Joining a new community of workplace practice: discursive evidence of the importance of attitudes

Over the last few decades, New Zealanders have increasingly begun to perceive their country as a relatively diverse and multicultural society. People migrating to New Zealand often find, however, that their experience does not always live up to this rhetoric. Drawing on a theoretical model developed to analyse workplace discourse in its wider socio-cultural context (Holmes, Marra and Vine 2011), this paper examines research evidence of the attitudes of New Zealanders towards skilled migrants as they enter the professional New Zealand workforce. Data from interactions between migrants and their workplace mentors is used to analyse these attitude, with some encouragingly positive results. The recorded data used in the analysis was collected by migrants enrolled in a communication skills course with an internship component which provided them with experience in New Zealand workplaces. These new citizens are people with tertiary qualifications, relevant workplace experience, and a high level of proficiency in English. Their experiences provide useful insights into the accommodations required by all parties in the process of joining a new community of workplace practice. The paper concludes with some reflections on ways in which applied linguists can work with members of the wider workplace community to identify and research areas of mutual concern, presenting research which is paradigmatically “applied linguistics applied” (Roberts 2003)