where it did show up usually referred to the way in which others viewed (or stereotyped) migrants, such as in Antonia’s example below: For instance, some people from here think, okay, you are Latino, you are a Mexican, and they have very strong stereotypes about Mexican people, like, okay, you are illegal, and you are not smart because you are not a native… speak, you’re a… you don’t speak English very well, so you have a strong accent. (Antonia) When migrants mentioned reference to legal status, it was often in the form of an adverb or adjective that modified their action as opposed to being in the form of a noun, such as in illegals. Julietta first identifies herself in terms of lacking the proper paperwork, but then she modifies her actions with the word illegally. Importantly, her use of this word modifies her coming rather than her description of herself as a person. I didn’t have papers to cross. I came illegally. (Julietta)

Media Discourse vs. Migrant Discourse  191

It is not surprising that migrants humanize themselves and other migrants in their own discourse, nor is it surprising that immigration discourse (particularly anti-immigration discourse) often does the opposite. What is surprising is how many people are unaware of the negative effects that the dehumanizing metaphors/metonymies have on peoples’ perceptions and how many people unconsciously use negative water metaphors and other negative metaphors to argue for immigrant rights (Catalano, 2016). Therefore, the main goal of Chapters 11 and 12 is consciousness-raising: by showing the ways in which migrants view themselves and the migration process, not only will we gain a greater understanding (and thus empathy) of migrants and what they go through, we will also begin to think more about the way in which we ourselves talk about immigration issues and how it shapes the thinking patterns of listeners and readers. The next section of the book will summarize the important findings of this study, as well as describe future directions for research.

Notes (1) The metaphors from media discourse were compiled from a summary of the metaphors widely found in immigration discourse research from Musolff (2015) and Wodak (2014), and discussed in Chapter 10. In contrast, the metaphors from participant interviews came from dominant and secondary metaphors found in this study in Table 11.1. Note that only dominant or secondary metaphors were included in the chart. (2) Hart, 2010: 144. (3) O’Brien, 2003: 43. (4) Santa Ana, 1999: 201. (5) Hart, 2010: 141. (6) Hart, 2010: 153. (7) O’Brien, 2003: 43. (8) Catalano, 2013: 262.

Part 4 Conclusion and Future Directions Without dialog there is no communication and without communication there can be no true education. (Paulo Freire)

193

13 Conclusion and Future Directions

The biggest contribution this book has to offer is its rich and detailed accounts of the lived experiences of migrants from around the world. Besides providing a glimpse of what migration is like, as well as how varied each individual experience can be, the stories provide cultural information that can inform teachers working with migrant students in various contexts. In addition, I hope that teachers are able to use the stories to dispel stereotypes about migrants and to teach others. Some of the many implications for teachers to be gleaned from the stories include numerous ways in which to adapt instruction to respond to the educational needs of migrant students and the knowledge that even small steps such as performing a kind act or recognizing the languages a student speaks or giving an award to a hardworking student can make a great difference in their lives. In addition, stories such as LiHua’s indicate a need for teachers to attend to political issues between students’ countries of origin and receiving countries, and to recognize that different types of migrants have different backgrounds and needs. Teachers could also benefit from attending to the explicit teaching of humor and intercultural competence, understanding and acknowledging the signifying potential of silence, the teacher’s role in helping students access services and knowing about human rights, the importance of explicit L1 maintenance for children of migrants and being aware of the vulnerability of migrant students to bullying and psychological conditions such as depression. Additionally, teachers need to be aware of the stigmatization and social isolation that can sometimes occur with students identified as ELLs (and undocumented students in particular). Moreover, we need to recognize the traumatic experience that family separation and reunification can often be for migrant students and the fact that globally mobile people are not always able to understand or identify with experiences of migrants that have different circumstances than their own, which sometimes results in a lack of reflexivity and empathy for those that come from more desperate 195

196  Part 4: Conclusion and Future Directions

situations and lack the privilege to migrate with authorization. Finally, teachers must consider the intersection of race, language and identity and its effects on the migrant experience as well as the way in which racial discrimination negatively transforms many migrant experiences for those that look or sound different from local populations. Keeping this in mind, teachers (and those who work with migrant students in general) must remember that migrants do not see themselves as only related to the migration experience – it is only a small part of who they are. Interview data revealed that migrant identities are hybrid, complex, multifaceted and constantly changing or blurring and so much more than just their experiences moving from one place to another and all that comes with it. This book has also shown that much can be learned from attending to the metaphors and metonymies that migrants use to talk about their experiences. First and foremost, metaphor and metonymy reveal much about the unconscious conceptualization of life’s events, actions and people. By looking at the words migrants use to talk about their experiences in terms of metaphor and metonymy we can understand better how they perceive certain things, and thus feel increased empathy for what they are going through, and adapt our own teaching accordingly. For example, knowing that many migrants view language learning as a war, in which teachers’ utterances are experienced as the sounds of the rapid fire of a machine gun, we can pay more attention to the speed in which we give instructions and increase wait time for students to respond to our questions. In addition, knowing that migrants often feel as though their bodies are puzzle pieces suspended in a type of limbo in which they are never fully whole, we can make sure to attend to their hybrid identities, paying close attention to the labels we place on students and the stereotypes about one particular nationality that we have. Finally, reflecting on the fact that many migrants perceive migration as a journey that results in personal cultivation helps us to respect the process, and to grasp that migration does not end once a student settles in the new country. Instead, it is a lifelong evolution and progression that has ups and downs, hills and valleys. Most of the participants in this book expressed incredible gratitude to their receiving countries and the people that have helped them in their quest for growth, personal fulfillment and a better life. We must also remember that this cultivation not only occurs with those that migrate, but it encapsulates all those around them who will benefit from their multilingualism, multiculturalism and differing perspectives of the world. We must also consider that migrant students do pick up on how others refer to them. Metonymies such as ‘illegal alien’ or ‘foreigner’ matter to

Conclusion and Future Directions  197

migrants and send messages about how they are perceived. For example, Martez noted that the label ‘legal alien’ in the US versus ‘landed immigrant’ in Canada affected his own feelings of being welcome, resulting in him preferring Canada to the US. Dehumanizing legal labels such as ‘legal alien’ are still part of the immigration jargon and are justified as such, even though they are widely recognized for their dehumanizing potential. Even though as educators we may not have the power to legally change these labels, we can avoid them and subvert the system by refusing to use them. The term ‘illegals’ or ‘illegal immigrants’ has been used so much in immigration discourse it has become naturalized (Santa Ana, 2002) and thus people often think of it as the only way to refer to migrants that have come without the proper paperwork. A good practice for teachers to engage in when looking at metonymies like ‘illegals’ used to refer to migrants, is to break them down into their stand-for relationship. That is, ask yourself, what is being highlighted and what is being hidden in this label? What does the word ‘illegals’ replace? In this case, ‘illegal’ is an adjectival noun that transforms from an adjective ‘illegal’ and becomes a noun meaning a person who is illegal (Can a person be illegal? Something illegal is against the law, how can a human being by him/herself, be against the law?). Obviously, that person possesses many qualities, but in this metonymy, the immigration/legal status has become the person. In doing this, we lose all the other details such as why this person came (probably for work, to be able to make a better life for their children, as in Petra’s case) and other activities they are engaged in (e.g. work that many others don’t want to do). What has been deleted from this expression is the human aspect. We know this by performing a simple mapping that traces this transformation: A person who comes to the country illegally à A person comes illegally à An illegal personà An illegal. What has been deleted in this grammatical metonymy is ‘A person’ and their actions. What is forefronted is the illegality and the humanity is taken out. Thus the metonymy is legal status for person. I hope that this book has helped teachers to realize that taking the time to de-construct these labels and the perspectives they are privileging is a valuable practice to engage in that can result in increased reflection on one’s own way of speaking and how it influences thought. A final overarching theme that results from the metaphor analysis is how different the way that migrants talk about themselves are from how media discourse portrays them. Participants in this book saw migration largely as a positive experience. In contrast, studies of media discourse on

198  Part 4: Conclusion and Future Directions

migration expose a largely negative representation of migrants and migration and feature metaphors of criminality, water and war. Reflecting on these differences leaves us with several things to think about. First, we need to be careful that we are not letting media discourse influence the way we think about our students. Rather, we should let our perceptions be shaped by the interaction of our knowledge from scholarly sources and our experiences (which are hopefully frequent) with migrant students and their families. Second, we need to help our students understand and question what they read about in terms of immigration discourse. For example, there are several participants in this book that were unable to understand why someone might migrate without proper authority to do so. If we give students lots of opportunities to interact with others from different migration situations and hear about their experiences, we can help students (and the general public) to understand more why someone might make this choice or other choices. Thirdly, we must look at the different ways that migrants view the metaphors of war (in terms of the struggle to fit in and to learn the language) and water (not feeling safe, the new culture is unsafe water) as opposed to media discourse in which immigrants are the water and the invaders in a war against the country. In the stories from the participants, these metaphors expose fear on the part of the participants (e.g. migrating is like being thrown into a wild ocean), and a desire for safety and acceptance in society. This book has just scratched the surface in terms of the educational value of hearing detailed stories about immigration experiences from the people who experienced them, particularly for language teachers but also for any teacher of migrant students. More research is needed on the ways in which increased globalization and migration has affected our classrooms and the ways in which educational responses to migration can be more inclusive of migrant students. For example, how can increasing multilingualism of students be used as a resource and how can multilingual pedagogies serve these students better? Furthermore, scholars in the field should continue to explore countries not traditionally thought of as countries of immigration (e.g. Jamaica in this volume), taking both quantitative and qualitative approaches to comparing migration experiences in many countries around the world. I would like to conclude by leaving teachers with my own future plans related to this book. One of the projects that I am hoping to see to its fruition in the near future is the Migrant Dance Project. The aim of this project is to turn the stories from this book (many of which did not appear in the book, but perhaps will appear in future books) into dances. The idea is to take the dances to schools across the country as part of dance workshops

Conclusion and Future Directions  199

designed to teach children about immigration, and to provide a more visual way of representing the stories. After the embodied performances of the stories, students will be invited to read a story and create their own dances to be performed for others in the school. Then students will engage in conversations about what they learned about migrants and migration, in the hopes of creating understanding and empathy. The main research goal of this project will be to gauge the potential of dance and movement as a springboard for the deliberation of contentious issues and a neutral ground from which students can bond together, learn to trust each other and create more open and civil conversations about divisive social issues. I have only begun this project and I have great hopes for it in the future. I also imagine that teachers and people who work with migrants will find creative ways to use this book for their educational purposes, sharing it with migrant students as well as students and teachers who need and want to learn more about transnational voyagers. Finally, this book serves as a reminder of the incredible resources that migrant students are, bringing a diverse array of languages, cultures and experiences into the lives of all that work with them. If their continued presence is embraced, it could lead to better intercultural communication and a more peaceful world.

Appendix A: Methodology

In the narrative research that forms the basis for this book, 77 participants shared their stories with me or various graduate assistants (listed in the acknowledgements section) from 2011 to 2014. Data consisted of in-depth semi-structured and open-ended interviews (Guion et al., 2011) of 30 minutes or more, which were audio recorded with the iPad app QuickVoice. Interviews were conducted in English, Spanish, French, Chinese or Italian, depending on the interviewer’s language abilities and the needs of the interviewee. The IRB at our institution approved participant consent when individuals read the information about the study and agreed to be interviewed. Identifying information about each participant was not taken, as it would have greatly limited the number of willing participants due to the fact that many of the participants were undocumented. Thus, although member-checking occurred with participants who volunteered to be contacted further, member-checking was not possible for many of the participants because I was unable to contact them after the interview. Participants met the purposeful sampling criteria of being a migrant (see Chapter 2 for my definition) who has lived in the receiving country for at least one year, is at least 19 years old and has agreed to be interviewed. The interview protocol was designed to elicit responses about which participants felt comfortable speaking and which allowed for reflection on the immigration process in its entirety, in addition to allowing participant voices to be heard. Thus, interviews more closely resembled conversations. Probing questions were asked by the interviewer to clarify and allow for more detail, but because of the vulnerability of many of the participants (e.g. many were undocumented, living without proper authorization to be there, or they had experienced trauma related to the events recounted) interviewers carefully read participants’ verbal and non-verbal signs to make sure they were never forced to talk about information which they felt uncomfortable disclosing. The following questions formed the basis of the interviews: 200

Appendix A: Methodology  201

(1) Why did you come to ____________________? (2) Tell me the story of your departure from your country and the journey to __________. (3) Tell me a memorable experience you have had after arriving in _________________. (4) Describe your life now. Has it changed? And if so, how? (5) What would you like to tell the world about the experience of human migration? Is there anything that you would like people to know? Interviews were conducted in 12 countries, labeled ‘destination countries’ because they were the countries where the migrants moved to, and not where they were born. Destination countries included Italy, Spain, Germany, Canada, United States, South Africa, Jamaica, Indonesia, Puerto Rico,1 China, Japan and Belgium. These countries do not include other places where some of the participants previously lived, but such countries and experiences there are included in the stories. Destination countries (DC) (and thus interview sites) were selected based on two or three criteria: (1) Convenience (2) Countries where there is a current increase in migration or (3) Countries where little research on migration to these countries has been conducted. The countries selected for interviews were chosen on the basis of convenience in that I was able to conduct interviews there as a result of my travels or because I was based there (in the case of the US) or because of graduate students who were able to conduct interviews in these countries. In some cases, the country was chosen as a site for interviews because of a recent increase in the number of migrants arriving (e.g. Italy, South Africa) and other times because of a lack of research done on migration to these countries (e.g. Jamaica). There were a total of 41 countries of origin (aka countries where participants were born regardless of where they ended up). Countries of origin included Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Botswana, Brazil, Cameroon, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Germany, Ghana, Honduras, India, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, South Korea, Lesotho, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Syria, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Ukraine, United States, Venezuela, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. The data included 77 participants in total.

202  Talking About Global Migration

Once interviews were transcribed, they were translated into English (if necessary) by myself or my assistants and imported to MAXQDA (qualitative software analysis (1989–2012)). Interviews were then analyzed in two phases, and for two different purposes. The first phase was to code the interviews for themes such as language issues or integration. Focused coding was then applied to the most frequent or significant codes which were used to develop salient categories such as humor and language proficiency. These categories were determined to be those that made the most sense according to the data corpus (Saldaña, 2013). In other words, the focused coding helped me to decide what to talk about at the end of each chapter. Results from the thematic analysis are discussed at the end of each of the selected stories told in Chapters 3 to 8. For the second phase of analysis, a metaphor analysis was conducted of the participant interviews (Todd & Harrison, 2008). This involved first manually reading the entire interview file in which initially obvious metaphors and the metonymies leading to these metaphors were extracted. After this initial coding, the pre-determined codes were documented in MAXQDA, and the entire file was coded for pre-existing metaphors (that is, metaphors that had already been identified). In addition, In Vivo codes were applied to the data as they surfaced through additional analysis to indicate new metaphors/metonymies not found in the first iteration of coding. Codes were color-coded in the data file and lexical searches and www.google.com searches were utilized to provide evidence for the importance of coding relevant lexical items (e.g. searching for a word to find its most common semantic domain aka ‘battle’ might occur mostly in the semantic domain of war). In addition, metaphor and metonymy (words that highlight certain things while backgrounding others) categories were compared to pre-existing literature on metaphorical analysis (e.g. CharterisBlack, 2014; Fauconnier & Turner, 2002, Kövecses, 2006; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, Todd & Harrison, 2008) to cross-check and standardize terminology. For triangulation purposes, my graduate assistant involved in the analysis and I met regularly to discuss and dialog about the metaphor/metonymy categorizations and later, a third reiteration occurred in which I re-examined the data manually another time to make sure that no metaphors were missed. The linguistic realizations for each metaphor (and the metonymies leading up to them) were then placed into a chart detailing dominant, secondary and occasional metaphors. The findings from the metaphor analysis (including these charts) can be found in Part 3 of the book, where a discussion of the meaning of metaphor and metonymy, and their importance to understanding immigration, occurs. In addition, in Chapter 12, these metaphors are compared to metaphor analysis of discourse about immigration and immigrants.

Appendix A: Methodology  203

Note (1) Because of Puerto Rico’s status as a territory of the United States (and not a state), people that have moved from the US or other countries to Puerto Rico will be considered migrants as defined for the purposes of this book in Chapter 2.

Appendix B: Resources for New Migrants

US www.welcometousa.gov https://www.justlanded.com/english/United-States/USA- Guide/Moving/USImmigration http://www.uscis.gov/tools/green-card-resources/welcome-united-states http://www.amazon.com/Survival-English-101-Living-America/dp/1484931327 http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/pi/AdultEd/englit.html http://www.globaltalentbridge.org/toolkit/pdf/SupportingSkilledImmigrantsToolkit. pdf

EU http://ec.europa.eu/immigration/ https://www.euimmigration.org/ http://www.immigration-residency.eu/

UK http://www.ukimmigrate.co.uk/ http://www.anglotopia.net/uk-immigration/ https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/wales/law-and-rights/immigration/ http://www.workpermit.com/uk/work_permit/obtaining.htm

South Africa http://www.southafrica.info/travel/documents/immigration.htm#.VUOJP2RViko http://www.dha.gov.za/index.php/immigration-services https://www.intergate-immigration.com/

204

Appendix B: Resources for New Migrants  205

Resources for Undocumented Migrants Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM) (http:// picum.org/en). This non-governmental organization (NGO) aims to promote respect for the human rights of undocumented migrants within Europe. Undocumentary (http://www.undocumentary.org/en/). This site documents the daily realities faced by undocumented migrants living in Europe. Association for Legal Intervention (http://interwencjaprawna.pl/en/projects/forundocumented-migrants-rights-in-central-europe/). This organization (among other things) enhances the protection of undocumented migrant workers from labor exploitation and provides legal assistance. Nowhereland (http://www.nowhereland.info/). This site improves services for undocumented migrants in the EU.

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Index

Acceptance 12, 36, 171, 181, 198 Access 2–3, 12, 37, 63, 71, 86, 91–93, 121, 123, 125, 146, 195 Adapt 4, 96, 110, 102, 114, 162–163, 178, 195–196 Adaptation 58, 71, 75, 138, 157–158, 163, 189 Adventure migrants 7, 32–33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 43 Adventurers 15, 33, 97, 122, 132 Advice 5, 88, 91, 111, 116 Afghanistan 6, 13, 53, 59, 63, 201 Alessio 139–150 Arabic 51, 56, 74, 76–77, 138 Assimilation 37, 126 Asylum seeker 7, 11, 13, 45, 47, 49, 51, 53, 55, 57, 59, 61, 63, 89, 187 B.E.E. Status 103 Badr 7, 12, 14, 72–77 Belgium 8, 14, 109–114, 121 Bertha 7, 12, 14, 64–72, 77, 98 Bosnia 8, 13, 27, 45–50, 101, 160, 201 Bosnian Croat 47, 49 Bosnian Serb 47, 49 Bullying 123, 128, 195 Carmelle 7, 12, 14, 78–79, 81–84, 86–88, 149, 162, 165, 169, 172 China 7–9, 13–15, 41–44, 73, 114, 129–130, 155, 158, 162, 167, 176, 179, 201 Circle of Silence 119 Citizenship 38, 59, 116, 118, 120, 136, 142 Cognitive load 84, 89 Conceptual blending theory (CBT) 19

Conceptual integration network (CIN) 19 Conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) 18 Congo 7, 8, 14, 78, 80, 81, 82, 110, 174, 201 Construal operation 17, 21, 175 Critical Language and Race Theory 146 Cuba 95, 97 Cultivation 12, 41–42, 72, 133, 164, 189, 196 cultural and linguistic identity are puzzle

pieces 148 Cultural load 84–85 Culture 2, 7, 11–12, 15, 31–38, 41–42, 44, 56, 58–59, 73–76, 78, 80, 82–84, 86, 88, 91–93, 96–97, 99, 105, 112, 114, 122–128, 130, 135, 136, 138, 145, 150, 154–155, 157, 161–165, 167, 169, 171, 175, 177–178, 189, 198–199

Democratic Republic of the Congo 78, 174 Depression 38, 85, 86, 88, 111, 127, 195 Dijana 12, 13, 20, 45–50, 57, 63, 98, 149, 160 Dominant metaphors 7, 10, 23, 153, 155, 157, 159, 161, 163, 165–167, 169, 171, 173, 175, 177, 179, 181–183, 185 Economic migrants 7, 11, 95, 97, 99, 101, 103, 105, 107, 109, 111, 113, 115, 117, 119, 121–122, 127, 139, 181 Education 2–9, 11, 35, 37, 38, 42, 56, 68, 69, 70, 75, 78, 84, 85, 89, 92, 95, 98, 102, 118, 119, 129, 131, 132, 143, 150, 154, 162, 168, 184, 185, 193 Educational aspirations 69 ELL 80, 81, 84, 91, 92, 182, 185

218

Index 219

Emma 7, 12, 15, 56, 122–128, 165 Empathy 4, 54, 57, 86, 101, 113, 120, 126, 180, 191, 195, 196, 199 English Language Learner 91 Erasure 49 Expats 11, 15, 33, 97, 122, 132 Family-reunion/Child migrants 64, 93 Family-Reunion/Child Migrants 7, 64–65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, 83, 85, 87, 89, 91, 93 Foreignness 91, 179 France 6, 7, 14, 73, 74, 113, 139, 141, 179, 201 GED 116 Germany 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 33–36, 38, 57, 74, 99, 101, 201 Ghana 8, 13, 14, 102–107, 157, 173, 201 Globalisation 207 Globally mobile 4, 5, 6, 11, 22, 127, 182, 185, 195 Hui 9, 12, 15, 129–132, 155–156 Humor 12, 50, 57–58, 195, 202 Identity 2, 12, 35, 59, 98, 108–109, 112, 115, 146, 148–149, 153, 166–167, 173–174, 176–177, 180–181, 183, 185, 196 IED 52–53 Illegal 25–27, 56, 117, 25–126, 154, 172, 175–176, 188, 189–190, 196–197 Immigrants 56, 61–62, 66, 70, 72–74, 114, 125, 154, 188, 189–191, 198, 202, 204 immigration is a force 88, 162 immigration is a journey 58, 138, 153, 154 immigration is an illusion 71, 72, 77 immigration is cultivation 41, 153, 162 Imran 7, 13, 51–58, 63, 126, 149, 156 Independence 145–146 India 8–9, 13–14, 39–41, 105, 107, 201 Intersection 12, 146, 173–175, 196 Iraq 7, 13, 51–55, 59, 113, 154, 201 Italy 4, 6, 8, 9, 13–15, 35, 47, 59, 61, 62, 99–101, 108, 139, 141, 142, 145, 184, 201 Jamaica 4, 8, 9, 13, 14, 39–41, 77, 174, 198, 201 Jane 8, 14, 109–110, 114–121, 137, 160–161

Japan 7–9, 13–15, 42–44, 73, 89, 122–125, 127, 133–136, 138, 154, 176–179, 186, 201 Journey 5, 11–12, 18, 22, 31, 54, 58–59, 63, 70, 82, 85–86, 96, 115, 122, 126, 138, 153–161, 169, 182, 196, 201 Kofi 8, 12, 14, 102–109, 121, 132, 157–159, 173, 186 L1 maintenance 191, 76, 77 language is an object of value

Language attrition 37

language learning is war

Language load 84

92

148

languages are buildings 39 Latino 69, 70, 76, 118, 146, 172, 190

138 LiHua 7, 12, 13, 42–44, 176 Linguist 4, 52, 55 Linguistic complexities 100 Linguistic determinism 137 Love and/ or marriage Migrants 7, 11, 129, 131, 133, 135, 137, 139, 141, 143, 145, 147, 149

learning cultural norms is a journey

Mafia 61, 62 Mare nostrum 61 Media discourse 7, 10, 11, 24, 25, 27, 185, 188–191, 197, 198 Metaphor 7, 17–19, 21–23, 132, 151, 153–186, 188–191 Metaphorical linguistic expressions (MLEs) 18 Methodology 5, 6, 8, 13, 21, 100, 118, 149 200–202 Metonymy 5, 7, 10, 13, 15, 17, 19–23, 25–26, 28, 30–49, 148, 151, 153, 155, 157, 163, 168, 171, 175–176, 182, 185–186, 190, 196–197, 202 Mexico 7–9, 14, 64–67, 71, 115–116, 133, 159, 161, 201 Michi 8, 11, 13, 33–37, 39, 149, 163, 183 Migrant Dance Project 198 Migrants 3–8, 10–15, 22, 24, 27, 30–31, 33, 35, 37–39, 41–45, 50, 56–79, 81–83, 85–89, 91–93, 95–99, 101, 103, 105, 107–109, 111, 113–115, 117–122, 125–127, 129, 131–139, 141, 143–150, 153–154, 157, 161–163, 165–168, 170–172, 175–178, 180–185, 187–191, 195–198

220  Talking About Global Migration

Migration 1, 3, 8, 11, 12, 62, 131, 201 Miljan 8, 13, 20, 45–50, 63, 98, 149, 160 Misi 8, 14, 50, 95–98 Morocco 7, 14, 72, 74, 75, 77, 201 Nao 8, 12, 15, 133–138 nation is a house 168, 188 Newcomers 3, 12, 71, 145, 171 Nigerian 104, 107, 173 Pakistan 4, 9, 13, 59, 61, 63, 201 Participants 6, 9–11, 13–15, 21–23, 28–31, 33, 56, 60, 63–64, 89, 97, 100, 101, 114–115, 122, 149, 153–156, 160–161, 163, 164, 166, 169–170, 172, 176, 178–179, 182, 189, 196–198, 200–201 Pashtun 59, 63 Petra 8, 14, 115–119, 126, 164 Privilege 35–37, 125, 127, 196 Race 12, 102, 114–115, 117, 125, 146–147, 174–176, 179, 182–183, 196 Rainbow front 107, 108, 158 Reflective practice 87 Reflexivity 12, 102, 107–108, 126, 132, 195 Refugee 7, 9, 11, 13, 45, 47, 49, 51, 53, 55, 57, 59, 61, 89, 126, 160, 176, 181–183 Refugee/Asylum seeker 7, 11, 45, 47, 49, 51, 53, 55, 57, 59, 61, 63, 89 Regret 59, 60 Religion 20, 45, 46, 48, 49, 114, 115, 147, 182 Religious tensions 113 Return 7 reuniting is re-birth 50 Rights 4, 12, 61, 68–69, 71, 116, 144, 159, 160, 192, 195, 204–205 Roma 26, 62, 108 Romanian 26, 75, 108 Rome 59, 60–62, 79 Sachin 9, 12, 13, 39–41, 189 Silence 12, 59, 60, 87, 88, 119, 195 Sojourner 13, 97 Source 154, 170

South Africa 4, 7–9, 13–14, 71, 95–98, 102, 104–109, 114, 120, 132, 156–158, 186, 201, 204 Spain 7, 8, 14, 72, 74–77, 85, 111, 141, 164, 166, 169, 172, 201 Spanish 72–77, 80, 100, 112, 143–144, 146–147, 169, 172, 176–177, 200 Stigmatization 91, 195 Study abroad 7, 8, 41, 42, 133, 141 Syria 3, 8, 13, 53, 54, 113, 201 Target 12, 18, 52, 126, 139, 147, 154, 170, 188 Terminology 7, 10, 11, 13, 15, 180, 181, 202 Thailand 89 Thinh 9, 14, 88–94, 169, 170, 172, 184 Third culture kids/TCK 7, 11, 122, 123, 125, 127, 128 Ticking time bomb 106–108, 132, 158 Totò 9, 14, 99–101 Tracking 92, 113, 204, Transnational 3, 6, 10, 12, 98, 127, 139, 199 Types of migrants 4, 7, 10, 11, 13, 15, 126, 195 Ukraine 8, 14, 109, 110, 111, 160, 201 Undocumented 11, 13, 64, 118, 119, 120, 126, 168, 195, 200, 205 United Kingdom 75, 102 United States 3, 4, 27, 33, 45–46, 49–50, 51, 55, 64, 74, 76–78, 89, 101, 109, 112, 115–116, 122, 129, 131, 133, 136, 139, 144, 155, 160, 166, 168, 181, 183, 201, 204 Vietnam 9, 14, 82, 89, 91, 93, 94, 164, 201 War 3, 6, 8, 9, 20, 25, 26, 27, 43–50, 52, 59, 60, 71, 77, 93, 103, 108, 132, 139, 148, 154, 160, 170–172, 187, 188, 189, 196, 198, 202 Zimbabwe 8, 14, 95, 96, 98, 106, 201