It is important to underline that the classification which distinguishes between “migrant languages” and “foreign languages” can be flawed by the reality and complexity of real-life situations. For example, languages like Italian, Spanish or Portuguese can be taught in secondary education (as “foreign” languages) and at the same time be the first language of part of the migrant population. The survey shows that the linguistic policy of France in the area of education is both open linguistically (many languages are offered) but equally reflects the linguistic aspects of globalisation (English widely dominates in front of German and Spanish). It should be noted however that the situation in Corte gives the impression that the presence of a regional language seems to slow down the trend towards multillingualism.

At the international level, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie organised a global forum on French language in Quebec in 2012. At the national level, the French authorities organised a convention on multilingualism in overseas territories in December 2011 and the Strategic Advisory Council on languages published a report in January 2012 entitled “To learn a language is to learn about the world”. Universities, city councils and training centres in France make significant efforts to provide teaching of French as a foreign language (FLE) with the double objective of integrating migrants and disseminating the French language externally. The University of Strasbourg will be putting in place, at the beginning of the 2012/3 academic year, a project looking at mutual understanding of related languages. Finally, the city of Marseille will be the European Capital of Culture in 2013, which should support its effort to become more multilingual.