Course Leaders: Dr Robin Mann and Graham Day
This event was a one-day workshop from the WISERD thematic group on Language, Citizenship and Identity. Patterns of mobility and migration have major implications for the three thematic areas of language, citizenship, and identity. These include movements between different places, across individual life courses, and the daily movements involved in commuting to work, travelling for education and for leisure. There are also the newer forms of mobility in which people use technologies to communicate across distances, transferring information and knowledge through their personal, social, and business networks. Such movements bring different social groups into contact with one another, reshape the boundaries between communities and localities, and impact upon people’s sense of identity and belonging.
This workshop provided an opportunity to assess the relevance of such factors to life in modern Wales, bringing together researchers interested in migration and mobility processes with those who are concerned to manage their effects. As well as invited contributors, the workshop was open to anyone who has a research or policy interest in the field. We were especially interested in learning about current or recent studies undertaken by postgraduate students.
Workshop contributions focused in particular on:
- Qualitative and quantitative data sources and methods
- Labour migration and migrant workers
- Language use and language change in relation to migration and mobility
- Migration impacts on communities and localities in Wales.
Contributors included Paul Milbourne (Cardiff), Stephen Drinkwater (WISERD Swansea), Andrew Thompson (Glamorgan), and Hywel Jones (Welsh Language Board)