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Multilingualism in Immigrant Communities

Language Awareness and Multilingualism

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Language and Education ((ELE))

Abstract

Immigrant multilingualism is a very complex topic. It is at the crossroads of multiple disciplines that have fundamentally different perspectives on the topic. Depending on the ideological approach taken, immigrant multilingualism is seen either as a deficit or a resource. Immigrant minority (IM henceforth) languages are most often associated with problems of poverty, underachievement in schools, social and cultural problems, as well as lack of integration into the society of residence. Even though policy makers make a sharp distinction between national, regional minority, and immigrant minority languages, these languages have much in common. Depending on the status of national and minority languages, there are rigid boundaries between them. On their sociolinguistic, educational, and political agendas, we find issues such as their actual spread; their domestic and public vitality; the processes and determinants of language maintenance versus shift toward majority languages; the relationship between language, ethnicity, and identity; and the status of minority languages in schools, in particular in the compulsory stages of primary and secondary education. In line with the aims of this volume, issues surrounding immigrant multilingualism will be discussed in this chapter. The focus will be on societal and educational aspects of immigrant multilingualism in a number of national contexts ranging from Australia to the EU.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of the Humanities, Tilburg University, PO Box 90153, 5000 LE, Tilburg, The Netherlands

    Kutlay Yağmur

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  1. Kutlay Yağmur
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Correspondence to Kutlay Yağmur .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept Res Methods Education, University of the Basque Country Dept Res Methods Education, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain

    Jasone Cenoz

  2. UPV/EHU - IKERBASCQUE, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU - IKERBASCQUE, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain

    Durk Gorter

  3. Faculty of Education, University of Auckland, School of Critic, Auckland, New Zealand

    Stephen May

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

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Yağmur, K. (2016). Multilingualism in Immigrant Communities. In: Cenoz, J., Gorter, D., May, S. (eds) Language Awareness and Multilingualism. Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02325-0_31-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02325-0_31-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-02325-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-02325-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Multilingualism in Immigrant Communities
    Published:
    28 March 2017

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02325-0_31-3

  2. Multilingualism in Immigrant Communities
    Published:
    30 January 2017

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02325-0_31-2

  3. Original

    Multilingualism in Immigrant Communities
    Published:
    08 August 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02325-0_31-1

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