Language and Multiculturalism

This chapter explores the relevance of recent philosophical writings about linguistic justice for the political theory of multiculturalism. It begins by describing the significance of language politics for the first wave of academic debates about multiculturalism. Then it sets out a crucial theoretical distinction, developed by linguistic justice scholars, between people’s communicative and identity-related interests in languages. These can be interpreted and combined in different ways, in support of very different language policies and regimes. The following section discusses some of the different views endorsed by multiculturalists and their critics about how best to advance people’s linguistic interests, focussing on the question of whether to extend official recognition to minority languages. Whilst most scholarship about linguistic justice concentrates on the claims of speakers of autochthonous languages, the final section tentatively explores the demands of linguistic justice for immigrants.