Language Ethnicity and the State Minority Languages in the EU Ch8 Old and New Lesser Used Languages of Europe Common Cause By Tom Cheesman Europe s non European and nonwhite migrants 20M non European migrants in EU 13M Muslims of various ethnicities in contrast with the traditionally white Christian base of the EU nation states 1993 European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages is contested in places but lays the groundwork for supporting linguistic diverstiy in the EU The language of the citizen vis vis the language of the migrant European Charter protects only languages spoken by minorities who are citizens nationals does not protect official languages dialects of official languages or languages of migrants But migrants soon become citizens and then the languages should fall under protection The language of the citizen the language of the migrant cont d Two versions of multicultrualism Strong Minorities make a strong contribution to a multicultural society but the reality is that they tend to assimilate rather than influencing majority culture Moderate limited recognition of minority cultures for a transition of 3 4 generations after which ethnic identity is merely symbolic and tougher issues like language are not dealt with This is what most policy assumes But there are millions of speakers of non European languages in the EU and they are NOT temporary Europe s new minority languages Some are big Arabic Chinese Hindi Urdu Malay Russian Some are languages of various states Bengali Japanese Korean Somali Turkish Some lack a motherland Kurdish Though they lack protections they are de facto important languages of Europe and are developing European cultural heritages Juxtaposition of lesser languages Indigenous minority languages of Europe like Welsh Risk of extinction for some Issues of local cultural recognition Ancient European ancestry autochthony Territory essential except Romany Immigrant diaspora languages No risk of extinction No local issues Old and new cultural minorities European original minorities are promoted while others are invisible Lack of territorial definition makes it hard for new minorities to mimic nationalism on a smaller scale like the old minorities No support for media and education in the languages of the new minorities leads to alienation from majority cultures a situation that is getting worse not better Old and new cultural minorities cont d Non EU minorities are not disappearing via assimilation New immigrant continue to replenish these groups Increased ease of travel and communication have strengthened ties to societies of origin Internet makes local communication globally accessible Old and new cultural minorities cont d Heritage bilinguals have real advantages in the global economy Access to multiple markets networks of kinship and trust Incentive to cultivate languages both own and others Old and new cultural minorities cont d Bilinguals enjoy educational psychological and social benefits but only when supported by bilingual education Pressures to support bilingual education for more and more languages are mounting Language rights is a growing political issue Gains made by indigenous territorial minorities motivate aspirations of new minorities Old and new cultural minorities cont d State policymakers are beginning to recognize value of minority language skills USA is developing Heritage Language Initiative Professionalized language diversity is a valuable resource Cultural and linguistic change What is the trend Continued loss of minority languages Increasing multilingualism for economic opportunity with heritage speakers at the vanguard It does seem to be the case that immigrants prefer bilingualism when race and religion preclude full assimilation Cultural and linguistic change cont d Subnational community languages are increasingly often also transnational community languages European community fears the Balkan nightmare associated with excessive diversity 1996 Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights covers immigrants refugees diaspora etc and may come to challenge the exclusions of the European Charter Conclusions Notions of language rights and cultural justice as universal are spreading In a sense all languages other than English are becoming minoritized and most of the world s languages are becoming extinct Could English become associated with industrialization destruction of cultures infringement of basic human rights global cultural imperialism and widening social inequality Conclusions cont d Internet supports and favors diversity A European Union which legislates and passes budgets to protect its aboriginal languages while still discriminating against all the languages of relative newcomers must seem simply unjust and the premises of its policy untenable and this discrimination has racial implications Old and new minorities should work together to build a new Europe more open to cultural diversity both within and beyond the region