‘I Said I’m Young You Know I Can Plan Something Good You Know’: Understanding Language and Migration Through Time

Abstract

Applied linguistics has started to consider the importance of time for the understanding of meaning-making, for example in the conceptualization of chronotopes, or in stressing the relevance of speed and entrepreneurial views of the self for migrants. This study takes a step ahead by starting from the concept of memory as mobile, following Michel de Certeau (1990), and looking at the different ways in which the experience of time plays a role in living and recounting migration. Focusing on the journey of a young African from Italy to Germany and then reluctantly back to Italy, this article points to the relevance of time as projected (marked by [un]awareness of possible developments), personal (based on relationality), and influenced by concrete circumstances (events and processes). The findings also unveil tensions between planning and the unforeseen for tactics concerning language, highlighting the role of future projections.