Officiality and strategic ambiguity in language policy: exploring migrant experiences in Andorra and Luxembourg

Abstract

This article examines de jure language officialization policies in Andorra and Luxembourg, and addresses how these are discursively reproduced, sustained or challenged by members of resident migrant communities in the two countries. Although the two countries bear similarities in their small size, extensive multilingualism and the pride of place accorded to the ‘small’ languages of Catalan and Luxembourgish respectively, they have adopted different strategies as regards according official status to the languages spoken there. We start by undertaking a close reading of language policy documents and highlight the ways that they are informed by ‘strategic ambiguity’, wherein certain key elements are deliberately left open to interpretation via a range of textual strategies. We then conduct a thematic analysis of individual speaker testimonies to understand how this strategic ambiguity impacts on the ways that speakers negotiate fluid multilingual practices while also having to navigate rigid monolingual regimes. In given contexts, these hierarchies privilege Catalan in Andorra and Luxembourgish in Luxembourg, particularly in relation to the regimentation of migrants' linguistic behaviour. In this way, the paper provides insights into the complex ideological fields in which small languages are situated and demonstrates the ways in which language policy is intertwined with issues of power and dominance.

Learning Insular Nordic Languages: Comparative Perspectives on Migrants’ Experiences Learning Faroese and Icelandic

“…A recent study on migrants in two small countries, Andorra and Luxembourg, shows how societal configurations of languages in smaller communities influence the lived experiences of migrants. Language policies in these places are informed by strategic ambiguity and whilst the de jure policy acknowledges certain languages as 'official', the reality on the ground is far more flexible and negotiated in everyday interactions by migrants (Hawkey & Horner 2021). In terms of understanding changing demographics and increasing linguistic diversity in the wake of globalisation, Vertovec's (2007) account of superdiversity in the UK is a way to explain this phenomenon.…”

« Même si l’usage du français décline, là où pourtant il était si foisonnant… » : The sociolinguistic situation of French in Andorra

“…It should be noted that these advantages are not tied to integration within the new host society, but rather to prospective onward mobility to France for study or work. Andorra is a small country and therefore its linguistic marketplace (Bourdieu 1993) is fundamentally transnational, and the value accorded to different languages therein is derived from the relationship between Andorra and its larger neighbours and their languages (Hawkey and Horner 2021). The usefulness of French is pointed out to Madalena as a language able to 'open other doors' for her son, with this statement immediately explained as meaning he could 'go to France', rather than stay in Andorra or return to Portugal.…”

“…For a comprehensive assessment of de jure Andorran language policy and the role played by French therein, please seeHawkey and Horner (2021).…”