Speaking Subjects in the digital age

Applied linguistic research in the nineties was eager to collect authentic testimonies of bi-or multilingual immigrants  through linguistic portraits (Krumm/Jenkins), linguistic biographies (Hinton, Kramsch),autobiographical memoirs (Pavlenko), translingual literature (Lvovich), narratives of self focused on identity, voice and belonging (Norton). Educators sought to validate the increasing linguistic, ethnic, social and  economic diversity of their students and make them feel at home in their host country. However in their daily interactions the youngsters themselves did not necessarily feel welcome. As Almon a 16-year old Chinese immigrant to California noted:

"The Chinese are prospering quite okay here. The problem is mainly with discrimination. The Chinese have more problems with English, and so it's more difficult for them to find jobs. Even those who have been here for a long time don't speak like the native-born Americans ... English is my biggest problem.... It's like this place isn't my world, I don't belong here. I guess it's going to be very hard for me to develop my career here. And I have a feeling that my English won't be that good even in 10 years."  (interview, October 15, 1996)(Lam 2000).

In this paper, I retrace the changes in biographical research on young minority immigrants since the nineties, more particularly once the internet and social media became available and researchers could study how these immigrants not only constructed for themselves a voice and a new identity on the web, but used their multilingual resources to network across symbolic and semiotic systems, make themselves visible both locally and globally,  and acquire symbolic capital beyond the borders of their host country. I consider the challenges the internet poses for multilingual educational research in the digital age.