This paper aims to discuss the multiplicity, dynamics and contingencies of textual forms that rationalize and justify the “language barrier” old colonial metaphor, in the context of contemporary migration in Brazil.
This paper aims to discuss the multiplicity, dynamics and contingencies of textual forms that rationalize and justify the “language barrier” old colonial metaphor, in the context of contemporary migration in Brazil. Searching for metapragmatic resources on language uses of migrants in Brazil, I analyzed various texts in diverse forms – genres, modalities, authorships, degrees of control, etc. –, and I seek to trace the trajectory of this metaphor in the last decade. These texts were produced in a period of heterogeneous characteristics of recent migration to Brazil, from an upward entry of superdiverse migratory profiles (2008-2015) to a downward and even more unstable entry (2016-present). The results and discussion of the analysis of the texts show that the trajectory of the “language barrier” metaphor is linked to the metadiscursive battle on border linguistic resources, race- and class-coded interactional forms, as opposed to the modern, transparent and mentalistic communication model. This connection finds its traces in contemporary versions of the colonial “captive mindset”: a self-described benevolent rationality that promises access to linguistic rights while concealing the violent process of erasing multiple interactional forms in contemporary migrations. I conclude that these interactional forms resist at the frontier of the violence of the modern communicational model, while the metaphor of the "linguistic barrier" is the figuration of the colonial unequal encounter between racialized bodies in contemporary Brazil.
