Although racism and racial injustice are globally common phenomena, there are internationally considerable differences in this topic’s discourses based on different national histories. For example, in response to the Holocaust, official German-speaking countries like Germany and Austria, have refrained from thematizing ‚race’ for many decades for historical reasons (Alexopoulou 2023). In demarcation from the National Socialist biologistic ‘race doctrine’, the term ‘race’ was and is generally not used, instead preference has been given to the term ‘racialization’ to stress the constructionist aspect of race.

Along alternative categories of difference such as ethnicity, migration background or multilingualism, educational inequalities have been identified in many European countries for decades (OECD 2023). If the categories are not viewed naively as individual risk factors, it becomes clear that the inequalities are in part the effects of structural and institutional discrimination (Gomolla & Radtke 2009, Gomolla 2023) and 'racism without race' (Hall 1989). Language-based discrimination linked to racist discourses is referred to as linguicism (Skutnabb-Kangas 2015), which means "ideologies, structures and practices which are used to legitimate, effectuate, regulate and reproduce an unequal division of power and resources (both material and immaterial) between groups which are defined on the basis of language" (Skutnabb-Kangas 1988, p. 13).

Based on contributions from Austria, Canada, Germany and Spain, this symposium will focus on and discuss how the category of language is used discursively in the various countries in the sense of linguicism in order to legitimize and (re)produce educational inequality. Based on reconstructive qualitative analyses, in particular critical discourse analyses (CDA, Foucault 1991, Wodak & Meyer 2016), of historical documents on the topic of autochthonous and allochthonous minority languages and multilingualism in educational institutions, current school and higher education laws, educational policy papers and classroom observations, it will become clear how linguicism works as a structural phenomenon at the various levels of education systems.

The first contribution analyses the discourses on migration-related multilingualism and regional minority languages (especially Danish and Frisian) in various educational policy documents and evaluations of the last 50 years using the example of the German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein.

The second contribution focuses on policies and strategies of segregation and exclusion of students based on language in Austrian schools. Using CDA, it is examined how, under the guise of specific programs for second language learning in Austrian educational policy and practice, structural linguicism is transferred into discriminatory school practice that excludes immigrant students.

The third contribution focuses on immigrant students at universities in the Canadian province of Québec. While in most Canadian provinces immigrant students and linguistic minorities in the education system do not show any disadvantages in terms of their performance (OECD 2023), in Quebec, which implements a very repressive language policy, disadvantages for immigrant students are relatively severe (Elez 2023). Using interview data from international engineering students, CDA is conducted to examine how language power relations are reproduced in higher education.

The symposium will be concluded with a look at the micro level of the education system. The focus is on the question of whether and how (language) teaching can be organized from a critical, anti-linguistic perspective. The anti-linguistic potential of translanguaging is examined using a Spanish secondary school as a case study.

By comparing the results, which are interpreted in the context of the different national frameworks, it becomes clear that linguicism is deeply rooted in the involved countries and occurs directly or indirectly. In order to reduce linguicist discrimination, it is necessary to create an awareness of linguicism, linguicist mechanisms and routines in pedagogical practice, educational research and educational policy, and to aim for ongoing critical reflection.

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