In what sense English? an exploration of English migrant identities and identification

Bibliographic Data

ID3608232
AuthorsA Findlay (0000-0002-2517-6999), Allan M Findlay, Caroline Hoy, Alan Stockdale (0000-0002-7363-4915), Aileen Stockdale
Year2004
Volume30
Issue1
Pages59-79
Publication date2004-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Community (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369183032000170178
OpenAlexW2011395654
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited32

The empirical focus of this article is an analysis of the self‐identities of English‐born persons living in urban Scotland. The material is theorised relative to the debate between modernist conceptions of identity and post‐structuralist notions of identification. The researchers construct a fourfold typology of ‘English’ migrants that helps to problematise the nature and diverse meanings of ‘Englishness’. The search to understand why many English migrants avoid the ‘English’ label in statements of self‐identity leads to consideration of work on neo‐tribes and problems of identification in fluid societies. A secondary, but also important, aspect of the paper is the exploration of ‘accent’ as a marker of ‘identity’. This proves important in bounding the English service class in Scotland, otherwise an invisible migrant population

Aesthetics · Epistemology · Linguistics · Optimal distinctiveness theory · Population · Sociology · Typology · Anthropology · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Gender Studies · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Multilingual Education and Policy · Psychology · Social Psychology