Dissertation: Ethnolinguistic Vitality and Language Maintenance in Second-generation Migrants: a study of Albanian and Egyptian pupils in Athens

[Harold Schiffman]

Ethnolinguistic Vitality and Language Maintenance in Second-generation
Migrants: a study of Albanian and Egyptian pupils in Athens


Institution: University of Sussex
Program: DPhil Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2007

Author: Nikolaos Gogonas

Dissertation Title: Ethnolinguistic Vitality and Language Maintenance in
Second-generation Migrants: a study of Albanian and Egyptian pupils in
Athens


Dissertation Director:
Russell King
Nicola J. Woods

Dissertation Abstract:

In this study I investigate the factors affecting language maintenance among
second-generation Albanian and Egyptian migrant pupils in Greece. Using a
combined quantitative and qualitative methodology, I explore the influence
of three sets of variables on language
maintenance. These are a) ethnolinguistic vitality, defined by the
demography, status and institutional support of each group in Greece,
as well as migrant and indigenous pupils' perceptions regarding these
factors; b) migrant parents' attitudes to language maintenance and their
role in language transmission in the home; and c) the attitudes of teachers
and the institutional approaches of mainstream Greek education to linguistic
and cultural diversity.

As regards the ethnolinguistic vitality component of the study, findings
indicate that numerical strength is not a factor that accounts for
language maintenance: this is illustrated by the fact that despite the
numerical superiority of the Albanian group vis-à-vis the Egyptian
migrant community, the latter fares better in terms of language maintenance.
The main reason for this was found to be the Egyptians'
better social status ascribed by the Greek society as compared to the
Albanians who have been suffering stigmatisation.

Regarding the role of the family in language maintenance, I found that
religion and language form core values for Egyptian parents, a fact that
leads - especially Muslim Egyptians - to a higher mobilisation for the
transmission of the ethnic language to their children compared to the
Albanians. On the other hand, the lack of a 'religious tradition' in
combination with a general 'fluidity' of ethnic identity that characterises
the Albanian parents, leads them to embrace the Greek language at the cost
of ethnic language maintenance and its transmission to the next generation.

Finally, the role of mainstream Greek education in language maintenance was
found to be determining. The emphasis placed on
Ancient Greek and Western European languages and the simultaneous
undervaluation of all other languages and cultures leads
to the marginalisation of languages such as Albanian and Arabic. In this
exclusionary context, migrant pupils' linguistic capital is considered as a
deficit; as a result, migrant pupils internalise the negative attitudes to
their languages and the possibilities of language
maintenance are minimised.

http://linguistlist.org/issues/18/18-3551.html


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