Mother Tongue Instruction Policies towards Turkish Migrant Children in Europe

AbstractImmigration is a very important phenomenon in every member state of the European Union. In the case of Turkey, there has been a migration flow to European countries since 1960's with the bilateral agreements with which the people migrated are now the permanent settlers with their descendants. 50 years has passed since that time, and the third and fourth generation Turkish children are being raised. Migration and language are clearly linked issues. Because the language of instruction in the schools is different from the language spoken at home, some arrangements must be done for these children in these bilingual situations. As many research suggest that mother language acquirement is the prerequisite for learning the language of instruction, the policies the host countries and the sending countries apply for this situation is worthy to be investigated. In this study, a brief overview of the mother tongue instruction policies of Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden are made