Abstract
This paper aims to illuminate the role of sub-state languages in the integration process of migrants in two sub-state regions: Wales in the UK and the Basque Autonomous Community in Spain. We investigate how language and the idea of ‘belongingess’ based on language learning and knowledge are constructed in the integration policies in these two officially bilingual regions. We analyse policy documents on the topic of integration of migrants in the respective state and sub-state regions, as well as exploring how the role of language is in turn understood, accepted or contested by migrants. Using ethnographically oriented methods of enquiry such as observations of linguistic practices as well as semi-structured interviews with migrant learners of Welsh and Basque, this analysis seeks to contribute to the growing field of LPP as a multifaceted area of study, and in this case, position migrants as agents in policy-making processes. We find that despite distinctive and ambiguous roles ascribed to the respective official languages of each region, migrant new speakers ascribe certain values and roles to each language, which are not necessarily acknowledged or envisaged as such in integration policies. We propose that taking the voice of migrant new speakers learners into account would improve language and integration policymaking in these two sub-state regions and help to redefine the role of language resources in national ‘belongingess’ according to the needs of the stakeholders involved.
Highlights
Increased migration to Europe has put the question of integration and language at the heart of current political and public discourses
We will consider migrants as actors in the process of integration, the role of each language in this process, as well as how migrants’ role as sub-state language learners can be understood in divergent ways by policy makers and by migrant learners themselves. We argue that such a discrepancy proves to have social implications, related to integrative aspects of identity and ‘belongingness’, and economic ones, for migrant new speakers as stakeholders in both state and sub-state linguistic regimes
We suggest that our comparison, based on ethnographically oriented methods, will contribute to giving voice to migrant new speakers, positioning them not just as ‘neutral bystanders’ (Kymlicka 2011), but rather as active stakeholders in policy making
Summary
Increased migration to Europe has put the question of integration and language at the heart of current political and public discourses. We will consider migrants as actors in the process of integration, the role of each language in this process, as well as how migrants’ role as sub-state language learners can be understood in divergent ways by policy makers and by migrant learners themselves We argue that such a discrepancy proves to have social implications, related to integrative aspects of identity and ‘belongingness’, and economic ones, for migrant new speakers as stakeholders in both state and sub-state linguistic regimes. Migrant new speakers allude to migrants who have settled in a region or sub-state and who start to learn and use the sub-state language in an active way (in addition to other languages including the state language) In this paper, both contexts: BAC and Wales, are informed by separate doctoral research projects for which data was gathered through ethnographically oriented methods. For the purpose of this paper, both research projects will be compared and contrasted in the attempt to answer the following questions: 1. How is the role of language defined in sub-state integration policies in Wales and the BAC?
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