Swedish or English? Migrants' experiences of the exchangeability of language resources

Abstract

Patterns of transmigration emerging as a consequence of globalization are creating new and complex markets for communicative resources in which languages and language varieties are differently valued. In a Swedish context, where lingua franca English can facilitate communication but where monolingual norms prevail and Swedish is positioned as the key to ‘integration’, the purpose of this study is to examine English-speaking migrants' experiences of opportunities to use Swedish and English in communication. Interviews were conducted with 14 recently arrived migrants with English in their repertoires. Drawing on participants' experiences of language use in institutional contexts, analyses focus on the influence of value assessments, orientations to ideal-type norms, processes of self-surveillance and the effects of discursive positionings. While migrants' language choices are understood as a consequence of structural conditions, attention is also drawn to the ways in which such choices are flexibly negotiated. Analyses shed light on participants' creative and critical capacities and how, in their language choices, they evaluate, relate to and resist macro-social structures. Different varieties of English are shown to offer different communicative opportunities and not all are equally exchangeable. Opportunities to use English also differ as a consequence of the intersections of discursive positionings.

Keywords:

• migration
• English as a lingua franca
• global English
• language choices
• language repertoires
• Sweden

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers of this paper for the many important insights they have offered and Susan Samata for introducing me to the work of Jürgen Straub. I would also like to thank the fourteen students who took part in the study.

Notes

1. In the European Commission's Survey on Language Competences (European Commission 2012) more 14- to 15-year-old students in Sweden than any other country were assessed to be in the CEF B2 ‘upper intermediate user’ category for reading and listening. In a survey carried out by language education provider EF, Swedish participants were ranked first among 54 participating countries.

2. In the 2005 Eurobarometer, Europeans and their Languages (European Commission 2005), in response to the question ‘do you think knowing other languages than your mother tongue is, or could be very useful for you personally?, Sweden topped the list of countries with 99% of respondents expressing agreement. When asked which language was most important, 97% said English.

3. Gauged as around or above the midpoint on a line ranging from ‘only basic phrases’ to ‘like a native speaker’.

4. Three participants (Babak, Galina and Safia) were interviewed once due to leaving the program and illness.

5. Because the aim of interpretive analyses is to make sense of the content of participants’ accounts, a detailed transcription of prosodic aspects of recordings is not required.Transcripts generally include notes rather than coded representations of notable non-verbal utterances such as laughter and significant pauses (Smith, Flowers, and Larkin 2009, 74). Here significant pauses are indicated by ellipses (…). Laughter and self-correction are noted in square brackets. Reported speech is presented in single quotation marks. When participants use the Swedish names of institutions in interviews in English, a translation is provided.

6. It should be noted that workplace practice periods had not begun at the time most interviews took place.