Migration and languaging emotions

The role of language and in particular the relationship with the language of the host country is decisive in the experience of migration and in the integration processes of migrants. This assumption, which has been present in different forms and with different accents – both assimilationist and anti-assimilationist – since the dawn of modern scientific research on migration, is what characterizes among other things the most recent language policies in Germany. Since the new immigration law (Zuwanderungsgesetz) has come into force on January 1, 2005, the motto is in public discourse, in official documents as well as in scientific literature (e.g., Esser 2006): “Die Sprache ist der Schlüssel der Integration” (Language is the key to integration). In assigning this task to the host language (German), the knowledge and skills necessary for this purpose are defined. At the same time the essential characteristics of that dimension of German are defined, which is generally designated as Deutsch als Zweitsprache in opposition to Deutsch als Fremdsprache (German as a foreign language; cf. Harr, Liedke & Riehl 2018). In an unconventional way it could be translated with “German as the ‘substitutive first’ language”. German as the substitutive first language, the ‘German for integration’, is generally linked to specific communication needs and functional areas which are considered primary: from the search for a home to that of a job, from the relationship with public authorities to the ability to obtain food, clothes etc. In the horizon of this new, immediate linguistic everyday life, the language of emotions, i.e., the ability to thematize and express emotions in the new “substitutive first” language does not come into play or is very marginal. This contribution aims at highlighting this lack, analyzing the assumptions and practices of the linguistic integration of migrants in Germany, first of all by investigating the offer of “official” language training, that of the Integrationskurse coordinated at national level by the BAMF (Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge, Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, www.bamf.de). This is a language training offer specifically aimed at migrants who have recently arrived in Germany and are highly likely to obtain a long-term or permanent residence permit. The Integrationskurse are considered so relevant for integration that they are financed by the federal government and in certain cases made mandatory for the migrant. They are based on a curriculum developed by the Goethe-Institut on behalf of the Federal Government (Goethe-Institut 2016). The contribution aims to capture aspects that indicate a potential overcoming of the problematic recognition of the language of emotions, which can represent a real obstacle to the possibility of the Zweitsprache being completely key to integration, that is languaging the special and decisive relationship between identity and diversity in migration.