Doctoral Project
Erforschung von Sprachenpolitik, linguistischen Repertoires und Identitätsbildung der bosnischen Immigranten in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz
Exploring Family Language Policy, Linguistic Repertoires and Identity Construction of the Bosnian Immigrant Population in Germany, Austria and Switzerland
According to a 2015 report on Bosnian emigration, almost one quarter of 1.256.652 Bosnians outside the country settled in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Despite a significant number of Bosnian immigrants residing in these countries, a very few studies, if any, addressed linguistic challenges confronting these people, making their sociolinguistic reality largely unexplored. This research project is developed to tackle the issues of language among the Bosnian people who immigrated to Germany, Austria and Switzerland, to shed light on the various difficulties and problems they encounter on their way to acquiring and using linguistic resources at their disposal as well as to passing them down to their children. The project will investigate family language policy, linguistic repertoires and identity construction of the Bosnian immigrant population in Germany, Austria and Switzerland to reveal language practices, ideologies and beliefs in Bosnian monolingual families, as well as in the multilingual/transcultural families having members of Bosnian-origin.
Given the lack of studies that deal with family language policy among the Bosnian immigrants in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the main research question of the project will be: How do the current socio-political, economic and cultural contexts influence FLP in Bosnian immigrant families and multilingual/transcultural families having members of Bosnian origin in Germany, Austria and Switzerland? The following research objectives, also pursued to some extent in some other studies and contexts, will help answer this question.Initially, the project will explore 1) how Bosnian families in the above- mentioned countries frame, explain, ‘defend’ and conduct their family language polices and 2) what factors influence their family language policies. The project will aim at describing and exploring the correlation between FLP and the resistance of Bosnian immigrants in Germany, Austria and Switzerland to language shift, and preservation of heritage languages in the families. In the case of observed language shift, the project will also investigate why a family has shifted away from their native language and why Bosnian members of multicultural/transnational families stopped to use their heritage languages with their children, and what factors put their language into a disadvantageous position. The project will also investigate linguistic performances of Bosnian immigrants in Germany, Austria and Switzerland to figure out how they employ their linguistic repertoires in interaction to construct, claim and perform their identity and how Family Language Policy (FLP) pertains to linguistic repertoires and identity of Bosnian immigrants.
Please also see an overview of her project in the Graduate School's Newsletter Nr. 11, Winter Semester 2018/19.
Curriculum Vitae
Born 1988 in Cazin, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He earned his MA degree in Languages and Literatures in English with specialization in (applied) Linguistics at the University of Bern, Switzerland. His main research interests include Language Policy and Planning, Sociolinguistic Consequences of Globalization, Language and Ethnicity and Language and Identity. He is also a member of several NGOs which deal with human and minority rights in his home country and abroad, such as the international organization, Humanity in Action. Since November, 2015 he has been employed as a research assistant in the department of Slavic studies at the University of Regensburg and affiliated as a PhD student to the Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies, where he works on the project which investigates family language policy and planning in the Bosnian immigrant families in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Positions, Assignments and Memberships
- Member of the Study Group "Migration, Transfers, Cultural Contact"
Presentations (selected)
2018
"Igrati bosansko kolo: Language Management (Cycle) in Bosnian Families in Stuttgart, Germany". (Jahrestagung der Graduiertenschule für Ost- und Südosteuropastudien "Studying East and Southeast Europe as Area Studies: Paradigms - Themes - Methods for the 21st Century", München, 25.-27.10.2018)
2017
"The Methodological Challenges of Researching FLP" (SLI Conference Mehrsprachigkeit in Gesellschaft, Politik und Bildung, University of Freiburg, 16-18.03.2017).
"The Methodological Challenges of Researching Family Language Policy: The Case of Bosnian Immigrant Families in Germany" ("Elizitationsverfahren in der Mehrsprachigkeitsforschung", University of Münster, 08.-10.03.2017).
"Longing for the Left-Behind: Language Ideologies and Nostalgia in Bosnian Muslim Families in Stuttgart, Germany" (Zadar Linguistic Forum, University of Zadar, 09-10.06.2017).
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