Mobility and Stasis: Migrant portraits from a Madrid Market

Márquez Reiter, Rosina (2023). Mobility and Stasis: Migrant portraits from a Madrid Market. In: Márquez Reiter, Rosina and Patiño-Santos, Adriana eds. Language Practices and Processes among Latin Americans in Europe. Routledge Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics. Oxon and New York: Routledge, pp. 25–49.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003130703-2

URL: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.432...

Abstract

The chapter documents some of the linguistic practices of two Latin Americans in a Madrid indoor market as they engage in everyday work activities. It reveals two different portraits of mobility, along a fluid-fixed continuum as crystalised in the fluctuance and permanence of their linguistic practices across and within market boundaries. Overall, the analysis of ethnographically-gathered data, offers a snapshot of the connections between linguistic practices and contexts of mobility in a workplace setting. Specifically, fixedness was found in a context of limited mobility, and hybridity in one of general mobility. They were both associated to the characters’ respective migrant trajectories and oriented to as valued, desirable and contextually fitting.