Language, Labour and Migration

Language, Labour and Migration explores two fundamental aspects of the migrant experience through a multi-disciplinary lens which combines the research of leading academics at the cutting edge of their fields. This latest volume from the centre for the Study of Migration brings together the work of anthropologists, economists, geographers, historians, political scientists and medical practitioners. Essays explore topics which include the role of mother tongue as a bridge to assimilation, the racialization of immigrants and refugees through language, the patterns of resistance undertaken by lascars, the experience of black British seamen in the eighteenth century, health advocacy in the twentieth century and the way in which cyber-space is being used to rediscover ethnic identity in the twenty-first century. Other essays examine Chinese labour in France during the First world war, employment opportunities for those deficient in the majority language and poverty in old age. All provide new and at times controversial, insights into the problems of language and labour in an alien society.

Barnet Shine Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Centre for the Study of Migration at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London.

Contents: Introduction, Anne J. Kershen. Language: Mother tongue as a bridge to assimilation?: Yiddish and Sylheti in East London, Anne J. Kershen; Do not give flowers to a man: refugees, language and power in twentieth century Britain, Tony Kushner; Shamrocks growing out of their mouths: language and the racialization of the Irish in Britain, Bronwen Walter; Health advocacy in medicine, Veronica L.C. White; Becoming a Diaspora: the Welsh experience from Beulah Land to Cyber-Cymru, Wayne Parsons. Labour: I asked how the vessel could go: the contradictory experiences of African and African Diaspora mariners and port workers in Britain, c. 1750-1850, Ian Duffield; Patterns of resistance: Indian seamen in imperial Britain, Shompa Lahiri; From Shangdong to the Somme: Chinese indentured labour in France during World War I, Paul Bailey; It's not working: refugee employment and urban regeneration, Alice Bloch; Are the UK's ethnic minorities at a disadvantage when they get older?, Mahmood Messkoub; Index.