Integration Of Ethnic Minority Groups Welsh Nation-Building Efforts Through The Welsh Language

Diverse ethnic groups,although numerical minorities,have constituted a multicultural Wales.The devolved government in Wales provides opportunity structures to take nation-building strategies for the issue of better social integration considering increasing ethnic diversity and multiculturalism.While Wales has more opportunities and power to deal with social integration than before,the integration of ethnic minority groups and national identity issues still remain overlooked.Even worse,the ethnic diversity poses greater threats to social stability and cohesion in Wales which fails to value this matter,manage it properly and grant its citizens with a well-defined national identity.Meanwhile,there emerges a language trend in Wales with relegitimization and institutionalization of the Welsh language,which provides an effective instrument for nation-building strategies.Against this background,Welsh nation-building projects which highlight cultural domains,are suggested to be unfolded in the language area targeted at ethnic minority groups.Therefore,this dissertation aims to assess whether the stateless nation,Wales,can incorporate its ethnic minorities in the process of everyday nation-building in the area of language and how the nation is experienced and reproduced by minority ethnic groups in everyday contexts.The whole paper strives to answer the question of how ethnic minority groups are integrated by Welsh Nation-building strategies in the area of language and whether it is successful,hoping to fill the academic blank in Welsh nation-building targeted at ethnic minority groups.More importantly,this paper aims to provide a lesson for similar situations in other regions or countries.Many works have been produced to explain how British nation-building projects work in the issue of ethnic minority inclusion.The literature review focuses on the four major problems which have predominated the literature over Welsh nation-building.These themes are:less concerns on Wales compared with Scottish nation-building,Welsh nation-building as part of minority nationalism against state nationalism,the subject of nation-building at the structural level and what constitutes Welsh identity,explaining how the research question of this dissertation emerges from previous literature.The dissertation is comprised of four chapters.In the first chapter,a diagram of theoretical framework will be designed and drawn out based on the conceptualization of key terms such as ethnic minority,social fields and nation building.Meanwhile,it makes a connection of important literatures and theories including Bourdieu's habitus,linguistic functions in identity formation and everyday interpretation in nationalistic studies,which serves as data analysis logic and guideline for further research.In next three chapters,the analysis is committed to answering the main research question by proposing and answering three secondary questions.They are how and why Welsh language is adopted by Welsh institutions as part of an everyday nation-building practices,how nation-building efforts are experienced by ethnic minority groups on a daily basis and whether ethnic minority groups are active or passive participants in quotidian production and reproduction of Welshness.Eventually,after the questions get answers,suggestions on Welsh integration of ethnic minority groups are expected to be given and a conclusion is drawn in the end.Nation-building efforts in concrete social system as well as everyday practices of Welsh language by ethnic minority groups would be the primary subject of the research.Therefore,the knowledge acquired is socially constructed rather than objectively perceived,which determines the choice of interpretivism as research paradigm and qualitative studies as methodical choice.A more personal and flexible methodology will be applied to capture meanings in human interaction and make sense of what is perceived as reality.In exploring the interplay between social structures and everyday practices linked to the banal production of national identity,my choice of critical discourses analysis in government documents,newspaper articles,interviews and completed surveys enables this paper to provide a detailed picture of Welsh identification among ethnic minority groups.A diagram of theoretical framework is designed and drawn out based on Bourdieu's Theory of Practice.It perceives practice as the consequence of habitus emerging from a particular social field where certain rules work and also as the reflection of one's habitus that is manifested when people think,feel,perceive and behave.The interplay among field,habitus and practices can be applied to the analysis of everyday practices for understanding how national identity as habitus are constructed discursively for the ultimate purpose of social integration.Considering the linguistic significance in maintenance and formation of national identity,the everyday practices of Welsh language for nation-building among ethnic minority groups would be the study subject of this dissertation.In accordance with diagram,this dissertation endeavors to explain two processes.In the top-down process,habitus emerges from a concrete social system where nation-building strategies are taken in the area of language as the rule of access to specific social fields.Habitus should be seen as an emergent property of a social system and a system-specific pattern of behaviors.This is the key proposition of this paper which implies a strong structural contribution to identity formation.In reverse,the bottom-up mechanism demonstrates how everyday contact,the use or learning of Welsh language serves the discursive construction of national identity as habitus,eventually contributing to the reproduction of nationhood and better social integration.For ethnic minority groups who desire to get incorporated by the mainstream society and identify their own positions in a given field such as education,or workplaces,the learning and use of the Welsh language is one of the rules of access that have been set by Welsh institutions.The Welsh Government's policy has invented two types of measures,one lying in those encouraging people to acquire the language and the other enabling the public to learn and use the language in media or for professional careers.Therefore,policy analysis is divided into two main sections,education on the one hand and other areas including media,workplaces and public services on the other hand but both are in relation to Welsh language.It attempts to delineate what contexts and policy background are against which ethnic minority groups have access to learning and using Welsh language so that they can maintain and improve their position in specific social fields.Why Welsh institutions promote and facilitate the use of the Welsh language are not theoretically groundless.They are defended by the existence of a language-identity nexus and constructivist view of national languages.Next comes the description of how Wales is experienced by ethnic minority groups and reflected by their daily use of Welsh language in different areas like schools,home,community,workplace and social services for children and adults.BME's willingness to use and to learn the Welsh language can be explained by the motivation of habitus which can be deconstructed into socialized norms and internalized perceptions that guide the way people behave,act and think.The first lies in institutional factors that affect language choices such as the Welsh language as rules of access and the availability of the Welsh language in various social fields.The other consists in the recognized relationship between national identity and the Welsh language.Everyday practices and experiences of the Welsh language are also reminders of nationhood and reproducers of habitus.While individuals do not necessarily interpret their experiences explicitly in terms of identity issues,many events and encounters occurring in daily life are,nevertheless,significant symbols of national identity,among which the daily practices of the Welsh language play a crucial role in creating a collective bond between ethnic minority groups and Welsh-speaking locals.Nevertheless,the reality is not as rosy as expected.According to the 2011 census,especially in most multi-ethnic wards in Cardiff,Welsh language competence and their affiliation towards Wales among BME citizens still remain at a low level.Although for WAL learners and speakers who are likely to identify more with Wales compared with those who have no knowledge of the Welsh language,there does not exist a direct association between language competence and Welsh identification among ethnic minorities.Such a disagreeable situation is attributed to four reasons,including counterforce of BME's languages,deficiency in WAL provision services,controversy over linguistic functions and ambiguity over Welshness.Correspondingly,four suggestions are proposed for Welsh institutions,hoping to facilitate Welsh nation building projects and ensure social stability by ultimately integrating diverse ethnic minorities ultimately.