Turkish Women in Alsace: Language Maintenance and Integration

Abstract

European political themes in the 21 st century are dominated by concerns about the nature of national identity, the role of Islam in democratic society, and the impact of immigrants and their descendants on the perceived cultural homogeneity among the majority of EU countries. The immigration policy in France is known for having an assimilationist model of integration, in which immigrants are asked to become fully integrated into the French society, that is, to give up their own culture and language in exchange for the French language and culture. What is unique to the French case is that culture is prescribed through linguistic competence. In this article, I propose to examine ethno-linguistically the process of language shift and/or maintenance and its relationship to integration and identity among Turkish women in Alsace, France based on the following research questions. What is the correlation between integration and the linguistic varieties spoken by Turkish immigrants in French society?