Eng flott Diskriminatioun?: Language and Citizenship Policy in Luxembourg as Experience

Abstract

In the context of harmonising migration policies across European Union (EU) member-states, multiple EU member-states have recently introduced new forms of citizenship legislation that, in many cases, include language and/or civics tests. Informed by Kroskrity’s (Regimenting languages: language ideological perspectives. In: Kroskrity PV (ed), Regimes of language: ideologies, polities, and identities. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe, pp. 1–34, 2000) work on language regimes and framed by what Ricento (J Socioling 4(2): 196–213, 2000) refers to as the third wave of language policy (LP) research, recent studies have critically analysed the discursive justifications of these language requirements and/or testing procedures. Based on the analysis of semi-structured interviews with applicants for Luxembourgish nationality, this chapter critically explores the interface between discourses justifying and those challenging the legitimacy of Luxembourgish language testing. The implementation of the formal testing of Luxembourgish—underpinned by the positioning of it as the ‘language of integration’ in dominant discourse—has particular implications in Luxembourg, where there are three officially recognised languages of the state: Luxembourgish, French and German (Horner, Lang Citizenship Special issue of J Lang Polit 14(3): 359–381, 2015). The analysis shows how disputes concerning the introduction of the testing of Luxembourgish are intertwined with contestations over transformations of long-standing language regimes. On a broader scale, this chapter stresses the importance of broadening the scope of LP to encompass research on the experiences of social actors who are directly affected by formal LP mechanisms (Shohamy, Lang Prob Lang Plan, 33(2): 185–189, 2009).