Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Gender, Race and Inclusive Citizenship pp 315–350Cite as

Monolingual Citizenship? Unequal Multilingualisms and Ambiguous Acts

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

  • 969 Accesses

Abstract

Aoileann Ní Mhurchú and Radhika Natarajan discuss vibrant issues of mono- and multilingualisms in terms of how certain language regimes are linked to a system of belonging in nation states. These regimes are challenged by the practice of migrant or alleged migrant communities. Focusing on the fields of education and cultural practice, both provide deep insights into the contexts of—among others—relationships with indigenous language in Ireland, the German education system in school and adult education, language mixing in Germany and Tamil-speaking women in Germany. Despite the range of contexts analysed, both agree and complement each other, theorising language as highly political and connected to questions of power, belonging and acts. The latter is analysed in its multi-faceted forms, avoiding simplistic binaries, and instead taking into account language practice and policies in their ambiguities and contradictions.

Aoileann Ní Mhurchú and Radhika Natarajan are in conversation with Malte Kleinschmidt

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Under the section ‘Becoming a German citizen by birth’ the Federal Ministry explains what jus soli means: “In addition to the principle of descent, since 1 January 2000, German nationality law also recognizes the principle of birthplace (in Latin: jus soli) for the acquisition of citizenship. According to this principle, children born in Germany to non-German parents may, under certain conditions, acquire German citizenship. At least one of their parents must have been a legal resident of Germany for at least eight years and must have a permanent right of residence at the time of the child’s birth.” (Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community 2021).

  2. 2.

    Saorstát Éireann (The Irish Free State) was founded in 1922. Ireland officially became a republic in 1948. Gaeilge is recognised under the Irish constitution (Bunreacht na hÉireann) as the first official language of the Republic of Ireland, with English being the second official language—although almost all government business and debates are conducted in English.

  3. 3.

    The words for ‘broken’ (briste) and ‘clever’ (cliste) rhyme in Gaeilge. There is some suggestion that this is an old adage (known as a seanfhocail in Gaeilge or Sprichwort in German).

  4. 4.

    Of course, it is also worth noting that this rap song was recorded as part of a school programme in the Republic of Ireland—a workshop programme run by Scoil íosgáin (íosgáin school). This shows how education is a complex space in which dominant ideas about language are both policed as well as challenged.

References

  • Achebe, Chinua. 1997. English and The African Writer. Transition 75/76: 342–349.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adorno, Theodor W. 2020 [1971]. Was bedeutet Aufarbeitung der Vergangenheit. In Erziehung zur Mündigkeit, Theodor W. Adorno, 10–28. 28. edition. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alexander, Claire, Rosalind Edwards and Bogusia Temple. 2007. Contesting Cultural Communities: Language, Ethnicity and Citizenship in Britain. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 33(5): 783–800.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, Benedict. 1991 [1983]. Imagined Communities. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anzaldúa, Gloria, Ed. 1990. Making Face Making Soul, Haciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminists of Colour. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Askins, Kye 2015. Being Together: Everyday Geographies and The Quiet Politics of Belonging, ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies 14(2): 470–478.

    Google Scholar 

  • Assmann, Jan. 2011. Cultural Memory and Early Civilization: Writing, Remembrance, and Political Imagination. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhatia, Tej K., and William C. Ritchie, Eds. 2008. The Handbook of Bilingualism, 3. ed. Malden: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhatia, Tej K., and William C. Ritchie, Eds. 2013. The Handbook of Bilingualism and Multilingualism, 2. ed. Malden: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blackledge, Adrian. 2003. Constructions of Identity in Political Discourse in Multilingual Britain. In Negotiation of Identities in Multilingual Contexts, Eds Aneta Pavlenko, Adrian Blackledge, 70–88. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters LTD

    Google Scholar 

  • Blackledge, Adrian, and Angela Creese. 2010. Multilingualism. New York: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Block, David. 2003. The Social Turn in Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blommaert, Jan. 2001. Investigating Narrative Inequality: African Asylum Seekers’ Stories in Belgium. Discourse and Society 12 (4): 413–449.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blommaert, Jan. 2015. Language: The Great Diversifier. In Routledge International Handbook of Diversity Studies, Ed. Steven Vertovec, 83–90. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonfiglio, Thomas Paul. 2010. Mother Tongues and Nations: The Invention of the Native Speaker. New York: de Gruyter Mouton.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bonfiglio, Thomas Paul. 2013. Inventing the Native Speaker. Critical Multilingualism Studies 1 (2): 29–58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blunkett, D. 2002. Integration with Diversity: Globalisation and the Renewal of Democracy and Civil Society. In Rethinking Britishness. The Foreign Policy Centre.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blunkett, D. 2006. ‘Integration with Diversity’, The Foreign Policy Website. https://fpc.org.uk/integration-with-diversity-globalisation-and-the-renewal-of-democracy-andcivil-society/

  • Canagarajah, Suresh. 2012. Translingual Practice: Global Englishes and Cosmopolitan Relations. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Canagarajah, Suresh, and Indika Liyanage, 2012. Lessons from Pre-colonial Multilingualism. In The Routledge Handbook of Multilingualism, Eds Marilyn Martin-Jones, Adrian Blackledge and Angela Crees 49–65. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Census of the Population. 2016. Profile 10: Education, Skills and the Irish Language, (CSO Central Statistics Office). Statistical Publication 23 November 2017. https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cp10esil/p10esil/. Accessed 29 April 2021.

  • Chow, Rey. 2014. Not Like a Native Speaker: On Languaging as a Postcolonial Experience. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cook, Vivian. 2008. Multi-Competence: Black Hole or Wormhole for Second Language Acquisition Research? In Understanding Second Language Process, Ed. Han ZhaoHong, 16–26. Clevedon, New York and Ontario: Multilingual Matters.

    Google Scholar 

  • Darling, Jonathan. 2014. Asylum and the Post-Political: Domopolitics, Depoliticization and Acts of Citizenship. Antipode 46 (10): 72–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Das, Sonia Neela. 2011. Rewriting the Past and Reimagining the Future: The Social Life of a Tamil Heritage Language Industry. American Ethnologist: Journal of the American Ethno- logical Society 38 (4): 774–789.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Votta, Neil. 2004. Blowback: Linguistic Nationalism, Institutional Decay, and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Derrida, Jacques. 1998. Monolingualism of the Other: The Prosthesis of Origin. Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dirim, İnci, and Alisha Heinemann. 2016. Migrationsbedingte Mehrsprachigkeit und der Erwerb sprachlich gebundenen Wissens und Könnens. In Handbuch Sprache in der Bildung, Eds. Jörg Kilian, Birgit Brouër, and Dina Lüttenberg, 99–121. Berlin: De Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doran, Meredith. 2007. Alternative French, Alternative Identities: Situating Language in la Banlieue. Contemporary French and Francophone Studies 11 (4): 497–508.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erel, Umut, Tracey Reynolds and Erene Kaptani. 2018. Migrant Mothers’ Creative Interventions into Racialized Citizenship. Ethnic and Racial Studies 41(1): 55–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fanon, Franz. 2008. Black Skin, White Masks. Trans. Charles Lam Markman, London: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community. 2021. Becoming a German citizen by birth. https://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/faqs/EN/topics/migration/staatsang/Erwerb_der_deutschen_Staatsangehoerigkeit_durch_Geburt_en.html. Accessed: 28. October 2021.

  • Fortier, Anne-Marie. 2018. On (Not) Speaking English: Colonial Legacies in Language Requirements for British Citizenship. Sociology 52(6): 1254–1269.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, Michel. 1977. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Essays 1972–1977, Ed. Colin, Gordon, 152–154. New York: Pantheon Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • García, Ofelia, and Li Wei. 2014. Translanguaging: Language, Bilingualism and Education. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gogolin, Ingrid. 1994. Der monolinguale Habitus der multilingualen Schule. Münster: Waxmann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gramling, David. 2016. The Invention of Monolingualism. London: Bloomsburg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffith, Phoebe, and Mark Leonard, Eds. 2002. Reclaiming Britishness. London: Foreign Centre.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamburger, Franz, Tarek Badawia, and Merle Hummrich, Eds. 2005. Migration und Bildung. Über das Verhältnis von Anerkennung und Zumutung in der Einwanderungsgesellschaft. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hentges, Gudrun, Volker Hinnenkamp, and Almut Zwengel, Eds. 2010. Migrations- und Integrationsforschung in der Diskussion. Biografie, Sprache und Bildung als zentrale Bezugspunkte. 2. Ed. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirsh, A. (2018) Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging. London: Vintage Publishing

    Google Scholar 

  • Isin, Engin, and Greg Neilson, Eds. 2008. Acts of Citizenship. London: Zed books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krüger-Potratz, Marianne. 2000. Schulpolitik für ‚fremde‘ Kinder. In Migration, gesellschaftliche Differenzierung und Bildung. Resultate des Forschungsschwerpunktprogramms FABER, Eds. Ingrid Gogolin, and Bernhard Nauck, 365–384. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lutz, Helma. 2000. Biographisches Kapital als Ressource der Bewältigung von Migrationsprozessen. In Migration, gesellschaftliche Differenzierung und Bildung: Resultate des Forschungsschwerpunktprogramms FABER, Eds. Ingrid Gogolin, and Bernhard Nauck, 179–210. Opladen: Leske + Budrich.

    Google Scholar 

  • Makoni, Sinfree. 2003. From Misinvention to Disinvention: An Approach to Multilingualism. In Black linguistics: Language, Society and Politics in Africa and the Americas, Eds. Sinfree Makoni, Geneva Smitherman, Arthur Spear and Aretha Ball. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mason, Rowena, and Harriet Sherwood, 2016. Cameron ‘Stigmatizing Muslim Women’ with English Language Policy, The Guardian, 18 January.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mecheril, Paul. 2004. Einführung in die Migrationspädagogik. Weinheim: Beltz.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mills, Jean. 2004. Mothers and Mother Tongue: Perspectives and Self-Construction by Mothers of Pakistani Heritage. In Negotiation of Identities in Multilingual Contexts, Eds. Aneta Pavlenko and Adrian Blackledge, 161–191. London: Multilingual Matters.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • McNevin, Anne. 2006. Political Belonging in a Neoliberal Era: The Struggle of the Sans-Papiers. Citizenship Studies 10(2): 131–151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mignolo, Walter. 2013. Geopolitics of Sensing and Knowing: On (De)coloniality, Border Thinking and Epistemic Disobedience. Confero 1(1): 129–150.

    Google Scholar 

  • Natarajan, Radhika. 2013. Das biographische Gepäck: Ehrenamtliches Engagement bei sri- lankisch tamilischen Flüchtlingsfrauen. In Repräsentationen von Arbeit: Transdisziplinäre Analysen und künstlerische Produktionen, Eds. Susanne Brogi, Carolin Freier, Ulf Freier-Otten, and Katja Hartosch, 281–298. Bielefeld: transcript.

    Google Scholar 

  • Natarajan, Radhika. 2016a. Die Erfindung der Einsprachigen: Überlegungen zur sprachlichen Vielfalt. In Geflüchtete und kulturelle Bildung. Formate und Konzepte für ein neues Praxisfeld, Eds. Maren Ziese und Caroline Gritschke, 261–274. Bielefeld: transcript.

    Google Scholar 

  • Natarajan, Radhika. 2016b. Memories Engendered in Diaspora: Multivocal Narratives of Tamil Refugee Women. In Theorizing Social Memories: Concepts and Contexts. Routledge Advances in Sociology, Eds. Gerd Sebald, and Jatin Wagle, 184–207. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Natarajan, Radhika. 2017. Vererbtes Engagement: Facettenreiche Teilhabe bei sri-lankisch-tamilischen Zwangsmigrierten. In Fluchtmigration, gesellschaftliche Teilhabe und Bildung. Handlungsfelder und Erfahrungen, Eds. Isabel Sievers and Florian Grawan, 167–178. Frankfurt am Main: Brandes & Apsel.

    Google Scholar 

  • Natarajan, Radhika. 2019. Einleitung. Sprache, Flucht und Migration. Einordnende Überlegungen. In Sprache, Flucht, Migration: Kritische, historische und pädagogische Annäherungen, Ed. Radhika Natarajan, 3–47. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-21232-2_1.

  • Natarajan, Radhika. 2021. Prolog. Sprachenbewusst, gendersensibel und Bildungsgerecht. Einleitende Anmerkungen. In Sprache – Bildung – Geschlecht. Interdisziplinäre Ansätze in Flucht- und Migrationskontexten, Ed. Radhika Natarajan, 1–26. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-28341-4_1.

  • Ní Mhurchú, Aoileann. 2016. Unfamiliar Acts of Citizenship: Enacting citizenship in Vernacular Music and Language from the Space of Marginalised Intergenerational Migration. Citizenship Studies 20: 156–172.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ní Mhurchú, Aoileann 2019. Why Feelings Matter in Global Politics: Aesthetics, Vulnerability, and Playing with Language, ISS Blog on Global Development and Social Justice (BLISS), June 10. Available at: https://issblog.nl/2019/06/10/why-feelings-matter-in-global-politics-aesthetics-vulnerability-and-playing-with-language-by-aoileann-ni-mhurchu/Accessed 8 November 2021.

  • Nyers, Peter. 2010. No One is Illegal Between City and Nation. Studies in Social Justice 4(2): 127–143

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pennycook, Alistair. 1998. English and the Discourses of Colonialism. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rampton, Ben. 2018. Crossing: Language and Ethnicity Among Adolescents. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenthal, Gabriele. 1995. Erlebte und erzählte Lebensgeschichte: Gestalt und Struktur biographischer Selbstbeschreibungen. Frankfurt am Main: Campus.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salami, Minna. 2020. Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone, Croydon: ZED books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scoil Iosagain. 2015. Is Fearr an Gaeilge Briste Ná an Bearla Cliste [Song], GMC Beats’ Weekly Rap Workshops. https://soundcloud.com/gmcworkshops/scoil-iosagain-is-fearr-gaeilge-briste-na-bearla-cliste-seachtain-na-gaeilge. Accessed 28 April 2021.

  • Schütze, Fritz. 1983. Biographieforschung und narratives Interview. Neue Praxis 13(3): 283–293.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove, and Robert Phillipson. 1989. ‘Mother Tongue’: The Theoretical and Sociopolitical Construction of a Concept. In Status and Function of Languages and Language Varieties, Ed. Ulrich Ammon, 450–477. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stukenbrock, Anja. 2005. Sprachnationalismus. Sprachreflexion als Medium kollektiver Identitätsstiftung in Deutschland (1617–1945). Berlin: de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walgenbach, Katharina. 2018. Dekategorisierung – Verzicht auf Kategorien? In Dekategorisierung in der Pädagogik. Notwendig und riskant? Eds. Oliver Musenberg, Judith Riegert, and Teresa Sansour, 11–39. Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wa Thiongo, Ngūgī. 1986, Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature, London: James Currey

    Google Scholar 

  • Wickramasinghe, Nira. 2014. Sri Lanka in the Modern Age: A History of Contested Identities. London: Hurst.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiese, Heike. 2012. Kiezdeutsch: Ein neuer Dialekt entsteht. München: Beck

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wiese, Heike. 2013. The Potential of Multi-ethnic Speakers/Das Potential Multiethnischer Sprechergemeinschaften. In Das Deutsch der Migranten, Ed. Arnulf Deppermann, 41–58. Berlin and New York: de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiese, Heike. 2014. Voices of linguistic outrage: Standard Language Constructs and the Discourse on New Urban Dialects. In Working Papers in Urban Language and Literacies Vol. 120, Ed. Ben Rampton. Kings College London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiese, Heike. 2015 ‘This Migrants’ Babble is not a German Dialect’: The Interaction of Standard Language Ideology and ‘us’/’them’ Dichotomies in the Public Discourses on a Multiethnolect. Language in Society 44(3): 341–368.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yildiz, Yasemin. 2012. Beyond the Mother Tongue: The Postmonolingual Condition. New York: Fordham University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Manchester University, Manchester, United Kingdom

    Aoileann Ní Mhurchú

  2. Universität Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Deutschland

    Radhika Natarajan

  3. Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover, Deutschland

    Malte Kleinschmidt

Authors
  1. Aoileann Ní Mhurchú
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Radhika Natarajan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Malte Kleinschmidt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aoileann Ní Mhurchú .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Deutschland

    Linda Supik

  2. Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover, Deutschland

    Malte Kleinschmidt

  3. Universität Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Deutschland

    Radhika Natarajan

  4. Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Deutschland

    Tobias Neuburger

  5. Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Deutschland

    Catharina Peeck-Ho

  6. Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover, Deutschland

    Christiane Schröder

  7. Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover, Deutschland

    Deborah Sielert

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 Der/die Autor(en), exklusiv lizenziert an Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, ein Teil von Springer Nature

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Ní Mhurchú, A., Natarajan, R., Kleinschmidt, M. (2022). Monolingual Citizenship? Unequal Multilingualisms and Ambiguous Acts. In: Supik, L., et al. Gender, Race and Inclusive Citizenship. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-36391-8_13

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-36391-8_13

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer VS, Wiesbaden

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-658-36390-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-658-36391-8

  • eBook Packages: Social Science and Law (German Language)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation