ABSTRACT
This chapter combines sociolinguistic analysis with analytical insights from migration studies, sociology, and geography to illuminate the complex interactions between language practices and migration, and between language policies and wider political processes. The case studies presented here chart the trajectories that began in South Asia during the colonial era and continue into contemporary phases of transnational migration across the globe. The analysis of individual and families’ decisions about migration, education, and employment, as well as their opportunities for sending and receiving social and economic remittances, never rests on essentialist orientations to language and culture, but rather seeks to take into account how migration is managed by community members, as well as recruiters, in sending and receiving countries.
