The linguicized subject: everyday linguicism and the ‘English-only’ discourse against migrants in Australia

Abstract

In this article, we examine how migrants with a language other than English background are exposed to linguistic discrimination in relation to the English-only discourse of their daily life in Australia, labelling such discrimination as everyday linguicism. By engaging in a scholarly conversation on subjectivity, discourse, and power, we conceptualize and make use of the notion linguicized subjectivity as a thinking tool to interpret incidents of linguicism encountered by our participants. While discussing interview-based findings, we explore how the participants were discursively shaped as linguicized subjects in different linguicist situations in various contexts, and how they negotiated such an imposed ‘abnormal’ and ‘Other’ subject position, subordinated to the power of English and English speakers. The linguicism experienced by the participants alerts us to Australia’s monolingualist structure which has linguicized minority people’s subjectivity at different levels of their social participation. Remedies for such English-only linguicism should involve ‘saying enough’ to linguistic oppression and inequality as well as connecting individual agency, collective actions, and social dialogue to facilitate a social transformation where new possibilities of Australia’s multilingual subjectivity are enabled.