Abstract：Migrants’ language competence and employment trajectory is one of the key concerns in sociolinguistics in the context of globalization. However, existing studies tend to focus on the elite migrants in West-European and Anglophone countries while little attention has been paid to grassroots migrants at multilingual border regions. China’s Belt and Road Initiative is drawing an increasing number of migrants crossing the border to China for work. This has been shaping the language order of China’s border regions and also bringing a new challenge to China’s language-driven poverty alleviation. Based on an ethnographic field work conducted at Ruili, the largest land port between China and Myanmar, this study examines the interplay of Myanmar grassroots migrants’ language competence and employment trajectory in China. Findings indicate that language is the key capital for Myanmar migrants to survive and fulfil their employment. Chinese-mediated multilingual competence not only constitutes the ideal language combination to facilitate Myanmar migrants’ employment prospect and social upward mobility in China, but also creates regional economic integration across the China-and-Myanmar borders. This study sheds some lights on language governance in alleviating poverty along the Chinese border, construct a new way of developing Chinese as an international language at China’s border regions and also provide a new perspective on enhancing China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
李 佳，张 洁. 云南瑞丽缅甸籍流动人口的语言能力与职业发展[J]. 语言战略研究, 2020, 5(6): 69-77.
Li Jia and Zhang Jie. The Interplay of Myanmar Migrants’ Language Competence and Employment Trajectory at Ruili Yunnan. , 2020, 5(6): 69-77.
