The evolution of language ideological debates about English and French in a multilingual humanitarian organisation

Abstract

This article traces the evolution of the ideological construction of elite multilingualism, with a focus on the values accorded to French and English, under transforming socioeconomic and institutional conditions at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The ICRC, a major humanitarian agency based in Geneva, opens a window onto the construction of “internationalisation” and its accompanying language ideologies, resulting in fluctuating hiring requirements for “delegates” (expatriate representatives). The data include job advertisements for delegate posts from 1989 to 2020 complemented by interviews with different generations of delegates and ethnographic fieldwork in a recruitment fair. The analysis of language ideological debates at the ICRC illuminates the articulations and tensions between “roots” in Geneva, symbolised by French, and “routes” in its delegations worldwide, with English as a lingua franca, in dominant discourses about multilingualism. The requirements for ICRC delegates include English as a must and at least a second ICRC working language. Concerning the latter, there are tensions between the desired language regime at headquarters, privileging French as the “parent” language, and the current needs in key operations, with a shortage of Arabic speakers. The analysis shows that French requirements for generalist delegates have fluctuated from perfect command and good knowledge to an optional second working language. In the 2020 recruitment campaign, elite multilingualism is hierarchically stratified into English as a global language, other “working languages” including Arabic, and non-European languages such as Pashto or Dari as newly-introduced “assets”.

Reconstructing over 20 years of language practice, management and ideology at a multinational corporation in Brussels: A scaled socio-historical approach to language policy

“…In this article, we report on a case study of the socio-historical development of one MNC's corporate language policy in order to gain a holistic insight into what has caused a company to linguistically function the way it does today. Similar sociohistorical approaches to language policy have also been adopted to study international political institutions such as the United Nations and the Council of Europe (Duchêne, 2008;Sokolovska, 2016) and in the humanitarian context of the International Committee of the Red Cross (Garrido, 2021), but we argue that the for-profit incentives of an MNC under neoliberalism and late capitalism provide a different perspective to the multiscalar sociolinguistic context of FinCorp. Additionally, Barakos (2020) has critically examined language policy at a Welch business from a historical perspective, but focuses primarily on bilingualism and the role of minority languages.…”

“…Despite the differences in FinCorp and FinCorp Brussels' current language policies, the observed developments over time and the changes made across different spatiotemporal scales underline the importance of a tailor-made language policy that is adapted to a brand or company's specific needs in terms of practice, management and ideology (Sanden, 2016;Sanden & Kankaanranta, 2018). Such a socio-historical approach, which had already been shown to be particularly apt in different institutional contexts and to examine different subjects (Barakos, 2020;Duchêne, 2008;Garrido, 2021;Sokolovska, 2016), we argued is highly suitable to underline the need for such a tailor-made language policy and to highlight the societal complexities that influence and shape a company's multiscalar language policy development in light of globalization.…”

“…This socio-historical approach is based on a perceived need to "move away from a static understanding of the organization as an entity that is made up of its material and legal structure and that is fixed in time and space, to one that is fluid and continuously evolving" (Angouri & Piekkari, 2018: 18). Indeed, we should contextualize and understand corporate language policy development in a way that transcends the gap between practice and research, as practice is always socio-historically embedded, but most current research does not yet comprehensively acknowledge this socio-historical embeddedness in its analyses of language policy (with notable exceptions of Barakos, 2020;Duchêne, 2008;Garrido, 2021;Sokolovska, 2016). The headquarters of the MNC central in this case study are located in the superdiverse and highly multilingual Belgian capital Brussels, which offers a specific and complex background for this case study.…”

Humanitarian neutrality and language at the International Committee of the Red Cross

“…2 The ICRC has always had its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, a country that has positioned itself as an international mediator and outsider as an "exceptional case" in Europe (Purtschert & Fischer-Tiné, 2015). The international image of a politically neutral and pluralistic/multilingual Switzerland (see Del Percio, 2013) has been capitalised for international cooperation and diplomacy in Geneva (see Garrido, 2022a). In fact, Swiss political neutrality and humanitarian neutrality at the ICRC have legitimised each other for decades (Troyon & Palmieri, 2007, p. 104).…”

French and language ideologies in a multilingual European Union institution: Re-constructing the meaning of language choice at work

“…While a personal language choice between two languages at work might appear to be a niche concern within the predominantly monolingual and English-focused global scholarship (Liddicoat, 2015;Tietze, 2004), motivations and effects of language choice are of significant importance in international organisations, especially in the EU institutions that promote multilingualism (Kruse, 2012;Leal, 2021). With the increasing speed and scope of international migration over the last few decades, adopting the "multilingual way of seeing" (Piller, 2015) and understanding and managing language choice may become even more vital in international business and other organisational contexts that are characterised by high international turnover and changing language policies (Garrido, 2022). To date, language-sensitive managerial research has targeted companies rather than non-profit or public organisations (Angouri and Piekkari, 2018).…”