Language and Labour Insertion among African Migrants in Barcelona
This paper examines the processes of labour insertion of a group of five young African migrants who live in the metropolitan region of Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) from the perspective of the role and value of their multilingual repertoires. Drawing on a long-term ethnographic engagement with them, it presents their personal and professional trajectories, and analyses the factors that have contributed to their (un)employment. It argues that, in the current context of economic crisis and in the local space of the city of Sarrona, there exist no employment opportunities for them. Catalan appears as symbolic capital in the local networks of support linked to an NGO that provides housing and food, but is unable to help with employment. Through its discourses and practices, this NGO devalues their « non-local » linguistic resources, even global capitals like English or French, and ideologically erases their other languages. Only those migrants who have ventured outside the « safe » environment of the NGO and its networks, both with tertiary education, have found jobs in the hospitality sector in Barcelona that grant them personal autonomy.