Linguistic diversity in urban spaces

Global migration processes created and create a huge variety of practicing different languages within urban social spaces. However, multilingualism has not considered yet as a resource of urban development in urban research. In colonial cities, as for example in African countries or India, multilingualism is educated and practiced as a resource of education and development. In comparison, in European societies, multilingualism is also increasingly practiced in everyday life, but language policies in general are still oriented at monolingualism. As a cosequence, immigrants are considered as deficienct speakers as long as they do not master the standard language proficiently according to the regulated formulated for incomings. Enterprises acting globally, already discoverd multilingualism as a resource for their economic profit. This paper aims at developing perspectives how in diferent areas of urban policies the variety of language capacities of immigrants and residents can be valuated in concrete action strategies. It is based on research in cooperation with linguists and ethnologists.