Language and Migration in Ireland

This paper looks at the linguistic landscape in Ireland in 2017, using the words of migrants to describe their experiences in a changing and multilingual context.

The paper bases its findings on the stories recounted by migrants in surveys, focus groups and interviews to understand the reality of being a non-native speaker in Ireland. It examines the place of language in the migrant experience and questions whether the policies regarding languages and integration are having their desired effect.

The paper makes a number of key recommendations at the end, identifying a number of steps to be taken to adequately address language learning for migrants in Ireland. These recommendations include approaches for creating greater opportunities for linguistic interchange, providing language teaching both in schools and in the community, etc.