28.953, Calls: Anthro Ling, Applied Ling, Psycholing, Socioling, Translation/Germany

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LINGUIST List: Vol-28-953. Tue Feb 21 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.953, Calls: Anthro Ling, Applied Ling, Psycholing, Socioling, Translation/Germany

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Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2017 19:02:13
From: Michele Gazzola [gazzola at hu-berlin.de]
Subject: International Colloquium on “Language Skills for Economic and Social Inclusion”

 
Full Title: International Colloquium on “Language Skills for Economic and Social Inclusion” 

Date: 12-Oct-2017 - 13-Oct-2017
Location: Berlin, Germany 
Contact Person: Michele Gazzola
Meeting Email: gazzola at hu-berlin.de
Web Site: https://www.projekte.hu-berlin.de/de/oekonomie-und-sprache/konferenzen/aktuell?set_language=de 

Linguistic Field(s): Anthropological Linguistics; Applied Linguistics; Psycholinguistics; Sociolinguistics; Translation 

Call Deadline: 15-May-2017 

Meeting Description:

This conference aims at exploring the relationship between individual language
skills and people’s integration in the economy and in society in general with
a special focus on the labour market. Language skills can be viewed as human
capital having a positive influence on people’s income, employability and
social inclusion. 

Learning foreign or second languages has for a long time been associated with
openness to other cultures. In recent decades, nevertheless, the discourse on
language learning has gradually changed. Language skills are viewed as part of
individuals’ human capital that can contribute to their economic welfare,
increase productivity and foster growth. At the same time, language learning
can promote social inclusion. As a result of recent massive migration flows to
Europe both the Council of Europe and the EU have emphasised the importance of
language skills for the economic and social integration of migrants and
refugees.

There are some sound economic reasons behind these claims. Being a particular
form of human capital, language skills may have a positive effect of the
economic and social inclusion of individuals in different ways. Language
skills in the official language of the host country may have a positive impact
on immigrants’ income, measured in terms of earning differentials; foreign
language skills may be associated with a higher employability, and with a
lower probability of being dismissed when the costs of the workforce increase.
Language skills, therefore, may facilitate the participation and the inclusion
in the labour market, higher earnings and the possibilities of finding a job
or holding it. Language skills can also promote a better inclusion in society.
Employment, in fact, is one central aspect of inclusion.

Languages are necessary (although not sufficient) for social inclusion and
cohesion. The Social Policy and Development Division of the United Nations
defines Social inclusion as the process by which people resident in a given
territory, regardless of their background, can achieve their full potential in
life. This, of course, includes the economic life of individuals, without
neglecting other social and political aspects. Social cohesion is a related
concept that can be defined as a feature of a society in which all groups have
a sense of belonging, participation, inclusion, recognition and legitimacy.
This requires, among other things, avoiding the emergence of “parallel
communities” that are divided (or even segregated) by language barriers within
a given society.

Language policy can contribute to avoiding exclusion and segregation by
promoting the linguistic integration of refugees and migrants, also in the
labour market, and by fostering foreign language learning for mobile people
who wish to spend a shorter or longer period of their lives abroad (e.g.
international students). Language skills facilitate inclusion and cohesion
because, among other things, they increase the capability of citizens and
migrants to understand and communicate with the other members of society. It
facilitates the access to (higher) education.

Keynote Speakers:

Economics:

- Antonio Di Paolo: “The economic and social consequences of
language-in-education policies” (AQR-IREA, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain)
- François Vaillancourt : “ Language policies and labour market earnings :
plausible impacts and evidence from Québec ” (Université de Montréal, Canada)
- Ingo Isphording: “Immigrant language skills and labor market success” (IZA -
Institute of Labor Economics, Germany)

Sociolinguistics:

-Gabriele Iannàccaro: “Social inclusion and sociolinguistics” (Stockholms
Universitet, Sweden)

-Sonja Novak: “Multilingualism at work: the case of firms in Slovenia''
(Institute for Ethnic Studies, Ljubljana, Slovenia)

Sociology:

- Amado Alarcón: “Measuring Occupational Language Skills” (Universitat Rovira
i Virgili, Spain)


Call for Papers:

Research Questions:

The number of potential research questions that are relevant for the
conference is large. Here we present a non-exhaustive list that can help
orienting prospective participants:

- Do language skills significantly contribute to the participation of
individuals in the labour market?
- Which languages are more rewarded in the labour market and at which level of
fluency? What differences among countries or regions can be observed in this
respect?
- Do language skills improve international economic integration and trade?
- How does language competence affect the social inclusion of migrants and
refugees? Which sociolinguistic barriers can hinder inclusion?
- Are language skills an important variable in employers’ recruiting
decisions?
- Do some economic sectors make a more intensive use of language skills than
other?
- What is the role of language policy in facilitating social inclusion and
social cohesion?
- How do language education policies affect individuals’ migration decisions?
Do foreign language skills significantly facilitate international labour
mobility and therefore the economic integration of the European and the global
labour market as a whole?
- What is the relationship between language skills in a lingua franca (e.g.
English) and social integration in the host country where the lingua franca is
not the locally dominant language? What differences can be found among
low-skilled migrants and high-skilled (or “expats”) in this respect?
- Does a lingua franca increase social inclusion, or does it promote the
emergence of separate networks of communication? What are the sociological
implications of this?

Submission and Deadlines:

The length of abstracts should not exceed 350 words. Abstracts must be
submitted to the address “templito at hu-berlin.de” by 15 May 2017. The
successful applicants will be notified by 30 June 2017.

Working Languages:

You can send abstracts in English, Esperanto, French, German, Italian,
Spanish, or Swedish.

Venue:

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin,
Berlin, Germany

Fees and Payment Methods:

The participation fee is €150 until 1 September and then €200. It includes
four coffee breaks, two lunches and the social dinner on Thursday 12 October.
The participation fee for students of Humboldt-Universität is €50,-.
It is possible to pay either by bank transfer or by Paypal.

Local Organisers

REAL - Research group on Economics and Language

Institut für Erziehungswissenschaft
Kultur-, Sozial- und Bildungswissenschaftliche Fakultät
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Bengt-Arne Wickström
Jürgen Van Buer
Michele Gazzola
Torsten Templin
Wiwex GmbH

Scientific Committee:

Agresti, Giovanni (Università di Teramo, Italy)
Chiswick, Barry (George Washington University, USA)
De Schutter, Helder (University of Leuven, Netherlands)
Dunbar, Rob (University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom)
Dustmann, Christian (University College London, United Kingdom)
Gazzola, Michele (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany)
Ginsburgh, Victor (ECARES, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium)
Grenier, Gilles (Université d'Ottawa, Canada)
Marácz, Laszlo (Universiteit van Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Medda-Windischer, Roberta (European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano, Italy)
Shorten, Andrew (University of Limerick, Ireland)
Templin, Torsten (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany)
Van Buer, Jürgen (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany)
Von Busekist, Astrid (Sciences-Po, Paris, France)
Wickström, Bengt-Arne (Andrássy University Budapest, Hungary)
Wolf, Nikolaus (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany)

With the kind support of

- Institute for Ethnic Studies, Ljubljana, Slovenia
- ILT project (CSO2015-64247-P) - Spanish Ministry of Economy and
Competitiveness
- The MIME Project (www.mime-project.org)




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