[lingtalks] Melissa Moyer- Friday 4/21- Workshop on Langugae Ideology and Change

[asnyderf@weber.ucsd.edu]

University of California, San Diego

Workshop on Language Ideology and Change in Multilingual Communities*
(Anthropology and Ethnic Studies)
sponsored by IICAS

presents a colloquium by

Melissa Moyer
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona


"Language, Migration and Citizenship: Multilingual practices in a Primary
Health Care Site in Catalonia"


Friday, April 21, 2006 2:30 p.m.
SSB 105 (Anthropology Conference Room)


A reception will follow at 4:00 in the Spiro Library of the Anthropology
Department, SSB 269.  Open and free to the public.


Abstract:
       The movement of populations across national boundaries is coming to
be one of the main challenges that nation-states face from within
their boundaries. In this era of globalization, migration no longer can be
understood as a one-time displacement. The connectedness of today’s
societies brought about by the development of communication technologies,
cheaper and easier communications makes contact with a country of origin
easier for migrants. States are forced to deal with the diversity in
language, culture and identity in democratic ways. This study looks at
how, within nation-states, citizenship is regulated by the type of access
granted migrants to public resources such as health. Language becomes a
key element in the negotiation of citizens’ rights. A study of a health
care clinic in the Catalan-Spanish bilingual city of Barcelona shows the
way migrants are challenging nationalist ideologies on language and
citizenship. The interest in the study of a specific country such
as Spain is its location as a nation-state with ethno-linguistic
minorities in the European Union context. It is a case that is
traversed by the tensions around internal homogeneity that is being
challenged from above by supra-national entities and from below by the
mobility of persons across national boundaries. The research is based on a
two-year ethnographic study carried out by the author between 2002-2003 at
a primary health care clinic in a multicultural neighborhood of Barcelona.
The practices of both health care providers and immigrants mainly from
South East Asia(Pakistan and India) and Northern Africa (Morocco, Tunisia
and Algeria) are analyzed. The findings discuss the contradictions
between actual everyday practices of multilingualism and the
language/health policies of state and regional sociopolitical
entities.


*The Workshop on Language Ideology and Change in Multilingual Communities
brings together anthropologists, ethnic studies specialists, and linguists
to discuss change in linguistic structures and patterns of use by members
of minority language communities in a variety of world settings.