PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

This chapter seeks to identify and disentangle some of the strands knotted and tied together, loosely or otherwise, regarding languages and citizenship in Germany. Two laws that were debated and passed around the turn of the century pertain to citizenship for children and immigration policies for adults, respectively. What interests me is the changing perception of the German language and multilingualism that the legal framework and institutionalised structure seem to have initiated. Instead of this being simply a matter of legislative interest and juridical interpretation, there appears to be a vast discursive and affective potential with seemingly everyone having an opinion on the need for ‘Sprache’. One would be led to believe that all those who allegedly do not yet speak German (and that too in a manner fitting middle-class and academic norms) are bereft of the ability to communicate or are even speech-impaired. This bias affects not merely children, ‘otherised’ in and through the educational system, but also adults, who are infantilised and muted under the guise of inclusion and access while being systematically excluded within society.