Exploring the intersections of language ideologies and affect: The case of multilingual ‘returnee’ women in Turkey

Abstract

This study explores the discursive construction and negotiation of exclusion and belonging, at the conceptual intersection of language ideologies and affect. Focusing on a group of multilingual ‘return’ migrant women of Turkish heritage, who were born, raised, and educated in Germany in Turkish migrant families and later settled in Turkey as highly-qualified adult professionals, the paper delves into the complexities of their lived experiences of languages. Based on in-depth interviews with eight multilingual women with diasporic upbringings in Germany and now residing in Turkey, the paper argues that the construction of authentic membership and the sense of (un)belonging is achieved through intensive affective engagements with standard and prescriptivist language ideologies in Turkey. It is further discussed that prevailing hegemonic language ideologies in both diasporic and local contexts create unique discursive sites of a marginalized and gendered vulnerability for the multilingual ‘returnee’ women in the study.