Changing Routes, Changing Needs: Perspectives on Migration and Language Teaching in Europe

Abstract

The paper explores the relations among language policies, immigration policies and language teaching as a broad frame for adult literacy and L2 learning in Europe. It discusses the place of languages in immigration policies, focusing on the policies promoted by the European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe (CoE) through legislative acts and guidelines. Two turning points are relevant: the laws on language requirements introduced by many European countries for either residence or citizenship, and the so-called refugee crisis in 2015, both of which have imposed new tasks on all stakeholders. European policies seem to be ambivalent: while access to the host country’s language is recommended as a means of integration and is supported through funding, the position of migrant languages is still unclear in the social, cultural, educational and institutional space and in European public discourse on languages, which gives a key role to multilingualism.