Language Testing in the Context of Citizenship and Asylum: The Case of Estonia

Abstract

The focus of the current article is language testing in the context of citizenship and asylum in Estonia, a country that regained independence in 1991. Estonian as the single official language of the country (according to the new language legislation laws) and a new political system have caused changes in use of and attitudes toward Estonian among the Russian-speaking population, which is the local majoritized minority. At the same time new language, citizenship, and education laws have begun to enforce the use of Estonian. As part of a summary of these laws, the article also touches on the challenges currently faced by the country in fulfilling the needs and rights of the local Russian-speakers who, it is argued, cannot be treated as a traditional linguistic minority as normally understood.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to express her gratitude to Mrs Hele Pärn (Language Inspectorate) and the anonymous reviewers of this article whose comments and criticism enabled her to improve it considerably.

This paper is a part of the project “Ethnolinguistic vitality and identity construction: Estonia in Baltic background” supported by Estonian Science Foundation grant no 7350.

Notes

¹As a percentage of the total population.

²Before 1995 an applicant for Estonian citizenship had to pass Estonian language exam (categories A–F) and answer questions about Estica topics (one Estonian writer/painter/sportsman/scholar/etc, basic facts of Estonian history, geography, etc).

³This term is rather inadequate.

⁴For details, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Soldier_of_Tallinn and Ehala (forthcoming).