Immigrant ‘new speakers’ in minority language contexts : a case study of Cape Verdeans in Galicia

Abstract

Globalisation and changing migration patterns have changed the linguistic climate in Galicia. What was once a bilingual society, with Galician and Spanish, has become a multilingual one. This thesis focuses on a community of Cape Verdean immigrants living in a small fishing town in northern Galicia. The Cape Verdean immigrants at the centre of this study are ‘new speakers’ of both Spanish and Galician, while at the same time native speakers of Portuguese and Cape Verdean Creole. These complex multilingual repertoires have interesting implications both for the process of integration into the host community and for the formation of identity. In this thesis I examine the language practices and ideologies of teachers and Cape Verdean students in two Galician secondary schools. Drawing on ethnographic data such as interviews, focus groups and non-participant classroom observation, I explore the challenges that are faced by immigrant ‘new speakers’ who are in the process of acquiring new linguistic resources and negotiating their identity. Specifically, I look at how contrasting ideologies of linguistic authority (Woolard, 2008, 2016) can impact their position as ‘legitimate’ speakers (Bourdieu, 1991), and how this in turn can impact their access to certain linguistic markets (Bourdieu, 1991; Pujolar, 2007)