Language and Origin: The Perspective of Multilingualism

Abstract

In this paper I will survey some of the relevant aspects of multilingual practices, speakers, and societies for the domain of language and origin in asylum procedures, with a focus on multilingualism in Africa. To what extent does the fact that many of the countries from which asylum seekers originate are multilingual affect our capacities to successfully determine someone’s place of birth and/or childhood socialisation? I will first discuss multilingualism in general terms, then turn to the social position of languages in multilingual societies, and then outline a few aspects of multilingualism in the daily lives of people. While I will adopt a general perspective, I will try to link these observations as much as possible to the practice of LADO and its difficulties. The paper will discuss a number of issues in these domains: multilingual practices (layered along a ‘low/high’ continuum); the consequences of multilingualism for individual speech repertoires; the presence and role of trade languages, pidgins, and lingua francas; effects of language contact and multilingual convergence; boundaries between languages and their consequence for the relation between language and identity.