Linguistic racism and mobility: trauma and belonging in migrant farmworker youth education

Abstract Migrant youth in the United States often experience trauma shaped by mobility, poverty, and social exclusion, conditions that schools may intensify by positioning multilingualism as a deficit through linguistic racism. This article draws on a qualitative case study of Mexican and Central American migrant youth attending Project Nomad, a summer program in rural Michigan, to examine how language-based discrimination and inclusion shape identity and belonging. Grounded in narrative inquiry and humanizing, culturally sustaining methodologies, the study centers youth stories as theorizing raciolinguistic oppression and resilience. Findings show that linguistic discrimination is experienced not only as academic marginalization but as embodied trauma producing silence, shame, and misrecognition. At the same time, affirming environments that foster safety and storytelling support agency, linguistic pride, and community. The article argues that trauma-informed TESOL must be a critical, racialized project that disrupts raciolinguistic ideologies and sustains multilingual identities, with implications for practice, teacher education, and policy.