Implementing Heritage Language Education in Migrant Hosting Countries: Lessons from the Austrian Case

The paper explores the policy challenges and best practices related to the introduction of migrant languages into national school curricula. It is based on the assumption that languages can be considered economic assets and that an individual who masters a plurality of such assets can therefore be regarded as a resource to society. At present, however, language education in Europe is predominantly based on an assimilationist interpretation of migrant integration. The paper represents an early milestone of a research endeavor that investigates the features of heritage language education in Austria as an advanced experience of multilingual education (European Commission, 2019), with a view to inspiring further research and policy reflection.