Towards an understanding of the language–integration nexus: a qualitative study of forced migrants’ experiences in multilingual Luxembourg

Field: Social Sciences (Social Sciences)

This cumulative thesis offers insights into the under-researched area of linguistic integration in multilingual societies. It is a collection of four papers that seek to address key questions such as: How can people’s existing language resources be validated and used to aid language learning? What are the politics of language and integration in settings of complex linguistic diversity? What role do language ideologies play in their creation and/or perception? What types of individual trajectories emerge? The research reported here is grounded in the Luxembourgish context, which represents an important European focal point for exploring the dynamics of linguistic integration. Taking a qualitative approach informed by linguistic ethnography (Copland & Creese 2015; Pérez-Milans 2016; Rampton 2007a; Rampton et al. 2015; Tusting & Maybin 2007), this work focuses on the language learning and integration experiences of five men who, fleeing war and violence, sought international protection in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Building on theories of multilingual communication (Canagarajah & Wurr 2011), translanguaging (Creese & Blackledge 2010; García & Li Wei 2014) and receptive multilingualism (ten Thije et. al. 2012), the first paper of this thesis considers the affordances of multilingual learning situations in classroom-based language training for forced migrants. The second paper moves on to scrutinise the instrumental and integrative dimensions of language (Ager 2001), as articulated and perceived by the research participants. It exposes the vagueness and contradictory logics of linguistic integration as currently practiced, and throws light on how people with precarious immigration status interpret, experience and act upon ideologies surrounding language and integration (cf. Cederberg 2014; Gal 2006; Kroskrity 2004; Stevenson 2006). The third paper, likewise, directs attention to the controversies and potential unwarranted adverse effects of current linguistic integration policies. Through juxtaposing the trajectories of two forced migrants – who shared similar, multi-layered linguistic repertoires (Blommaert & Backus 2013; Busch 2012, 2017) – this part of the thesis elucidates the embodied efforts, emotions, and constraints inherent in constructing a new (linguistic) belonging in contemporary societies. Taken together, these papers illustrate and expand the discussion about the language–integration nexus. Additionally, by bringing into focus multilingual realities and mobile aspirations, they seek to provide a fresh impetus for research, and contribute to the creation of language policies that recognise a larger range of communicative possibilities and forms of language knowledge (cf. Ricento 2014; Flubacher & Yeung 2016). The thesis also makes a methodological contribution, by demonstrating the value of cross-language qualitative research methods in migration and integration research. It includes a detailed discussion of the complexities of researching in a multilingual context (Holmes et al. 2013; Phipps 2013b), as well as a novel inquiry into the interactional dynamics of an interpreter-mediated research encounter (fourth paper).