Mobility or migration? Linguistic Participation or Integration? A novel curriculum in Applied Linguistics

In the last decade, communication skills in the 'new' language, i.e. in the language(s) of the receiving country are at the core of political and media discourse about migration and immigrants’ integration; these skills have also become major requirement for obtaining the right to enter a country, gain residency and ultimately citizenship in a growing number of countries. In the light of the above, we assume the responsibility of Applied Linguistics towards society and take the risk of launching a novel bachelor curriculum which focuses on linguistic integration. The degree program addresses the context of migration, integration, culture and identities in global societies and provides students with theories and concepts of Applied Linguistics as well as new insights gained through research in the field of language teaching; students will thus be qualified for a new profession: Experts in linguistic integration who enable people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to fully participate in society, education and the professional world through language. In doing so, we risk at a first glance to further exploit language within the context of selective migration policies. Furthermore, we might run the further risk of promoting a simplistic understanding of linguistic integration which ignores the migration of highly-skilled workers and focuses exclusively on lower-skilled migration from developing countries. In this paper, we will present policies and laws that illustrate the relationship between language acquisition and migration policies in Switzerland. Furthermore, we will present the major aspects and considerations related to the development of a curriculum for a new profession in the field of linguistic integration and in the spotlight of the public, politics and media. In addition, we will discuss main challenges and risks resulting from the definition of contents of the study program.