New Immigrants and Multilingual Linguistic Landscape in Taiwan

New Immigrants and Multilingual Linguistic Landscape in Taiwan offers a rigorous analysis of how immigration has transformed language use in public signage in Taoyuan City, Taiwan. The authors focus on the dynamic evolution of the city’s multilingual linguistic landscape, which has shifted from a primarily monolingual (Chinese) or bilingual (Chinese-English) environment to one characterized by increasing linguistic diversity. This transformation has been driven by the arrival of new immigrants, particularly from Southeast Asia, as well as smaller groups from other regions. Importantly, this is the first ethnographic book on multilingual linguistic landscape in Taiwan, marking a pioneering contribution to the study of language migration, and cultural change in the region. The book examines how Taiwan’s rapidly diversifying population, shaped by substantial inflows of immigrants, has reconfigured public spaces, language practices, and cultural identities. It explores the growing visibility of languages such as Vietnamese, Indonesian, Tagalog, and Thai in public signage, businesses, and community spaces, which add new layers of linguistic diversity to spaces historically dominated by Mandarin and English. The study further delves into the social and cultural implications of these shifts, highlighting both the opportunities and challenges that emerge for language policy, multilingual public spaces, social integration, and cultural inclusion. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the authors seamlessly integrate linguistic landscape analysis, ethnographic research, language policy studies, and sociolinguistic frameworks to present a nuanced portrait of contemporary Taiwan, as seen through the lens of Taoyuan City. The book is a timely and significant contribution to the expanding body of literature particularly on linguistic landscape studies and generally on ethnographic studies, sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, migration, and cultural change in East Asia.