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This book examines the correlations between language behaviour and happiness amongst communities of migrants, and addresses the overarching question of whether language can affect wellbeing.
Zi Wang takes an innovative look at migration and wellbeing by examining the crucial role language - a quintessential part of the international migration experience - plays in migrants' wellbeing. Drawing on case studies from Chinese and Japanese-speaking communities in Germany, as well as secondary survey data on the general migrant population, Wang shows that proficiency in both host country and heritage languages is associated with robust enhancements of migrants' subjective wellbeing. He argues that acquisition of host country language and the preservation and promotion of heritage culture should not be portrayed as a zero-sum game by stakeholders in host societies. Instead, we ought to consider the unique experiences of migrants in order to fully comprehend the ways in which they experience, evaluate, and pursue happiness in a host society.¿
Presenting a novel approach to the study of migrants' wellbeing, this book will be of interest to scholars and students of area studies, education, international migration, sociology of language, and wellbeing research.
List of contents
1. Language and migrants’ wellbeing: An overview 2. Language, nation states, and minorities 3. Migration-induced diversity and a framework to study language and wellbeing of migrants 4. Europe’s top migrant destination and two dynamic East Asian communities 5. Effects of host country language skills on migrants’ wellbeing 6. Effects of heritage language skills on migrants’ wellbeing 7. Heritage language maintenance in educational contexts: The role of community-based heritage educational organisations 8. Language ideologies in current policies: Issues and benefits of mainstreaming migrant multilingualism 9. Epilogue: Migration and wellbeing from the language perspective
About the author
Zi Wang is a Marie Curie Fellow at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilisations (INALCO) in Paris, France. His research on comparative education, language, migration, and wellbeing has received funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG research grant) and the European Commission (Marie Curie Individual Fellowship).
Summary
This book examines the correlations between language behaviour and happiness amongst communities of migrants, and asks whether language can affect wellbeing. It will be of interest to scholars and students of area studies, education, international migration, sociology of language, and wellbeing research.
