Migration, among the most important sociocultural phenomena of contemporary global societies, is complex, dynamic, and multifaceted. The United Nations' International Organization for Migration (2019a) defines migration as: "The movement of persons away from their place of usual residence, either across an international border or within a State" (p. 137). In the year 2020, there were a total of 281 million international migrants, or roughly 3.6% of the total population of the world (McAuliffe & Triandafyllidou, 2021). This number has increased numerically and proportionally in the recent decades (from 85 million or 2.3% of the world's population in 1970 to 281 million or 3.6% half a century after), and it has become more considerable, more rapidly than had been foreseen. And while the proportion of international migrants remains small compared to the total population of the world - only one in every 30 people are international migrants, the impact of international migrants on the rest of the world cannot be overemphasized. In 2020, there were 11 million more male migrants than female migrants (146 million:135 million).
At the heart of migration is language, though, in many cases, it is not given much attention compared to other determinants of mobility. It is often only after legal, political, and economic aspects of migration have been dealt with that language issues are considered. But language truly plays a most important role throughout the migration process, and it cannot and should not be understated. Language is the indispensable agent of migration as the whole process could be made (im)possible because language is used to bridge, to connect, and to mediate through all the other determinants and variables involved in the migration process. It is therefore not surprising that the International Organization for Migration (2019b) has said, "Language is considered one of the most central aspects for migrants' inclusion by both the receiving society and migrants themselves"(p. 192). Therefore, in the whole migration process, one sees how language is so essential that one must also realize how much more attention should be given to language in the context of migration than it normally gets.
The primary purpose of this presentation is to propose 'migration linguistics' as a new sub-discipline in linguistics. It begins with motivations for the establishment of this new sub-discipline. It defines what migration linguistics is, identifies the aims of this new sub-discipline, and lays out its parameters. A linguistic theory of migration synthesizes the dynamics of language acquisition, learning, and use in the migration process. The presentation then explains the model of the linguistic dimensions of the migration process, which specifies the various determinants and variables in the acquisition, learning, and use of language in the context of migration. It also discusses language issues across different types of migration (i.e. labor, family, educational, forced, and community). Finally, with the available interdisciplinary resources and methodologies in studying language in the context of migration, it envisages prospects for the theory and praxis in migration linguistics.
