engleski

Multilingualism and migration: a historical perspective

Different forms of migration have shaped the history of humankind from its very beginnings. In understanding contemporary movement of people it is therefore helpful to critically reassess different historical episodes of mass migration. One of the most significant ones in modern history was the mass emigration from Europe to North America around the turn of the 20th century, which contributed to creating a very culturally and linguistically diverse population on the continent. In terms of the migrants’ origins, a particularly interesting group are those from the multi-ethnic and multilingual Austro-Hungarian Empire, since the diversity of both their country of origin and the receiving country possibly presents them with a greater challenge, but on the other hand gives them a potential advantage due to their in many cases pre-existing intercultural competence and multilingualism. This paper will rely primarily on newspapers from the period as a source of information on how these immigrants coped with their new environment, what role their existing linguistic and intercultural communication skills played in this process and how they developed new competences. Along with a critical approach to contemporary media discourses on immigrants and immigration, it will discuss the parallels and links (or incongruities) between the development of these competences and changes in (particularly national or ethnic) affiliation.

multilingualism ; migration ; Austria-Hungary ; national indifference ; anthropology

nije evidentirano