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Linguistic hostility, social exclusion, and the agency of African migrants in Hong Kong

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2024

Jiapei Gu Open the ORCID record for Jiapei Gu [Opens in a new window]  and
Janet Ho Open the ORCID record for Janet Ho [Opens in a new window]
Jiapei Gu*
Affiliation:
Lingnan University, Hong Kong
Janet Ho
Affiliation:
Lingnan University, Hong Kong
*
Address for correspondence: Jiapei Gu Department of English Ho Sin Hang Building Lingnan University Tuen Mun, Hong Kong jiapeigu@ln.hk
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Abstract

Long an immigrant society, whether Hong Kong welcomes ethnic minorities remains debatable. Combining Wesselmann and colleagues’ (2016) social exclusion framework, raciolinguistics, and interview data, this study investigates the social exclusion experience of Hong Kong's African economic and student migrants. The findings show that African immigrants who lack linguistic capacity are ostracised in different areas of life. Impolite language usage stigmatises them as poor and ghost-like and stereotypes them as refugees. Taking a raciolinguistic perspective, however, this study finds that race, rather than language, is the root cause of social exclusion. Lastly, the study shows that African migrants manifest agency in ameliorating marginalisation through various activities, revealing the bidirectional nature of social exclusion. Overall, this study empirically enriches the current understanding of Africans’ social exclusion experiences in Hong Kong through the lens of language. It theoretically contributes to the current discussion on raciolinguistics by extending it to the Asian context. (Social exclusion, Hong Kong, African immigrants, verbal rejection, non-verbal rejection, racism, raciolinguistics)*

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Article
Information
Language in Society , First View , pp. 1 - 24
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press

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