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Bilingual call centers at the US-Mexico border: Location and linguistic markers of exploitability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 January 2013

Amado Alarcón  and
Josiah McC. Heyman
Amado Alarcón
Affiliation:
Business Administration Department, Univiersitat Rovira i Virgili Avinguda de la Universitat, 1,43205 Reus, Spainamado.alarcon@urv.cat
Josiah McC. Heyman
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Texas at El Paso 500 W. University Ave., El Paso, TX 79968, USAjmheyman@utep.edu
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Abstract

Bilingual call centers in El Paso, Texas, an extensively bilingual US-Mexico border setting, provide a valuable opportunity to examine empirically what occurs with respect to language shift reversal of Spanish in the context of new information economy. Interviews were conducted with thirty-nine call center operators and managers, and twelve translators and interpreters. Call centers provide an important occupational performance of and recognition to the Spanish language. Nevertheless, bilingual call centers mainly rely on uncompensated, socially provided language skills in Spanish, a freely available “heritage language” in the border setting. Spanish is not valued as a technical competency, worth specific attention to training, management of language features, and extra compensation. Bilingualism is used in the labor market as a sign of cheap and flexible labor, rather than as economically and socially valued “skill,” even though in the new information workplace it serves the latter role. (Call centers, new economy, language and workplace, bilingualism, Spanish, borders)*

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , February 2013 , pp. 1 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

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