Paper short abstract:

Faced with cultural and linguistic choices, Cameroonian migrants in Germany embark on the complex issues of multilingual and multicultural identity negotiation in a bid to make sense of their proper selves. The study has implication for hybrid identities in relation to individual and group.

Paper long abstract:

Cameroonian Migrants in Europe are observed to be caught in the web of cultural and linguistic development in a bid to fit in their new environments. Consequently, throughout their stay in Europe, they are in search of identity in between cultures such that while keeping pace with diaspora requirements, strive to be connected with their original languages and cultures. This paper particularly explores the new world of Cameroonian migrants in Germany, and how they see themselves in terms of multiculturalism and multilingualism. It investigates how they construct identity to be able to make sense of their proper selves amidst a plurality of cultures and languages. The study is driven by the following theories: 1)Tajfel & Turner (1997)’s Social Identity Theory (sense of a person’s self and group membership). 2) Hubert Herman’s Dialogical Self Theory (1993)- the self as multi-voiced and dialogical-relates the self to the social world.) 3) Serge Moscovici’s Social Representations Theory (2000)-The dynamics of group decisions and consensus-forming. The foregone theories will be used at the background of Post Structuralist (Constructivist) Theory. The study adopts a sociolinguistic descriptive qualitative method of 100 Cameroonian immigrants of all walks of life in 10 cities across Germany, of all sexes from between 18-65 years. Data will be collected through questionnaire, interviews, and focus-group discussions, and will be analysed following Wengraf’s (2001) Model of Sequentialization, after Darne’s Typology , with focus on incidences related to language use and cultural aspects. The study has implication for group and individual identities among diasporas.