Commodification of language in migration and transnational contexts

Abstract

In this “globalized” world, mobility is an impetus for the proliferation of non-governmental institutions (NGOs). Urry (2007, 6) points out that issues of movement, of too little movement for some or too much for others of the wrong sort or at the wrong time, are it seems central to many people’s lives and to the operations of many small and large public, private and non-governmental organizations. Social inequalities within and across our societies foster the creation of these institutions that are often transnational in their scope. They are social spaces that are attached or disattached to governments in varied ways, levels and occasions. Drawing on a critical sociolinguistic ethnography, this report focuses on a study of the complex ways of how language and other expertise needs associated to Cape Verdeans are commodified in the officially trilingual Luxembourg. Cape Verde, a small West African archipelago nation-state (10 islands), in the Atlantic Ocean (cf. Pardue, 2012), gained independence from Portugal in 1975. It is estimated that diasporic Cape Verdeans (mostly in the USA and Europe) outnumber those residing in the archipelago (about 500,000 people); this also led it to be described as a ‘transnational archipelago’ (Batalha & Carling, 2008). Cape Verdean migration to Luxembourg started in 1960s, via Portugal when labor contracts between Portugal and Luxembourg were signed. As Cape Verdeans held Portuguese citizenship at that time, they started to re-emigrate to Luxembourg (Laplanche & Vanderkam, 1991). Today, although reliable numbers are missing, there is a significant Cape Verdean presence in Luxembourg as the largest non-European “community” (Statec, 2016). Here, I argue that the connection of language issues of Cape Verdean migrants and the “Lusofonia” politics, as a niche market, i.e. ‘what makes a set of consumers distinctive’ (Heller & Duchêne, 2012, 9), are a transnational effect, a problem for the migrants and a chance for capitalizing on this “problem” of the migrants. This process is often entangled and produced both at the individual level by migrants themselves (e.g. through entrepreneurship), and by (transnational) NGOs through the Lusofonia (cf. Arenas, 2005) of Cape Verdeans, i.e. by considering Portuguese and/or Creole as their first language. Although Portuguese is not an official language in Luxembourg, one can “make a living” almost exclusively using and speaking this language. This is due to the high proportion of Portuguese speaking migrants (i.e. Lusophone migrants) which by nationality forms over 17% of the residents (see Statec, 2016), and their transnational practices. Their presence is