Language and (in)hospitality

Abstract

Based on a long-term ethnography of Sub-Saharan African migrants in Cape Town, South Africa, this article examines how language as ideology and practice shapes the rules of guesting and hosting and helps (re)configure the on-going positionalities of both the nation-state-defined-host and the foreigner-guest, making murky the distinction between the two. The key notion of hospitality developed here is examined as practices rather than as identities. I argue that this theoretical shift makes it possible to unsettle the host and guest positions by not positing them a priori or conceptualizing them as immutable. It likewise makes it possible to deconstruct the categories imposed by the State and by which scholars and policy makers alike abide, such as the dichotomy between migrants and locals. At a broader level, the paper draws attention to the Occidentalism that has plagued academia, particularly in the work done on migration. I show how the South African case challenges many scholarly assumptions on language and migration overwhelmingly based on the examination of South-to-North migrations, which do not adequately represent worldwide migrations.

Multilingualism and activism in Italian studies

“…In a reflection on linguistic hospitality based on her experience in the South African context, Cécile Vigouroux (2019: 46) asks ‘What if the nation-state-defined-host would learn the language of the foreigner-guest? How would it reframe each other's positionalities, their respective rights to belong, and the locale they both inhabit?’.…”

L’hospitalité en milieu associatif : entre idéal et praxis. Imaginaire postcolonial et relations entre les participants à un cours de français

“…Si les sciences du langage se sont peu intéressées au rapport étroit entre langage, hospitalité et colonialisme, l'approche sociolinguistique est néanmoins particulièrement féconde pour explorer cette question (Del Percio, 2018 ;Vigouroux, 2019). En effet, elle permet de décrire, dans leur dimension langagière et interactionnelle, le maintien, la production et la transformation de rapports de pouvoir et de s'interroger sur leur caractère postcolonial (Rosa et Flores, 2017).…”

Constructing multilingua franca scales

“…Scholarly interest in African migration, especially in linguistic practices and identity formation in interactions with locals in host nations, has focused more on African migrants in Europe and the US and less on those who move within the continent (Vigoroux, 2019), obscuring the fact that most Research on intraregional African migration will provide insight into language practices emerging from a significantly different sociopolitical and sociolinguistic context. Such studies will contribute to theorising on concepts such as assimilation and should include factors influencing the learning of the host country's language(s).…”