"Discourses of Migration and Belonging: How Language Shapes the Return-Thinking Processes of Ethiopians in Canada" in Clinical Social Work Journal
This study examined how 15 Ethiopian-Canadian immigrants define and express their post-migration intentions. Specifically, this paper explores how the linguistic and cultural features embedded in language inform their return-thinking process. This paper contributes to emerging scholarship that expands the dominant conceptualization of language and migration to include a focus on how language becomes integral to the experience of migration through beliefs and value systems. Particularly, this paper argues that it is essential to recognize the multifaceted nature of migration, language, identity, and transnationalism and to recognize how migrants’ agency in straddling two distinct societies shapes their return-thinking process.
Lorne Foster is a York University Research Chair in Black Canadian Studies and Human Rights and Professor in the School of Public Policy & Administration. His teaching and research interests include anti-Black racism in law enforcement; discrimination in public and social policy, policy reform, human rights, and social justice.
Other publications from this author include:
- "Multilingual Research: Reflections on Translating Qualitative Data" in The British Journal of Social Work (2020)
- "Learning Through Pictures: The Integration of Reflexive Photography in Social Justice Education" in International Research in Education 8 (2), 57-76. (2020)
- Racial Profiling and Human Rights in Canada: The New Legal Landscape (2018)
- Workplace Diversity and Human Rights Primer: Building Inclusive Organizational Practice and Culture (2018)
- Labour and Human Rights in China and Canada. APDR Working Papers Series, Vol. 4: Trade and the Right to Labour (2017)
- Writing Justice: Voicing Issues in the Third Media, Multicultural History Society (2011)