MIGRATION AS A CHANGE OF CULTURAL RELATIONS BY A NEW LANGUAGE MAP Peter Graf COBISS 1.01 1. LANGUAGE AND MIGRATION The economic, social and cultural development of the ’’Federal Republic of Germany14 is characterized by two processes of transformation, the consequences of which have neither been properly digested, nor have there been any clear solutions offered for the future yet. These developments are: first of all, the migration of workers since the 1950s, and secondly, the European process of integration. Both processes did not only lead to a permanent change in the demographic structure of the German population, they also affected fundamentally the social, cultural und linguistic aspects of people living together in all major German cities. Since 1955, millions of young men and women were recruited within the scope of the German migrant workers policies (’Gastarbeiterpolitik’), especially from the Mediterranean countries, but also from very distant countries like Morocco and Turkey. These migrants left their own country in order to find work. They came more or less without any possessions, moved into housings pre-constructed by the Germans, bought their clothing and their cars in their new country of residence, used public transport facilities just as the Germans did and took over jobs previously done by Germans. Although they started their life completely anew, there was one thing they never gave up: their mother tongue. Irrespective of their job and educational level, their country of origin and the duration of their stay, they stuck to their home language, even after having adopted German nationality. Not only did their mother tongue mean a reminder of home for them, it satisfied basic human needs and protected them emotionally, just like the skin layer protects the human body. In a foreign country the original language constitutes a means of survival. Without one’s own language, one will not succeed to live as a human being, one will not even be able to be a human being, like Johann Gottfried Herder wrote in his famous work ’’Abhandlung iiber den Ursprung der Sprache”, in 1771: "Man, set into the state of reflection, his own characteristic state, and this reflection acting freely for the first time, has invented language. ” According Dve domovini • Two Homelands 19 • 2004, 9-23 to Herder every child experiences the necessity of language, because it is, as Herder says “as natural for the human being as he is a human being. " 1 For the present discourse, it appears to me to be essential to underline the importance of language in anthropological aspects: We do not consider language here as a code of communication, but regard it in the aspect of first language or mother tongue that the migrants have brought with them from their country of origin. Just like everyone else, they have learnt to interact by speaking in their mother tongue, to express themselves individually in their own language, they have learnt to discover the beauty of an endless space by communicating with others in their own language, they have discovered communicative human life. Therefore, one’s mother tongue remains firmly attached to one’s own, individual biography for the rest of one’s life, as part of one’s existence as a reflective being. Even if one changes one’s place of residence or one’s nationality, one will never give up one’s mother tongue or exchange it for another language, even if one learns to speak and write fluently different new languages. Once having acquired your first language, you will never forget it just as you will never forget places and experiences of your own childhood. In variation of the famous sentence of Max Frisch you may say that the Federal Republic of Germany called for foreign workers, and speaking people came who brought their language with them. 1.1 The Change of the Relations of Languages As a consequence of the German policies of recruiting migrant workers and reinforced by the European process of integration, a new development took place that continuously and rather unspectacularly changed the linguistic homogeneity to a European variety of languages and cultures. Neither the German majority nor the language minorities were sufficiently prepared for this situation that emerged for the first time in this country. The linguistically almost homogenous German population grew into a multilingual population in Germany.2 Consequently, a new variety of languages appeared. As a result we find that Germany at present is a country within the European 1 Johann Gottfried Herder, Abhandlung iiber den Ursprung der Sprache, Stuttgart: H. D. Innscher, 1969, p. 31. The nativistic language acquisition theory of Noam Chomsky has confirmed, in a very different way: language is given only to human beings, which enables them to recognize the deep structure of human communication. 2 Germany was a linguistically homogenous country up to the 1960s. A small minority of the Serbs lived in the DDR, the ’Nordschleswig’- minority was always present with one seat in the parliament of Kieler Landtag, regardless of how many people voted for them. An outstanding political matter of the post-war period was to allow the German speaking people who were not living in Germany, the return as refugees of second world war in order to realize linguistic homogeneity in the sense of the nation. In contrast to other practices of the ‘law of the nationality’ millions of‘Aussiedler’, who possessed the nationality of a country of the Eastern Bloc, were given the German nationality additionally. Migration as a Change of Cultural Relations by a New Language Map Union that is not only characterized by a strong occurrence of language minorities but also by a strong degree of variety of languages. Table 1: ‘Auslander‘ (Foreigners) in the EU-States: 18,488,800 (5 % in 369 Mio.) (asofl. 1. 1997, for the BRD asofl. 1.2000) Broken down from the percentage of foreigners in the national population. more than 10 % of the population Luxembourg 142,800 (Portuguese) 8-10 % of the population Germany Belgium Austria 7.343,600 890,300 758,000 state of 1. 1. 2000 state of 1. 1. 2000 6-8 % of the population France 3.596,600 (about 50 % from Africa) 4-6 % of the population Netherlands Sweden Denmark 680,000 526,600 237,700 2-4% of the population Great Britain Spain Ireland 2.104,000 801,300 114,400 (from Asia, America, Africa) —2 % of the population Italy Portugal Greece Finland 884,500 173.200 161.200 74,600 Source: Das Parlament, no. 12, March 17, 2000 (statistics of foreigners in the Federal Republic of Gennany, as of Dec. 1998) Taking a closer look at these statistics, two aspects become clearly evident: The highest absolute figures of minorities characterize the situation in the German Federal Republic, a country with the strongest density of population within the EU. Also it indicates the high percentage of non-German inhabitants who - unlike in England or France - do not come from fonner colonies where they were taught in the same language. They establish strong language minorities coming from different countries. Peter Graf Table 2: Language-Minorities in the Federal Republic of Germany absolute figures (Dec. 1998) Native country Total: All minorities: 7.320,000 (9 % of the German population) Language Turkey 2.110,000 Turkish Serbia-Montenegro 720,000 Croatia 209,000 Bosnia 190,000 total fonner YU 1.119,000 Serbo-Croatian Italy 612,000 Italian Greece 364,000 Greek Poland 284,000 Polish Portugal 133,000 Portuguese Spain 131,000 Spanish Source: Das Parlament, no. 12, March 17, 2000 (statistics of foreigners in the Federal Republic of Germany, as of Dec. 1998 These figures show the situation of significant language minorities who will permanently continue to use their first language. Also, it becomes evident that the linguistic variety is not of a Babylonian kind, but that the different language minorities may be clearly classified into the following groups: - the Turkish minority, including the Kurd part of the group - the Serbian-Croatian group coming from former Yugoslavia3 - the Italian minority - the Greek minority - the Spanish minority - the Portuguese minority - the German-Russian group of “Aussiedler”. Thus, population in Germany shows a nonrecurring variety of languages. What generations of language teachers were unable to achieve, has now become reality: Millions of people in Germany do not only speak German but also one of the minority languages. Still, this new variety of languages also causes many new problems. 3 The different groups coming from former Yugoslavia used to be linked together by the Serbian-Croatian language as most of their ethnic languages were caracterized much more by similiarity than difference. The Serbs and the Croats can easily understand each other and even had some common literature between 1945 and 1991. 1.2 The Challenge of the Variety of Languages The new map of languages is characterized by two features that reinforce the problem of how to teach and learn foreign languages and learn about different cultures. - First of all, the new map of languages is not defined by regional borderlines, as is South Tyrol or Switzerland. None of the minority languages determines life in a special region. Rather, you will find them in all big cities, with a slight shift in the distribution of languages. - Secondly, these new languages are not considered as languages of education to be learnt or spoken by a large group of language majority. The presence of people of the minorities has not motivated Germans to concentrate more strongly on learning Italian, Greek, Turkish or Serbo-Croatian. These two aspects lead to a disruption of communication amongst large parts of the population in the major German cities. They either avoid communication with others completely, or they communicate insufficiently in a manner that is restricted to a very basic level. This broken structure of communication in normal everyday life in the cities implies manifold interferences in communication between individuals, thousands of misunderstandings and insufficient forms of social contacts. So far, there has been no appropriate solution found for this new situation. Contrary to this new variety of languages in the cities, the German administration sticks to its traditional practice of organizing public life in a mono-linguistic manner. Just as before, schools are run in one language only, mass media, public administration and political life stick to the German language alone, disregarding the fact that the multi-lingual communication amongst the different groups of population requires other fonns than the desired mono-linguistic regulation of public life. Not only is this attempt to restore the mono-linguistic homogeneity a very inappropriate one for solving the present tasks of language and cultural policies, it also reflects once more the prevailing concept of distinguishing between Germans and foreigners, thereby regarding Germans as native speakers of the German language and foreigners mainly as speakers of a minority language. Still, in legal aspects this type of distinction no longer holds true. According to the latest regulation on the Law of Nationality, children from non-German families obtain German nationality in addition to the nationality of their family. From 2006 onwards, only a small number of school beginners will be ‘foreigners’, as most of the children from non-German families will be of German nationality by then. These children, who will continue to speak in their minority language at home, are likely to show learning difficulties in their second language.'1 Schools and teachers will be confronted with ‘German pupils’ who enter school and are in need of an intensive support in the German language. 4 There have been about 100,000 children bom in non-German families in Germany during the last years. The challenge of the new variety of languages lies in the fact that the prevailing tendencies offer no appropriate solution at all and rather lead to an educational and cultural political dead end. The nonn of a national mono-lingual tradition is opposed by the present situation of the multilingual life in Gennan cities, without any approach of both tendencies in form of a natural development being in sight. Neither will the minorities neglect their first language in favour of speaking Gennan perfectly, nor will the German majority increase their interest in learning Turkish, Serbo-Croatian, Greek, Russian or Italian. Also, in view of the European process of integration, the national monolingual way does not offer any perspective at all. Within a few years time, there will be 15 official languages used in the European Union. Not even the smallest EU member state is willing to subordinate to a common official language. The challenge to re-shape this narrow multilingual geographic space in cultural and political aspects is a task that is unique in history. As much as the EU states are interested in teaching their official language at school, they should show equal interest in enabling their pupils to acquire a good command of a second language of any other EU member state. This educational goal will not be achieved by keeping up monolingual schools which do not introduce pupils to English as a foreign language until their secondary school age. This new language landscape, caused by migration and the process of European integration, leads to the following question: How will it be possible to integrate multilingual structures as a linguistic nonn of Gennan cities into a cultural and social political development that enables both, people of the majority and those of the minorities to leam to speak more than one language fluently and to practise intercultural communication and mutual understanding amongst the different groups? How can this given present linguistic normality itself be turned into a language learning norm in order to enable all persons involved to intercultural perception and communication far beyond the limits of language borders? 2. LANGUAGE AS A SPACE FOR INTERCULTURAL LEARNING Our present time is characterized by falling walls. Not only national borders are opened and can be passed freely, also new means of transport facilitate the crossing of more distant frontiers for many people. Increasingly global economic structures promote the trans-national exchange of people and goods. The big cities have developed into crossroads of cultures and languages. The international media network provides people with daily news from all over the world. At the same time, our modern time is characterized by a significant increase in bloody conflicts which find their roots in cultural and language differences. Migration as a Change of Cultural Relations by a New Language Map 2.1 Conflicts as a Clash of Civilizations In Germany, there were houses of Turkish families that were set on fire in the ‘90s. In former Yugoslavia, an extremely severe war flared up along the borderlines of different language and cultural groups. In India, ancient mosques are suddenly destroyed by outraged groups. On the 22nd of March 2003, two leading powers of the English speaking world started a war against Iraq, a war that shows signs of the clash of civilizations that Samuel P. Huntington drew up in 1996, and that will deeply destroy the foundations of the relation between the Western and the Arabic-Islamic civilization. What is the reason for this phenomenon, that on the one hand, borderlines are opened whilst on the other, simultaneously cultural conflicts arise in those areas where different languages and cultures meet one another? The instigators of these current conflicts come from a national monolingual world. Despite processes of internationalisation, despite trans-national state alliances like the European Union, public life remains rather nationally and mono-culturally oriented world-wide. Each country regards its own history, culture, religion and language as the predominant one, to be learnt first and of superior value whereas the different culture is being regarded as secondary. The more we are approached by the foreign culture, the more threatening it seems to be: The different faith of other people endangers our own perception of truth, other people’s language and way of life jeopardizes our own identity. Those who do not regard encounters with foreign cultures as a multicultural playground field that leads to an attitude of “everything goes if it works”, will see the foreign other person as a threat. The psychologist Mario Erdheim puts this as follows: ’’The strange aspects of the other question our own self.“5 In times of vanishing national borderlines it does no longer suffice to stick to the so far common, levelled distinction between one’s own at primary level and that of others, foreigners, at secondary level. In the field of educational policies, such an attitude is reflected in the relation of “mother tongue versus foreign language”, i.e. a position that assumes that the first language determines the entire development of a child, its thinking and forms of social contact, and makes consequently appear all other languages as secondary and consequently as ‘foreign’. According to this ideology of mother-tongue, which determined the educational policy until quite recently, an early encounter of a child with foreign languages would disturb its cognitive development, confuse the homogeneity of its thinking and the clearness of its interaction with others.6 Positions of such kind are no longer suitable to enable young persons to cope with an environment that is no longer characterized by mono-lingual and mono-cultural structures alone. The presence of different, foreign elements rather requires a new, extended form of learning in encounters with other cultural groups. 5 Mario Erdheim, Das Eigene und das Fremde, in: Psyche (Frankfurt), XLVI, August 1992, pp. 730-744. 6 A proof is the debate about ‘semilingualism’, which occurs when the mother tongue language does not occupy the development continuously. Cf. Peter Graf, Friihe Zweisprachigkeit und Scliule, Miinchen, 1987, p. 61 ff. 2.2 A New Task for Intercultural Learning Just as states are striving for building up international networks, they should assume the task of enabling their population to enter into contacts with cultural partners in a comprehensive manner that goes beyond the borders of their own national culture. No longer does it suffice to assume an attitude of tolerance that decides from a national superior point of view how much of the foreign may be accepted. No less a person than Johann Wolfgang v. Goethe, who was one of the first German poets to study the Islamic culture, made the following comment that still holds true today: ’’Actually, tolerance should only be a temporary attitude: it will have to lead to acknowledgement. To tolerate means to insult.“7 In view of the intercultural structures of the modem environment, we do no longer require normative attitudes alone, but also new ways of cognitive perception of the environment, and the acquisition of intercultural competences. 2.2.1 “You cannot not communicate.”8 This axiom by Paul Watzlawick develops its full effectiveness in intercultural matters as the encounter with the other, the foreign one, mainly takes place in the area of interpersonal communication. The majority tries to evade the perception of others and closes the eyes in front of it. This form of communication blames the other one(s), leaving the problem up to them and transferring to them the entire effort of learning. It takes the strain off one’s own group, which now assumes that there is no need for learning anything new and that it may stick to its concept of a homogenous monolingual society. In relation with the new law on immigration in Germany, there are now ‘Integration Courses’ being offered that consist of German language courses combined with introductory seminars on the Basic German Law and the structures of public life in Germany. The attendance of such courses is compulsory for achieving a legal claim on residential rights. Politicians of the education sector even suggest to make the attendance of such courses compulsory for children from minority groups at the age of four and five before admitting them the entrance to public schools. In this case, the intercultural ,blindness’ consists of the incapacity of recognizing the particular competences of these bilingual little children and of denying the need for a bilingual education of the German side. Consequently, this tendency shows an attitude of being 7 “Toleranz solite eigentlich nur eine vortibergehende Gesinnung sein: sie muss zur Anerkennung fiihren. Dulden heiBt beleidigen." J. W. von Goethe, Maximen und Reflexionen tiber Literatur und Ethik, in: Goethes fVerke, hg. v. Sophie von Sachsen, vol. 42, Weimar, 1997, p. 221. 8 Paul Watzlawick, et al., Menschliche Kommunikation: Formen, Storungen, Paradoxien, Bern, 1969. unwilling to communicate and signals unmistakably negative messages to the others. The language and cultural differences are turned into deficits by refusal of recognition. The perception of a new language map is replaced by the attempt of restoring the past norm of a national monolingual situation.9 In view of the new, different map of languages, it becomes evident that everybody will have to learn additional languages. In order to shape the multilingual European space in a productive manner, mono-linguistic capacities are no longer good enough. In this aspect, the bilingual competences of the language minorities are to be regarded as a valuable potential that needs to be promoted. This also implies that also larger parts of the German majority need additional language competences in order to be able to shape their environment in communication with other groups in form of dialogue.10 2.2.2 ’’Man comes from the ‘Thou’ to the ‘I’”11 The stranger who does not remain in the distance, but transgresses the national borders and comes to be our neighbour makes us recognize ourselves in a new way by looking into the mirror of the other. According to Martin Buber, this intercultural dialogue does not follow the lines of an ethical norm, but fulfils a principle of anthropology: to realize one’s own person in the relation with others. No person disposes of identity in form of an object, everybody will have to conceive it anew day by day, by working out self-concepts in interdependence with others. This is why, according to Erik H. Erikson, the process of self-realization is always a painful one, and always combined with criticising existing conceptions: ’’The forming of identity begins where the usefulness of identification ends.”12 Clinging to readymade concepts of our own self indicates inner rigidity and causes mental disease. Similar to that, the distinction between groups according to standing 9 Compensating language courses, which shall compensate deficits, set difficult learning conditions for those children who are declared as having deficits and having been unsuccessful in the past. The socio-linguistics of the ‘70s, having proposed this ‘concept of deficits’, has dropped it and has substituted it by a ‘concept of differences’. Cf. W. Labov, Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular, Philadelphia, 1972. 10 How insufficient the term ’integration’ is to find a solution for the current tasks is shown by the following example of Berlin: There are about 180,000 people ofTurkish origins living in Berlin. To create a productive future for this city there has to be a dialogue between the Gentian and the Turkish inhabitants of Berlin as equal partners, people of Berlin (‘Berliner’). Contributions of both sides are demanded: there have to be changes in German institutions like the common public schools; it should be recognized that Turkish is the most important language after German in Berlin and that this language has to be offered to Gennan pupils. The knowledge ofTurkish will let the intercultural competence increase and offers a greater job perspective to young Gennans in Berlin. See: Peter Graf, Mehrsprachige Schulbildung als Schltisselqualifikation im Berufsraum Europa, in: Berufsbildung: Europaische Zeitschrift, 18, 1999/111, Thessalonki: CEDEFOP, pp. 46-53. 11 In Gennan: “Der Mensch wird am Du zum Ich.“ Martin Buber, Das dialogische Prinzip, Heidelberg, 1984 (5th edition), p. 32. 12 Erik H. Erikson, Identitat und Lebenszyklus, Frankfurt am Main, 1980 (6th edition), p. 140. ideas of ethnicity13 implies the call for social conflicts. A person who defines his or her own identity as tied down statically by himself/herself, not only has a rigid self-image, but will also be questioned by others and will have to defend his/her self against them. For this reason, people look for support in their own group, and introduce a “policy of identity”.14 It is within this context of cause and effect that Samuel P. Huntington sees the origin of the clash of civilizations: ”To hate is part of human being. Men need enemies for their self-definition and motivation: Competitors in economy, adversaries in politics. Men, by nature, distrust each other and feel threatened by those who are different.. ,”15 The hopelessness of such an attitude — ”we-against-them”, becomes very obvious in those cases where a minority tries to dissociate itself from the others, or when the majority demands integration of the minorities. After all, it is such an attitude that calls for a conflict against a foreign culture. In all cases will this lack of intercultural perception lead to a loss of cultural potentials, to social conflicts about resources up to international conflicts. 2.3 The Construction of Reality by Co-Ontogenesis The timeless validity of the statement by the philosopher Martin Buber and Erik H. Erikson’s clear definition of identity as a learning process by interaction are strongly confirmed by the latest revelations of Cognition Psychology, in particular the school of radical Constructivism. To us humans, the world is only significant in form of perceived reality. This reality is always part of the human perception; it originates in the mind and is produced by inner cognition. According to the School of Constructivism, this is no form of an illusion as there is no point of comparison at the outside that is of relevance for the inside as such: for us there is no object of comparison given to us on the outside of our perception which generates the cognition of all objects. All our perceptions result from sensual impressions which are „perturbations“ of inner expectations.16 Following the ideas of Constructivism as the determining school of 13 By “ethnicity" I understand the image of a group produced from inside by this group and from outside by their neighbours. Etnicity invites to very functional exclusion- or inclusion-strategies, just as in former times the concepts of “race" and “class" did. See: Eckhard J. Dittrich and Frank-Olaf Radtke (ed.), Ethnizitat. Wissenschaft und Minderheiten, Opladen, 1990, p. 33 ff. 14 Samuel P. Huntington, Kamp/der Kulturen: Die Neugestaltung der Weltpolitik im 21. Jahrhundert, Miinchen-Wien, 1996, p. 193. 15 Huntington, p. 202. 16 Although the term ,constructivism’ has become a vogue word, no human science can withdraw from this school of psychology of cognition. The empirical findings show too clearly that human perception means far more than inner representations of impressions coming from outside. The leading ideas for this modem school of the psychology of cognition come from: Humberto R. Maturana and Francisco J. Varela, Der Baum der Erkenntnis: Wie wir die Welt durch unsere Wahrnehmung erschaffen - die biologischen Wurzeln menschlichen Erkennens, Bern, 1987. Cognition Psychology will lead to the following conclusions which are of utmost importance for the present subject: Cognition, in the first place, is part of human action and therefore constitutes an inner construct ofopinion. There is nothing that is “unambiguously” certain in its meaning. The question is not if, but how do people cope with their sensual impressions throughout their life, whether they cope with them in a constructive or destructive manner. In both cases they will do it with others. There is no third option, even fading out parts of the environment implies action in the sense of a cognitive choice and decision. Secondly, according to the neurobiologists H. R. Maturana and F. J. Varela, it is only possible to construct our world in a mutual effort, i. e. via the medium of language. They coined the term of „Co-Ontogenesis“:17 Only together with others, one can realise oneself ontologically. Human existence is constituted by consciousness which is developed by language, by speaking to oneself or to others. Getting into contact with others is not a certain act of charity but an essential factor for growing into a human being in the sense of a conscious realisation of one’s own self. ”We have come across a social dynamic that points to a basic ontological feature of the conditio humana that is no longer a mere assumption: We have only got the world that we produce together with others, and only love will make it possible to shape this world.”18 The construction of reality is a social-communicative process. Language constitutes human consciousness: The more intensively language is expressed, and this exceeds the limits of one’s own group, the more differentiated will the human consciousness be developed: ’’What biology shows us is that the unique quality of a human being merely consists of a social coupling-structure, which originates from the state of “being-in-language”.19 Consequently, there is no more effective way of promoting intercultural competences than offering to young persons to learn more than one language fluently and thus enabling them to enter independently and on the basis of a coupled structure into “a world shared with others,”20 to shape the world together with others in a constructive manner and thus realize themselves through this process.21 17 Maturana and Varela, p. 224. IS Maturana and Varela, p. 267. '''Maturana and Varela, p. 265. 20 Maturana and Varela, p. 111. 21 Peter Graf, Wahmehmung des Fremden als Verstehen des Eigenen: Interkulturelle Padagogik und Konstruktivismus, in: Jochen Oltmer (ed.), Migrationsforschung und Interkulturelle Studien, IMIS-Schriften, vol. 11, Osnabruck: IMIS, 2001, pp. 313-332. 3. BILINGUAL EDUCATION AS INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE The new map of languages in Europe calls for new educational and cultural policies that will fulfil the following three conditions: - First of all, the potential of the first languages will have to be preserved, more attention is to be put on the languages of the minorities. They have to be recognized as a cultural resource and are to be promoted at school. - Secondly, it is essential that all parts of the population have a perfect command of the national official language. It is to be taught primarily as school language and as a compulsory subject in order to supply a reliable bridge of understanding for the dialogue amongst the different language groups. - The third objective is to develop a concept of intercultural language education that is suitable for all pupils without causing any inequalities or overcharges, to be offered at regular schools and to be integrated into the general school system. Such a policy of education that meets the demands of the new variety of languages implies a decision of cultural policies that will entail significant consequences: in order to enable the young generation to shape the dialogue within the educational and professional space of Europe in a competent manner, it will no longer suffice to pursue a national and mono-lingual educational concept. Monolingual schools exclude language minorities from developing their first language or separate them from regular school careers. Not only are school drop-outs produced in such a manner, but also will this monolingual system lead to a loss of the language potential that part of the pupils already dispose partially of when they enter school.22 This shows the need for bilingual school careers from the beginning of the first class. Bilingual classes create equal conditions amongst the pupils as everybody will be in the same situation of learning two languages right from the start. A minority language will be included in the language offer, whilst, at the same time, the official national language will maintain its prior position as being always one of the languages that is taught. The new element of this concept is the idea to invite all pupils to learn to speak and write fluently in one language of a European partner country as a second language in the sense of “participative language community”.23 Bilingual education at primary schools within the national regular school system is characterized by the following features: 22 See for the experience in Canada: Jim Cummins and Marcel Danesi, Heritage Languages: The Development and Denial of Canada's Linguistic Resources, Toronto, 1990. 23 In regions of borderlines, the concept of’neighbour languages’ (“Nachbarsprachen") has been developed. Cf. Manfred Pelz, Lerne die Sprache des Nachbarn: Grenziiberschreitende Spracharbeit zwischen Deutschland und Frankreich, Frankfurt, 1989. 1. Two languages right from the beginning All children will thoroughly study two languages at an early age. Together with their first language that they have acquired in their families, they will learn a second language in order to have a perfect command of that language at both, oral and written level, at the end of their school career.24 Besides the minority language, children will always learn the national official language as compulsory subject being the prior language of education at school. 2. European partner languages as second languages The range of second languages is not limited to the traditional languages of education (mainly English and French), but will also include the languages of other European neighbour countries, in particular of urban areas. Being in contact with children who are native speakers of this second language, the German pupils will learn to speak Italian, Spanish, Greek, Portuguese, Turkish, Polish or Russian.25 In such a manner, schools will develop where, apart from the group of German pupils, only pupils from the same different language group are admitted and all pupils are taught in German and the chosen partner language. The language of the minority group is then being taught as a second language. Both partial groups will be educated together in bilingual “Europaklassen“ (‘European Classes’).26 3. The Coordinate Network of Schools with different pairs of languages Different primary schools of one city or town will offer different pairs of languages. At all schools, national official language will remain the prior language of education at school. All schools together will be joined in a coordinate network which reflects the language landscape of the city or town. Thus, families of language minorities will have the opportunity to select a school for their children where their own first language is offered together with the national official language. 4. Multilingual secondary school qualifications at regular schools On the basis of bilingual school careers at primary school level, pupils will be subsequently offered to continue their studies by following the established concept of foreign language teaching which implies that all pupils will learn the English language anyhow. On the whole, this combination of bilingual primary school teaching 24 Concerning ‘Textkompetenz’ as competence on letters and texts, see: Peter Graf, Friihe Zwei-sprachigkeit undSchule, Miinchen, 1987, pp. 96-188. 25 All these pairs of languages are actually taught in several “Staatliche Europaschulen Berlin". 26 Peter Graf, Sprachbildung und Schulentwicklung auf dem Weg nach Europa: ‘Europaklassen’ in offentlichen Schulen, Deutsch lernen, vol. 21, no. 3, 1996, pp. 218-237. and foreign language teaching at secondary school level will enable pupils to achieve multilingual secondary school qualifications. As sophisticated as it may appear, this proposed concept is already being successfully carried out within the regular German school systems at schools such as the ’’Staatlichen Europaschulen Berlin" (“Certified Europe Schools in Berlin”), in ’’Deutsch-italienischen Schulen" (“German-Italian schools”, e.g. in Wolfsburg) and in ’’Deutsch-italienischen Europaklassen“ (“German-Italian European Classes”) in Osnabriick. Since the 1990s, there is a considerable increase in parents’ interest to be noted, which may be explained by the fact that pupils are well able to cope with the educational offer and that the language identity of each partial group is preserved and none of it feels neglected. Not only are all these school projects characterized by their broad offer of language education which starts at an early school age, but they are also linked by their common concept of intercultural learning and the promotion of a European awareness, on both sides, that of the minorities and that of pupils from monolingual German families.27 The motto of the ’’Staatlichen Europaschulen Berlin11 (Certified Europe Schools in Berlin) is as follows; ’’Learning together, from each other, for each other."2" At these schools, pupils with different cultural linguistic background will forget their previous prejudices against other groups, and they will learn together to become young Europeans during the years of their joint education in a constructive process of “coontogenesis”, and in continuous dialogue with those who are different and may have different abilities. POVZETEK MIGRACIJA KOT SPREMEMBA KULTURNIH ODNOSOV, KI JO PRINAŠA NOVI JEZIKO VNI ZEMLJEVID Peter Graf Avtor uvodoma opredeli in opiše spremembe »jezikovnega zemljevida«, ki jih moramo upoštevati v Evropi, v zadnjih desetletjih še posebno v Nemčiji, in jih analizira tako na jezikovni kot na socialno-kulturni ravni. Različni migracijski procesi so povzročili spremembe v jezikovnih zemljevidih evropskih dežel, in to ne le začasno, temveč temeljno in dolgoročno. Priseljenske manjšine so prinesle s seboj nove jezike in vnesle večjo stopnjo kulturne raznolikosti, kot jo je Evropa poznala kdaj koli doslej. Narodna večina mora sprejeti dejstvo, da se mora vloga njenega jezika kot sredstva komunikacije prilagoditi novemu odnosu do manjšinskih jezikov. S so- 27 Cf. Peter Graf and Fritz Loser, Zweisprachige Schulen (thematic issue), Bildung und Erziehung, vol. 50, no. 1, 1997. 2!1 See: Michael Gohlich (ed.), Enropaschule - Das Berliner Modeli, Neuwied, 1998. dobnimi migracijami so se vzpostavila nova socialna, politična in kulturna razmerja. Ker pa so vse te spremembe porodile vrsto nesporazumov v okviru kulturnih stikov in političnega življenja, so sedanji medkulturni odnosi pogosto prežeti z napetostjo. V drugem delu prispevka avtor analizira nove odnose, ki jih prinašajo migracije, in sicer z vidika učnega procesa na različnih ravneh: - Migracije in spoznavanje jezika: posledice za učenje jezikov in jezikovno vzgojo otrok, ne le pripadnikov etničnih manjšin ampak tudi narodne večine. - Migracije in sprememba jezikovnih odnosov skozi proces oblikovanja Evropske unije s približno petnajstimi uradnimi jeziki znotraj njenih meja (novi položaj uradnih jezikov bo v prihodnosti šibkejši). - Medkulturni konflikti kot konflikti jezikovnega odnosa: proces internacionalizacije na drugi strani spodbuja različne skupine k poudarjanju svoje identitete predvsem prek materinščine. Stališča jezikovne večvrednosti, kakršna smo v nacionalnih družbah poznali doslej, izključujejo druge jezikovne skupine in porajajo probleme v medkulturni komunikaciji. V zadnjem delu prispevka avtor obravnava izglede za zaščito kulturne raznolikosti s pomočjo konstruktivističnega koncepta spoznavanja jezikov in jezikovne vzgoje. Znotraj tega konteksta predstavi primer večjezičnega izobraževanja v nekaterih nemških šolah, kjer želijo učence iz različnih jezikovnih skupin vzgojiti kot »Evropejce jutrišnjega dne«. Peter Graf je doktor znanosti in profesor na Oddelku za kulturne znanosti Univerze v Osnabriicku (Nemčija) ter raziskovalec na Inštitutu za migracijske in medkulturne študije, ki deluje v okviru iste univerze.