• Overview
• Research Platforms
• Thematic Area A: Language, Identity and Culture
• Thematic Area B: Language Policy and Planning
• European Level
• National Level
• Regional Level
• Thematic Area C: Multilingualism and Education
• Thematic Area D: Language and Economy
• Communication, Management, Infrastructure, Training and Gender

Regional and Minority languages in the process of EU enlargement: challenge or burden?

(WP6, 2006–2008)

Summary Results

Standard German Valuable, German Dialects Dispensable

People learn German mainly because it can be turned into an economic asset – at least this seems to be the case in Lorraine (France), Transylvania (Romania) and in Prague (Czech Republic). And because people in these regions concentrate on the economic aspect of language, standard German is gradually replacing German dialects.

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Rationale

In the late 1960s, the ethnolinguistic mobilisation of European minorities and their struggle for sociopolitical and cultural autonomy started to question the predominant power of the majority culture in many European nation states. Since then the minority issue has developed into a policy area which called for conflict appeasement and problem solution. With the 1993 formulation of the Copenhagen criteria minority protection became an integral part of the accession conditionality. Signing the CoE’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities was considered as a benchmark of the new members’ commitment vis-à-vis their minorities, whereas in the old member states no such obligation was put into force. Now, since the candidate members have joined the EU, this difference in the political treatment of the minority issue in the new and the old member states raises the question of existing double standards and their prospective impact on the protection and promotion of national/regional minorities, which constitutes an important part of democratic development and integration in Europe.

Objectives

WP 6 will focus on language (spread) policies related to language minorities. It will attempt to investigate the practical impact of the conditionality requirement on the new Member States’ policies, in order to compare it with the current political situation in the old member states.

Description of work

This WP wants to analyze (a) the situation of ethnolinguistic production and reproduction (substitution vs. normalization of the ethnic language in specific domains), (b) the respective ethnic/national/crossnational/ post-national identity constructions, (c) the reproduction/ formation/ transformation of ethnic stereotypes and ethnocentrism, and (d) the respective minority participation in democratic citizenship. For this purpose, the situation of German minorities in 3 EU member states will be investigated, namely in France, Romania and the Czech Republic. This will enable the researchers to draw some interesting comparisons, since minority protection and participation were conditional for Romania’s and the Czech Republic’s EU accession but not for France. Hence the question is how this is reflected in the design of minority legislation and in the perception of members of the respective German minority.

We have agreed on a comparative qualitative study on a small scale that comprises case studies on German minorities in Lorraine/F, Sibiu/RO and Prague/CZ.

Months 13/14 The first two months will be devoted to desk research. EU and national documents concerning the legislation for the protection and participation of national minorities have been gathered and are being analysed. Particular focus will be placed on documents concerning education for members of national minorities as well as frameworks for the participation of those members in local and/or regional government, in view of points a-d mentioned above. This analysis will then be used as the backdrop for the qualitative phase that is to start in Month 15.

Months 15/16 Semi-structured and open interviews will be conducted with key political actors, minority representatives, teachers, as well as ordinary members of the respective German minority. These will be analysed by discourse analytical tools in order to trace the connections (issues, questions, conflicts) between the political level and the reception of this kind of legislation among the relevant population.

Particular emphasis will be on the experiences of members of the German communities as speakers of a minority language and on how the respective national legislation affected their community lives.