(C)overt linguistic racism: Eastern-European background immigrant women in the Australian workplace

Abstract

Linguistic racism explores the varied ideologies that may generate and endorse monolingual, native, and normative language practices, while reinforcing the discrimination and injustice directed towards language users whose language and communicative repertoires are not necessarily perceived as standard and normal. This article, thus, investigates linguistic racism, as a form of existing, but newly defined, racism against unconventional ethnic language practices experienced by Eastern-European immigrant women in the Australian workplace. Our ethnographic study shows that, once these women directly or subtly exhibit their non-nativism, through a limited encounter with local expressions, non-native language skills, and ethnic accents, they become victims of covert and overt linguistic racism in the form of social exclusion, mockery, mimicking, and malicious sarcasm in the hierarchical power environment of the workplace. As a result, these migrants can suffer from long-lasting psychological trauma and distress, emotional hurdles, loss of credibility, and language-based inferiority complexes. We, as researchers, need to highlight the importance of combatting workplace linguistic racism and revealing language realities of underprivileged communities. In that way, we can assist them in adapting to host societies and help them regain some degree of power equality in their institutional environments.

Monglish in post‐communist Mongolia

“…Moreover, the emphases of these concepts are highly ideologised, pre‐fixing particular language users’ practices as nameable categories under broader categories of the nation‐state, race, and/or ethnicity (Canagarajah & Dovchin, 2019; Li & Hua, 2013; Tankosić, 2020). Overall, these concepts still operate within the framework of monolingual ideologies since they support the notion that codes still come from and move towards different language systems – these distinct linguistic codes are then rarely considered to belong to the appropriated language but to the appropriating one (Canagarajah, 2013; Tankosić & Dovchin, 2021).…”

The link between linguistic subordination and linguistic inferiority complexes: English as a second language migrants in Australia

“…ESL-migrants’ linguistic features often reveal their ethno-cultural identities, which eventually leads to social comparisons, ‘in which the in-group [dominant society] is perceived as better than that of the out-group [ESL]’ (Bhatia, 2018, p. 423). Therefore, linguistic subordination often co-occurs with linguistic racism , which, in addition to language-based discrimination, also discriminates against minorities’ ethno-racial, social, and cultural background (Tankosić & Dovchin, 2021). In other words, linguistic subordination becomes, not exclusively but predominantly, directed at marginalised groups, whose linguistic repertoire uncovers their identity, hence simultaneously making them victims of linguistic racism.…”

“…However, previous research, which evaluated the level of different accent comprehensibility, showed that mixed accent groups achieved a higher intelligibility than dominant speakers (Smith & Nelson, 2006), while it is the prejudice of biographical accents that prevents dominant speakers from actually hearing what others are saying (Lippi-Green, 1994). Biographical accents can often have a negative impact on credibility and employability (Lee, 2018), and cause mocking and social exclusion (Dovchin, 2019b; Tankosić & Dovchin, 2021). ESL-migrants in Australian institutional and noninstitutional settings are often judged, stigmatised, and bullied for speaking broken and inadequate English (Dovchin, 2019a, 2019b, 2020a).…”

“…That Alla has to volunteer for more than a month in order to gain much prized work experience in Australia, indicates that many Australian employers value and prefer nativism, which leads to inferiority of those who do not hold this attribute, and feelings of superiority for those who do (Bhatia, 2018). This nativism also leads to Alla’s experience of linguistic racism (Tankosić & Dovchin, 2021) as others perceive her English as out of place, illegitimate, and a clear sign of her migrant background (Rosa, 2016), as it negatively affects her employability and perceived credibility (Lee, 2018). These workplace rejections fostered a hegemonic English environment, stigmatising and marginalising Alla and showing her a demeaned image of herself (Taylor, 1994).…”

“…Underlying this unwillingness to listen to Serene is the unspoken accusation that she is too difficult to comprehend, which leads to Serene feeling linguistically subordinated and excluded from participating in Australian society (Piller, 2016). Serene also becomes a victim of linguistic racism (Tankosić & Dovchin, 2021), as it may not only be her language that is scrutinised, but also her ethno-racial background, which becomes apparent even before she starts speaking. In her case, linguistic racism and linguistic subordination co-construct one another and lead to stigmatisation of the one thing that is still not legally acknowledged – language.…”