Changing identities: The role of language in migration: A life-course perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15135/2018.6.1.1-13Abstract
This paper investigates the interrelations between language, identity and migration through the retrospective viewpoint of two European Jewish migrants arriving to Israel in the late 1940's, whereby their individual migration experiences and the concomitant change of their main languages coincide with a larger scale attempt at forging a new national identity in the then newly established State of Israel. Based mainly on the analysis of the interviews but also drawing on Social Identity Theory and the Ethnolinguistic Identity Theory it is suggested that language may be - and in this case has been - used as a means to establish a new identity and distance oneself from an older, unwanted one. Finally, some parallels with other migration contexts are considered and ideas for future research are suggested.References
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