Migrant networks, language learning and tourism employment

Hania Janta, Peter Lugosi, Lorraine Brown and Adele Ladkin

Tourism Management, 2012, vol. 33, issue 2, 431-439

Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between migrants’ social networks, the processes of language acquisition and tourism employment. Data collected using netnography and interviews are used to identify the strategies that Polish workers in the UK use to develop their language skills. The paper highlights the roles played by co-workers, co-nationals and customers in migrants’ language learning, both in the physical spaces of work and the virtual spaces of internet forums. It also shows how migrant workers exchange knowledge about the use of English during different stages of their migration careers: prior to leaving their country of origin and getting a job, during their employment and after leaving their job. Implications for academic inquiry and human resource management practice are outlined.

Keywords: EU enlargement; Polish; Migrants; Tourism employment; Language learning; Networks; Virtual; Netnography (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:touman:v:33:y:2012:i:2:p:431-439

DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2011.05.004

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