Linguistic justice for non-resident citizens: Protecting language interests away from home

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, a number of political theorists have been focusing on the just political treatment of linguistic diversity in liberal democratic societies. This body of work, known as the ‘linguistic justice’ literature, has mainly examined two specific categories of linguistic groups: autochthonous linguistic minorities and immigrants. However, it has entirely neglected non-resident citizens, that is, citizens of a country who reside in a different one, and their distinctive language interests and rights. In this article, we address this gap by developing a theory of linguistic justice for non-resident citizens, using diaspora institutions as a case study. More specifically, we draw on the linguistic justice literature to outline two categories of non-resident citizens’ language interests and rights, that is, those related to opportunity access and to democracy. We finally suggest ways in which language-related diaspora institutions could be reformed in order to better fulfil non-resident citizens’ language interests and rights.