Sociolinguistics of unhappiness: The display of emotions in a multilingual migrants’ community

This contribution aims at analyzing the communicative expression of emotions among Senegalese migrants in Pescara (Abruzzo, Southern Italy). These individuals find their own ‘selves’ at the junction of their subjective well-being and two cultures, creating a sort of intercultural and interlingual personal experience which shapes their relationships with both their own community and the host community. Recent studies (Sevinç, 2020, among others) have argued that a better understanding of the concept of subjective ‘emotion’ (contra that of ‘attitude’) and its role in immigrant contexts is key to enlighten the connection between intercultural communication and possible outcomes of language contact settings. This qualitative study considers the language of first-generation migrants that have been living in Pescara for a minimum of eight years, looking at their linguistic choices when it comes to expressing feelings of discontent with respect to their role in the Italian environment and their integration in the host community.