Abstract:
This article reports on a narrative study which explored the language maintenance and the related identity experiences of an Afrikaans-speaking migrant from South Africa who has lived in New Zealand since 2001. The article tells his Afrikaans maintenance story, focusing particularly on identity and language use, as constructed during a series of three narrative interviews conducted over a period of six years. It is informed by recent discussions of social inclusion in the field of migration and sociolinguistics. A thematic analysis of big story data and a positioning analysis of a small story show that the migrant was successful at maintaining Afrikaans and achieving social inclusion within his social networks. However, based on the analyses, the article also suggests that the ways social inclusion interacts with language maintenance and the construction of self are dynamic and complex in migrant contexts.
