THE COMMODIFICATION OF LANGUAGE IN MIGRATION

IN the last few weeks, I have been writing about language and labor migration. Today, I want to discuss how language is commodified in migratory contexts. I have argued, as with many scholars of language and migration, that language is an essential element of migration. But I go on to say that language is also among the goods that move in migratory and mobility contexts. As such, there is value ascribed to language. Language has, therefore, become a commodity in migration because language skills are considered human capital, as they satisfy three key characteristics: they are productive in the market, are costly to produce and are embodied in persons.

Languages (and language varieties and accents, for that matter) carry certain values given to them by society, albeit sometimes unconsciously but also unjustly. In other words, some languages, language varieties and accents may be more valued than others. The more desirable ones would have much higher prices than others. French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu calls this valuing of languages "linguistic market" or "linguistic marketplace." At this point, I want to quote distinguished linguist Deborah Cameron, who has this to say:

"Rather than taking language for granted as the ordinary, unremarkable medium of social interaction, corporations are increasingly seeing it as a resource to be actively managed. It becomes less like air — something you cannot live without but do not usually have to think about or pay for — and more like money, a commodity with a market value, whose careful management yields predictable rewards."

Needless to say, English is the most valued language in international migration. Indeed, English is the language of international mobility, at least in the present. No other language comes close to English in this respect. While Spanish, French, Portuguese, Mandarin and Arabic could possibly get aspiring migrants a job in one or two countries, the ability to speak English would not only get them to more countries and more jobs, but also to better-paying jobs. This means that English could demand a higher price than other languages. And this is one of the reasons the Philippine government has repeatedly pointed out the advantage Filipinos have over other nationalities simply because Filipinos can speak English.

And not only do Filipinos speak English; we speak English in a manner or way, or better yet, in an accent deemed more acceptable, if not more intelligible, than some other nationalities. But while Filipino-accented English is valued in the global labor market, there are other accents, or other Englishes, that are more valued than Philippine English. For example, in English language teaching, while Filipinos are already becoming more popular globally as English teachers, Americans, British, Australians, Canadians and New Zealanders are still preferred more over Filipinos. This time, I want to refer to esteemed Filipino linguist Ruanni Tupas and his work on what he calls "unequal Englishes." He has written extensively on how the pluralization of English — or what I have mentioned as "world Englishes" several columns ago — has resulted in inequality in how varieties of English are accepted and, relevant to our discussion today, valued. While the world may honor the diversity and plurality of Englishes, there remains a certain hierarchy as to which varieties will get paid higher than others.

This is how languages, language varieties, and accents are commodified in migratory contexts.

Ariane Macalinga Borlongan is one of the leading scholars on English in the Philippines and is also doing pioneering work on language in the context of migration. He is the youngest to earn a doctorate in linguistics — at age 23 — from De La Salle University. He has had several teaching and research positions in Germany, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland and Singapore. He serves as a consultant to the Oxford English Dictionary. He is presently an associate professor of sociolinguistics at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in Japan.

2024-07-06T16:14:18Z dg43tfdfdgfd