The Languages of Black Africans in England

Adolescents’ and emerging adults’ judgments and justifications for social inclusion or exclusion of language-outgroup members: Language is just part of the story

“…Language was used most frequently as the justification, which mainly reflects participants' concerns about communication difficulty caused by language. This is similar to the findings that refugees in Germany (Beißert et al, 2020) and immigrants in England (Mitton, 2011) faced different levels of social exclusion because of their different German and English language skills. The difference from the abovementioned findings is that in the current study, participants' own foreign language skill explains why they were more inclusive of an English speaker than a Japanese speaker or Korean speaker.…”

“…Immigrants in China may find it hard to be included in the city (Zhu, 2016), and reports indicate that they tend to socialize within their own language groups (Wang, 2015). It is common for new immigrants to live in areas with established communities to be close to people from the same country and language group (Mitton, 2011). International students can also experience many challenges due to language and cultural barriers (Yeh & Inose, 2003).…”

“…There is no unique bias against English speakers, but since it is the most widely studied foreign language in China, English speakers might enjoy some privilege among Chinese adolescents and emerging adults. Because existing studies have already found that spoken command of the host country’s language predicts the speakers’ exclusion status (Beißert et al, 2020; Brinton & Fujiki, 2017; Mannila & Reuter, 2009; Mitton, 2011), the non-Chinese speakers were all described as only speaking their native language when interacting with the Chinese speakers in the survey. Thus, inclusion/exclusion choices of the participants will not reflect their attitudes towards the non-Chinese speakers’ Chinese proficiency; instead, they will likely reflect their attitudes towards the language they speak or the language group they belong to.…”

“…A few recent studies have examined exclusion based on language, with findings indicating that language is an important indicator for inclusion in England (Mitton, 2011), Finland (Mannila & Reuter, 2009), the US (Mulvey et al, 2018), and in Germany (Beißert et al, 2020). Research in England found that African children and adults of different language sub-groups face different rates of social exclusion due to their varying levels of English proficiency (Mitton, 2011). According to their self-report, Somalis faced the biggest language barrier and were the most socially excluded by the major language groups, followed by Ghanaians (only 35% of the Ghanaians surveyed spoke English at home).…”

“…According to their self-report, Somalis faced the biggest language barrier and were the most socially excluded by the major language groups, followed by Ghanaians (only 35% of the Ghanaians surveyed spoke English at home). On the other hand, Zimbabweans and Nigerians, who faced only slight language barriers, integrated much better (Mitton, 2011). Research on adult immigrants in Finland also found that Estonians were less excluded than Russian speakers because the former had a better command of Finnish (Mannila & Reuter, 2009).…”