Integrazione linguistica dei migranti in Germania: presupposti e pratiche.

In 2005 Germany has adopted a migration law (Zuwanderungsgesetz), in which the promotionof linguistic integration plays a central role as a prerequisite of integration as such. Long-term migrants (people, who intend to establish themselves in Germany for longer than one year) can, or sometimes even must, attend an integration course offered by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF). The course consists of a general orientation course about German history, culture and legal system, and of a language course. The purpose of this study is to analyse the integration language courses for migrants from a linguistic point of view, focusing on their theoretical background, their structure and their main goals. More specifically, it is central to consider the notion of Deutsch als Zweitsprache (DaZ) – sc. German as the new everyday language for migrants – in its relationship with the differentiation between multilingualism and plurilingualism. On the one side, this leads to an overall pragmatic orientation of the Framework Curriculum for Integration Courses; on the other side, the possibility of integration implies the transition from multilingualism to plurilingualism, which means, among other things, the capability to express oneself (including the experience of migrant) in the Language of the other