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Resisting linguistic and ethnic marginalization: voices of Southeast Asian marriage-migrant women in Korea

ABSTRACT This study explores linguistic and ethnic marginalization faced by Southeast Asian marriage-migrant women in a rural city of Korea and the ways in which they resist and negotiate the identities imposed on them by others. The findings show that the women were marginalized and had limited meaningful contact and intercultural communication with Koreans in various interethnic contexts. They were stigmatized for their linguistic and cultural backgrounds; the nature of their marriage/migration; and their class, gender, and race. The three-generation households in which they lived were sites of oppression where they were pressured to strictly adhere to traditional Korean linguistic and cultural norms. In the workplace, they were positioned as incompetent second-language (L2) speakers on account of their regional dialects and lack of sociolinguistic competence. Additionally, they experienced racial discrimination in the larger community, based on their language and ethnicity. Despite various types of marginalization, the participants resisted their families’ impositions and stereotypes from mainstream society. They sought to gain legitimacy through enhancing their linguistic capital valued in professional settings. The study suggests that narratives can be a powerful means to reveal processes of marginalization and the impact of marginalization on L2 learning and identity.