Perspectives of newly arrived Kurdish and Afghan families in Germany on their heritage languages and linguistic situation

The linguistic situation of newly arrived families threatened by forced
 migration in Germany after 2015 is characterised by attempts to learn
German as the new official language and an unclear status of other languages,
which played a role in their earlier lives, such as the heritage language of
the family, the official language of the country of origin and other
transit languages (Brücker et al. 2016, Panagiotopoulou & Uçan 2023,
Panagiotopoulou et al. 2023). While the status of minority languages without
official support in European countries and the implications for integration
and educational success are an issue of extensive debate (Kristen et al. 2011,
Kruse et al. 2012, Kempert et al. 2016), the particular cases of Kurds from
Syria and Iraq and speakers of Pashto from Afghanistan are rarely studied.
On the basis of semiguided interviews, the project examines the develop-
ment of attitudes of minority school-age children and their parents from
Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq on their different languages and their family
language policy in a longitudinal perspective. In the theoretical framework
of King et al. (2008) and Darvin & Norton (2015, 2017), their linguistic
resources, preferences, ideologies and investments in language learning are
analysed. First project results will be presented on the basis of case studies
grouped together in a typology on the basis of Brizić (2021).