Taiwanese multiculturalism and the political appropriation of new immigrants’ languages

Abstract

Since 2019, Taiwan has implemented native language education for ‘new immigrants’ from Southeast Asian countries. This paper argues that the new educational provisions reflect the Taiwanese government’s desire to appropriate new immigrants’ cultures and languages to promote a multicultural vision of Taiwanese identity. It analyses the 12-year national curriculum guidelines and the primary-level teaching materials to elucidate the role of language education in the construction of discourse on new immigrants, exploring how this reflects and reinforces official portrayals of Taiwanese society as ‘multicultural’. The analysis shows how the extension of curricular recognition to immigrants’ languages and their associated cultures is driven by a desire to project a certain vision of mainstream national identity. By showing how, in the Taiwanese context, instruction in their languages in some respects reinforces the marginalisation of immigrant communities, it provides insights that may be applicable elsewhere.

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