Community-based initiatives and Spanish as a Heritage Language in Germany

Migration from Spanish-speaking countries into Germany has increased during the last 30 years. Demographic studies indicate that a large proportion are young women migrating to marry German nationals and start families (Loureda Lamas et al. 2020). The study looks at what motivates these migrants to...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Elizondo Romo, Mariel (Author)
Format: Article (Journal)
Language:English
Published: 2025-06-22
In: HCIAS working papers on Ibero-America
Year: 2025, Volume: 4, Issue: 16, Pages: 1-19
ISSN:2749-5132
DOI:10.48629/hcias.2025.1.110912
Online Access:Verlag, kostenfrei, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.48629/hcias.2025.1.110912
Verlag, kostenfrei, Volltext: https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/hciaswp/article/view/110912
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Author Notes:Mariel Elizondo Romo
Description
Summary:Migration from Spanish-speaking countries into Germany has increased during the last 30 years. Demographic studies indicate that a large proportion are young women migrating to marry German nationals and start families (Loureda Lamas et al. 2020). The study looks at what motivates these migrants to create initiatives to maintain Spanish as a heritage language. Using a narrative ethnographic approach (He 2021), I analyze interviews of founders of 6 community initiatives of Spanish as a heritage language in Germany to understand what their motivations are and what roles they play in their communities. I argue that the people who create these associations are engaging in a strategy of “commoning care work” (Dengler & Lang 2021) by taking the task of teaching the family language, understood to be invisible work (Okita 2002), outside the home domain.
Item Description:Gesehen am 23.06.2025
Physical Description:Online Resource
ISSN:2749-5132
DOI:10.48629/hcias.2025.1.110912