Introduction

Intercultural communication is a daily occurrence for many, if not most, people. As James Clifford put it, 20 years ago:

This century has seen a drastic expansion of mobility, including tourism, migrant labor, immigration, urban sprawl . . . . In cities on six continents, foreign populations have come to stay – mixing in but often in partial, specific fashions. The ‘exotic’ is uncannily close .... Difference is encountered in the adjoining neighborhood, the familiar turns up at the ends of the earth.

(Clifford, 1988: 13–14)