Narratives of linguistic victimhood and majority groups’ acculturation strategies and multilingual attitudes: The mediating role of intergroup empathy

Abstract

Language is a crucial element of the acculturation process. In immigration-receiving societies, studying the linguistic acculturation of majority groups is socially and theoretically relevant. In bilingual contexts where co-official languages have a history of conflict, the narrative of linguistic victimhood may play an important role in predicting responses to linguistically diverse immigrants. In two correlational studies in historically linguistically oppressed societies, specifically in the Basque Country (N = 589) and Catalonia (N = 526), using representative samples, we explored the relationship between a society's narratives of inclusive linguistic victimhood, encompassing both general perceptions (i.e., perceived similarities between in-groups' and out-groups' experiences of linguistic victimization) and context-specific perceptions (i.e., perceived similarity between the linguistic victimhood of the host society group and of immigrant linguistic minorities), and majority group attitudes towards linguistic acculturation (i.e., willingness to learn the languages of immigrant groups or to maintain the majority group language) and multilingual policies. Additionally, we examined the mediating role of intergroup empathy in these associations. The results indicated that, while general inclusive victimhood narratives were associated with native language preservation, context-specific narratives were linked to stronger willingness to learn immigrants' languages and supporting multilingual policies. Empathy played a mediating role between general inclusive victimhood and the willingness to acquire immigrant group languages, as well as in the relationship with attitudes towards multilingual policies. The theoretical and practical implications of these victimization narratives for acculturation processes and structural changes in the host society are also discussed.