Me siento muy poquititico suiza: identificación bilingüe y bicultural en inmigrantes colombianos de la Suiza francófona

Author(s) : Elena Diez del Corral Areta

Source : https://serval.unil.ch/notice/serval:BIB_D90C462F0D2D

Abstract:

“The migratory dynamics of the last decades has favoured the settlement of a large number of Spanish speakers in countries like Switzerland. Remarkably, Colombians represent a community living in the French-speaking cantons of Geneva, Neuchâtel and Vaud. In this paper, I aim to offer a qualitative analysis of the cultural and identity identifications of these immigrants, by considering their arguments about their own bilingualism and biculturalism, and by taking into account the relationship between these arguments and the linguistic practices of these immigrants. In order to do that, I study an array of semi-conducted interviews carried out between 2015 and 2017 with ten Colombians who live in Switzerland. The results show that their identification as bilinguals is much more frequent than their identification as biculturals, among other reasons because the knowledge of languages is positively valued, while the emergence of a feeling belonging to the host culture is a more complex procedure.”