Border Languages: The Semiotics of Language on the Move in Refugee Poetry

Abstract

In an era defined by migration crises and the displacement of millions, sustaining linguistic identity and belonging across borders has become both an existential and educational concern. This study examines how African refugee poetry transforms experiences of exile into semiotic acts of meaning-making and solidarity. Focusing on ‘Gbenga Adeoba’s Leaving Agadez and Rain Choral alongside Bhion Achimba’s Winter with Ovid, the study explores how poetic language negotiates trauma, mobility, and belonging within transnational contexts. Grounded primarily in Semiotic Theory (Kristeva; Kress & van Leeuwen) and Postcolonial Sociolinguistics (Blommaert; Canagarajah), the study adopts a qualitative interpretive methodology involving close textual reading and discourse-semiotic analysis. The analysis identifies three dominant patterns:  silence and song as languages of survival; borders as dialogic spaces of encounter; and exile as a process of linguistic reconstruction. These patterns demonstrate how poetic discourse functions as a symbolic response to displacement and marginalization. The findings reveal that refugee poetry extends beyond testimony to become a form of border literacy through which displaced subjects negotiate identity, memory, and belonging. By theorizing “border language” as a semiotic resource emerging from mobility and displacement, the study contributes to contemporary discussions on migration, language, and literacy. It further demonstrates how poetic language fosters intercultural understanding and reimagines belonging across geographical and linguistic boundaries.