This book examines the agreements and discrepancies between public understanding and assumptions about refugees, and the actual beliefs and practices among the refugees themselves in a time of increasing mobility fuelled by what many call ‘refugee crisis’. With a  focus on language and literacy practices among recently-arrived Karenni refugee families in the United States, this book explores the multilingual repertoires and accumulated literacies acquired through the course of the refugees’ multiple movements. Through the lens of transnationalism, the author emphasizes that despite their numerous struggles, the refugees daily and diligently use and strategize their old, emerging, and evolving linguistic and literacy resources to make the best of their resettlement. This book will shed light on the language and literacy practices among transnational and diasporic communities, minoritized or marginalized groups for researchers in these fields as well as practitioners and resettlement agencies working with refugee populations.

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Reviews

“Truly an important read at a time when refugees are increasing globally. Duran’s impressive and intimate portrait of recently arrived Karenni refugee families details their experiences as they negotiate the complex and contradictory multilingual, multimodal and multimedia linguistic practices of their new lives. The reader is drawn into the emotions of the families as they “look back and move forward” as minoritized transnational members of their new communities.” (Theresa McGinnis, Associate Professor, Hofstra University, USA)

“Transnational migration due to war, conflict, and economic despair is one of the defining human crises of our time. Based on her in-depth, longitudinal, ethnographic multiple-case study situated within one such refugee community, the Karenni (from Burma/Myanmar) in southwestern United States, Duran provides an illuminating and vivid account of in-school and out-of-school socialization into and through the multilingual language and literacy tools, practices, networks, and repertoires of this resourceful and resilient community.” (Patricia A. Duff, Professor, University of British Columbia, Canada)

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