Approaches to Migration, Language and Identity: Setting the Scene

Abstract

The study of migration, language and identity has developed and is being investigated in various disciplines at the same time. While different research fields have foregrounded the investigation of different research questions, it can be observed that more or less similar approaches are applied in the varying disciplines. As researchers from different disciplines are often not aware of this, there has been a lack of dialogue between them to date. The focus on approaches applied by various disciplines when studying aspects of migration, language and identity therefore lies at the heart of this volume. In fact, the volume grows out of an international conference that brought together researchers from different disciplines that were concerned with investigating migration, language and identity, and which aimed at stimulating inter- and cross-disciplinary discussions on research methods related to the topic. In what follows, we focus on selected existing theories and methods from the fields of language and identity as well as language and migration (for selected relevant studies see for instance Joseph 2004; Llamas & Watt 2010; Schwartz et al. 2011; Preece 2016; Regan et al. 2016; Canagarajah 2017). Thereafter, couched in the previous overview, the contributions to the volume will briefly be presented.