Affiliation:
1. The Graduate Center, CUNY
2. Queens College, CUNY
Abstract
Abstract
In the current context of a globalized economy, bilingualism is
increasingly portrayed as a resource for corporations and for workers competing
for jobs in today’s slim market. In this paper we analyze the economic value of
languages other than English in the US, Spanish in particular. Working from a
political economy perspective and drawing from current theoretical approaches to
language and labor under neoliberalism, we examine the reproduction of the
discursive trope of language profit in the corporate world and educational
spaces, and then analyze the narratives and trajectories of young Latinx workers
in New York. The marginalized position of Latinxs in the social structure and
the racialization of their linguistic practices result in a linguistic
exploitation that remains unchallenged in the US. We conclude that today’s
celebrations of bilingualism, which follow a capitalist logic, perpetuate a
hierarchy of languages and speakers that is detrimental to racialized
minorities.
Publisher
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Subject
General Earth and Planetary Sciences,General Environmental Science
Cited by
4 articles.
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