Can minority language rights be a model for the integration of migrant languages in Europe?

Due to all sorts of international migration, intra-EU mobility and other globalization and transnational phenomena there is a proliferation of migrant languages, especially in the urban settings of Western Europe. With the ‘old’ languages of the European Union, i.e. established national and minority languages this leads to a complicated state of multilingualism. Some commentators characterize this state of affairs as one of ‘superdiversity’. Although the normative political regime of the EU based on linguistic justice and the equal treatment of languages should justify a uniform approach to the different types of languages, minority languages have a weaker legal position than national languages. Minority language

rights developed in the framework of the Council of Europe are the maximum non-national languages have been assigned within the European Union. Taking into account the Union’s normative linguistic policy it is a logical move to claim a uniform treatment of ‘old’ minority and ‘new’ migrant languages. Note however that migrant languages do not have the same characteristics as minority languages. The most salient difference is that minority languages are ‘territorial’, i.e. they are related to a specific territory, whereas migrant languages are ‘mobile’, i.e. they are the result of the mobility flows referred to above. In the paper, a number of asymmetries resulting from this dichotomy between territorial and mobile languages will be discussed. This rules out a uniform treatment of minority and migrant languages within the EU. Instead it will be argued that what is needed is a flexible language regime for Europe that integrates both types of languages respecting normative EU policy but without pressing for a uniform treatment and status of all language types.