Dix ans après la parution du Référentiel Français Langue d’Intégration, où va la formation linguistique obligatoire en France ?

Abstract

The history of language training for adult migrants is marked, in the French context, by a progressive interference of the State, particularly through the linguistic component of immigration policies. The transformations that have taken place in the last two decades have contributed to giving the Office Français de l'Immigration et de l'Intégration (OFII), an organization under the supervision of the Ministry of the Interior, a leading role in the material structuring of the field and the definition of the contents of training courses for newcomers (Vadot, 2022). In October 2011, the publication of the Référentiel Français Langue d'Intégration (Vicher et al., 2011), intended to provide a framework for language training for adult migrants had thus caused a certain amount of commotion among some of the university and association networks. A little more than ten years after this episode, and while the renewal of the procurement on January 1st, 2022 has given rise to a new draft of the framing documents, what has become of the ideological framing of FLI ? What directions does this new training public procurement, in effect until the end of 2024, update ?In order to discuss this, I analyze in detail the framing documents for the linguistic component of immigration policies for 2022-2024, putting them in perspective with the Référentiel FLI as well as with previous versions of these framing documents. This discourse analysis highlights many elements of continuity, but also a point of rupture. By updating previous analyses, this contribution aims to encourage and support a critical understanding of this training system by actors in the field.

Keywords

• language policies
• immigration
• language training
• French for linguistic integration
• public procurement