Contesting language policy for asylum seekers in the Northern periphery: the story of Tailor F
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Contesting language policy for asylum seekers in the Northern periphery: the story of Tailor F Sari Pöyhönen1 · James Simpson2 Received: 8 August 2019 / Accepted: 1 August 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract This article is about navigating asylum, employment and language policy in a new country as an asylum seeker. Through the story of one individual, we show that profound inequalities are exacerbated when forced migrants are limited in their choice of language they might study or use. The individual is Tailor F, an Iraqi man seeking asylum, and the country is Finland, officially bilingual, with a majority language (Finnish) and a minority language (Swedish). Finland’s official bilingualism does not extend evenly to language education provided for asylum seekers, who are taught Finnish regardless of the region where they are placed. Upon arrival, Tailor F was housed in a reception centre for asylum seekers located in a Swedish-dominant rural area of the country. Through our linguistic ethnography we examine how he navigates multilingually in his early settlement, his current work and his online life. We relate his story to explicit and implicit official bilingualism in Finland and discuss his lived experiences in relation to the contexts of asylum policy and employment. Tailor F’s story shows how, through his practices, he has contested implicit language policy for asylum seekers in order to gain membership of the local Swedish-dominant community, achieve a sense of belonging, and potentially realise his aspirations for the future. Keywords Asylum · Bilingualism · Language education · Linguistic ethnography · Rural superdiversity · Finland · New speaker
* James Simpson [email protected] Sari Pöyhönen [email protected] 1
Centre for Applied Language Studies, University of Jyväskylä (JYU), Jyväskylä, Finland
2
School of Education, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
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S. Pöyhönen, J. Simpson
Introduction In this article we investigate how one individual navigates asylum, employment and language policy in a new country, one where they have the temporary and precarious status of asylum seeker, but are nonetheless hoping to build a new life. The country, Finland, is officially bilingual, with a majority language (Finnish) and a minority language (Swedish). Our argument is that profound inequalities are exacerbated when forced migrants are limited in their choice of language they might study or use. Our insights derive from a team linguistic ethnography Jag bor i Oravais (I live in Oravais), located in and around a reception centre for asylum seekers in a Swedish-dominant rural area of Finland, and ongoing since 2015. The project explores the ways people seeking asylum tell about their everyday lives, while they wait for a decision on their asylum claim, and considers these lived experiences in relation to wider political and social structures such as asylum policy and employment. To advance the argument of this article we analyse the significance of the Swed
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