Linguistic Neoliberalism in the European Union. Politics and Policies of the EU's approach to Multilingualism.

Abstract

The European Union has always placed linguistic diversity at the core of Europe’s DNA. The EU’s motto “United in Diversity” is recurrently mentioned when referring to the multiplicity of languages in the continent, which are discursively portrayed as one of Europe’s greatest assets. This EU political rhetoric on multilingualism, however, does not match the policy actions undertaken by the European Union, which point at a decreasing interest in multilingualism. This article seeks to analyze the evolution of the EU’s multilingualism policy over the period 2005-2016 from a Discourse Analysis perspective, which shows an increasing commodification of languages and a utilitarian approach on the EU’s language policy. It argues that while the idea of promotion, protection and respect of linguistic diversity remains in the current EU political rhetoric on languages, the actual policies adopt a market-oriented approach, which considers languages as mere commodities for economic growth, mobility and jobs. The article ultimately argues that the EU has fully embraced linguistic neoliberalism as its policy on multilingualism –defined as the exclusive focus on language skills for market-oriented purposes.

Keywords

• European Union
• linguistic neoliberalism
• language policy
• commodification
• language ideology.