Editorial

The practice of communication within and between cultures is fuelled by the great waves of populations who transit across countries and continents – whether to seek political sanctuary and corporeal safety, to pursue improved material conditions for themselves and their family to live or to acquire the knowledge and skills that will enable them to better themselves in the global marketplace. Most of the contributors to this issue engage with just this intercultural dynamic. The issue opens with three papers which consider the educational and communicative practices engaged in by economic migrants: Ortiz on Mexican workers seeking to engage with the aspirational culture of the USA; Sime and Pietka-Nykaza on migrants from Poland settled in Scotland; and Kim and Kim on ‘Damunwha’ students (students from multicultural backgrounds) from international marriages or immigrant families in South Korea. This journal particularly welcomes these perspectives, as the authors are engaging with the communication practices of three – albeit very different – non-elite social groups, which in our view still go underrepresented within empirical investigations in our field. The American context is further elaborated on in the context of US universities by Choi, who describes how Korean students position themselves vis-à-vis the English language and American culture and. In a delicious reversal of continental positioning, Pang, Sterling and Long then offer us qualitative data which explores how members of a multinational student group studying in China – including some from the USA – deal with the vicissitudes of a shopping expedition in the Silk Market in Beijing. Finally, Don Snow offers us some refreshing insights into how to employ a particular type of critical incident exercise (CIE) to enhance intercultural competence in the language classroom. There are 12.7 million Mexican immigrants in the USA. Although they account for over half the undocumented residents in the country, they play a dominant role in several of the key economic sectors in the country. For example, slightly over half the workers in the US construction industry come from Mexico. Particularly given the hidden nature of much of this employment and also due to the often liminal position which Mexican workers occupy within the USA, Ortiz’s exploratory study which considers the nature of communication in the workplace of Mexican workers, is a timely contribution to this economic and demographic phenomenon. As is preferred within these pages, Ortiz employs a linguistic ethnographic approach with a particular focus on the contextsensitive analysis of language to engage with rich qualitative data from a small cohort of seven participants from different sectors of employment. Her findings suggest that even after many years of employment in the USA, Spanish remains the dominant language for the participants. Possibly as a consequence if this, literacy is underdeveloped and the use of writing at work is infrequent. Despite this lack of specialised forms of literacy, the everyday experience of these migrant workers remains complex as the participants navigate their way between both the Hispanic and the Anglo culture of their work and family life. Moreover, despite feelings of powerlessness and often having to ensure moments of real victimisation, the participants maintain their belief in ‘el sueño dorado’ and hopes of financial betterment. Language and Intercultural Communication, 2015 Vol. 15, No. 2, 187–190, http://dx.doi. org/10.1080/14708477.2015. 1008270