MULTILINGUAL FAMILIES AND THEIR POSITION IN EUROPEAN SOCIETIES

• Authors: Ceballos Rodríguez Gabriel Alberto , Ainsaar Mare
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

European Union (EU) statistics show that the percentage of people living in immigrant or mixed households is growing (Eurostat, 2017). The aim of this study is to analyse the diversity of multilingual families and to describe their social environment in Europe. We study the proportion of people living in multilingual families, their demographic background, and their integration into society. Furthermore, we classify certain European countries according to the characteristics of their multilingual households to better understand the environments in which multilingual families live. We use European Social Survey (ESS) data on immigration background and integration attitudes to analyse multilingual family members from 18 European countries. Demographic background variables include: (1) immigration background and languages spoken at home, (2) multi-ancestry background, and (3) presence of children in the household. The integration variables are: (4) citizenship of the country of residence; (5) feelings of happiness; (6) feelings of discrimination; (7) self-evaluated economic coping. Our results show that multilingualism has roots in migration in many countries. However, despite the link between immigration history and multilingualism, the background of multilingualism is not linear, and several deviations and outliers are present. Results show that multilingualism is closely related to recent immigration and the migration history of a country, but this relationship is not linear. The results of the study provide a basis to study their different dimensions in further detail, particularly, those related to identity formation and the internal and external motivations to develop an affiliation towards host countries.

Keywords

EN

MULTILINGUALISM; IMMIGRATION; DISCRIMINATION; EUROPEAN SOCIAL SURVEY; EUROPE

• Publisher: Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Social Sciences
• Journal: Človek a spoločnosť. Internetový časopis pre pôvodné teoretické a výskumné štúdie z oblasti spoločenských vied
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 24
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 55 - 73

Contributors

author

Ceballos Rodríguez Gabriel Alberto

• Institute of Social Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tartu, Estonia

author

Ainsaar Mare

• https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9275-0997

Identifiers

DOI

10.31577/cas.2021.04.596