An Approach to Studying the Sociolinguistic Integration of Romanian Immigrants Residing in the Community of Madrid

Abstract

Grounded in different theoretical approaches of sociolinguistics, this study aims to examine the sociolinguistic integration process of the Romanian immigrant population that resides in Madrid. Semi-guided interviews are carried out with Romanian immigrants in order to obtain qualitative information regarding different aspects of the sociolinguistic integration of the immigrant population; additionally, questionnaires are administered to the same informants, with the objective of obtaining quantitative information on attitudes. Furthermore, questionnaires on attitudes were administered to 1534 informants of Spanish origin who reside in Madrid to analyze their attitudes with regard to the Romanian immigrant population living in Madrid. The analysis performed thus far indicates that the Romanian informants seem to have a good attitude toward the speech of Madrid and, in general, seem highly predisposed to integrating into their host community. The most significant conclusions drawn from the preliminary phase of analysis presented here are that although the Romanian informants perceive their integration positively, the host community does not perceive it in the same way.

Keywords

• sociolinguistics
• sociolinguistic integration
• romanian immigration
• community of madrid