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Speaking the same language

Increasingly debates about integration in Europe are focusing on immigrants' ability to speak the language of their new country. Will we soon see a situation where being able to speak the language becomes a requirement for being granted residence or citizenship?

As of 1 September 2008 anyone wishing to become a German citizen must pass a citizenship test: One component of the test is a series of questions about Germany's Basic Law, its political system, the principle of equal rights and German history and culture.

A women fills out a form for a naturalization test at the adult education center in Bremen, northern Germany, Monday, Sept. 1, 2008. Photo: AP/Jörg Sarbach

Austria, Britain and the Netherlands have similar tests. On 24 July 2008 the Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung called this "a farewell to the multi-cultural mentality," which, it said, had stubbornly persisted until the beginning of the new century.

Language exams

Often, being granted citizenship depends not just on answering questions about the country but also on a language exam. On 9 June, the Swedish daily Sydsvenskan expressed the opinion that foreigners who could speak Swedish well should be able to apply for citizenship after living in the country for two years. On the same day, another Swedish daily, Svenksa Dagbladet, also pondered whether Sweden shouldn't follow the example of other European countries and make citizenship conditional on the proven ability to speak Swedish. Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, for example, all require a basic knowledge of their language, while in Britain it is sufficient to pass the "Life in the UK" test in order to prove that one is able to communicate with one's fellow citizens. Instead of English, knowledge of Scottish Gaelic or Welsh will do as well.

Even in Luxembourg, a country with three languages – Luxemburgish, French and German – the authorities proposed to reform the citizenship law, making it compulsory to prove one could speak Luxemburgish. The writer David Wagner pointed out the absurdity of this proposal in the weekly Woxx on 28 April 2008. "One of the things that makes us different from other countries is that Luxemburgish is only one of several languages spoken here. You can live in Luxembourg without being able to Luxemburgish for the simple reason that the Luxembourgers themselves are polyglots." In a cynical commentary the Danish daily Information took this call for the creation of a model citizen who is utterly conformist (not only in a linguistic sense) to its logical conclusion, issuing the following advice to immigrants planning to settle in Denmark: "If you have brought children with you legally, then please deposit them with our commission for indoctrination and upbringing, which will then find the right family or some other place for them. And don't forget to get a receipt so that you can pick your child up again when it is eighteen. You are allowed to bring exotic cuisine with you. Enjoy your new life."

Enshrining language in the Basic Law?

The European press continues to discuss the linguistic abilities of European immigrants to Europe. For example, the Austrian daily Kurier wrote on 24 June 2008: "Anyone wishing to immigrate to Austria in the future will have to have acquired a basic knowledge of German before entering the country.” In fact Austrian Interior Minister Günther Platter has followed the German model. In Germany the first immigration law, which came into force on 1 January 2005, requires proof of a basic knowledge of the language. In response to a motion tabled by the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) on 8 December 2008 that would introduce a clause into the Basic Law protecting the German language, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung commented: "An amendment to the Basic Law would not constitute the exertion of undue pressure on ethnic minorities. The planned new clause would not be the starting point for 'pressure to assimilate', but it would provide an indisputable guideline for integration. ... In the era of internationalisation and globalisation it preserves the distinctive character of Germany that has always shaped its citizens, the distinctive character that makes its literature possible at all. What is right for many of our European neighbours should not be constitutionally wrong for us.”

Anti-discrimination courses

In everyday life, though, the real question is how important knowledge of the language is for successful integration. This also applies to minorities who have already been living in the country for a long time, like the Russians in Estonia. There the journalist Jevgenia Garanza, who is of Russian origin, called in the Estonian daily Eesti Päevaleht on 14 May 2008, about a year after riots broke out over the removal of a Soviet war memorial in Tallinn, for the Russian minority to make more effort towards integration, above all with respect to language: "The problem is not the children but the teachers. We need a new curriculum with more Estonian lessons and a new generation of teachers who could teach in Estonian in Russian schools."

The linguistic abilities of immigrants are of course only one of the many topics arising from of the linguistic diversity of the EU. The debates range from the internal political conflict over language in Belgium to discussions about politically correct communication both for official purposes and in everyday life. After a video became public in 2009 showing Prince Harry three years earlier referring to a fellow cadet as "our little Paki friend", the British heir to the throne had to attend an anti-discrimination course.

Nikola Richter

Nikola Richter, born 1976 in Bremen, lives in Berlin. She works as an editor for euro|topics and as a writer. Her latest publications were "Schluss ...
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