ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that some languages play a more important role in the European public and political discourse on "celebrating linguistic diversity," the motto of the European Year of Languages. The constellation of languages in Europe actually functions as a descending hierarchy with the following ranking of categories: English as lingua franca for transnational communication; national or official state languages of European countries; regional minority (RM) languages across Europe; and immigrant minority (IM) languages across Europe. IM languages are only marginally covered by EU language promotion programs and, so far, are mainly considered in the context of provisions for learning the national languages of the migrants' countries of residence. It is common EU practice to present data on RM groups on the basis of home language use and/or ethnicity while data on IM groups is based on nationality and/or country of birth.
