The social context, multilingualism and intercultural

286 
The migration phenomenon that represents the temporary or permanent 
residence of persons in other countries and as a matter of fact in other cultures, 
becoming in this way the most important context for the development of 
intercultural communication processes, has acquired in the second half of the 
20
th
century new dimensions and unexpected valences. Indeed the entire 
colonialist history from the late 15
th
century till the middle 20
th
century was 
marked by massive movements of population, or by wilful migration of 
millions of Europeans to America and Africa, or by the slave-trade and forced 
relocation of indigenous people from their native countries by European 
settlers, as it happened in South and North America, in Australia and Africa. 
The migration movements of the last century, that began in the context of the 
Second World War and were amplified after 1950, have gone but much 
shorter periods of time; they have had a much deeper emotional charge and 
so for migrants have been more traumatic. 
The economic and implicit social differences between developed 
capitalist countries of Western Europe, but also of North America have led to 
a split of different types of societies. High living standards and greater 
possibilities of finding a job have become points of attraction for millions of 
people who by their own decision chose to live and work in a different society 
than the home. That divided the world into countries receiving foreign-labour 
and less political refugees and countries exporting cheap labour. People on 
both sides were not ready for this impact, because the receiving countries in 
Europe haven’t faced up to the middle of the last century with an ethnic, 
cultural and linguistic diversity 
in their well-defined territory, 
multiculturalism meant to start homogenization, unique culture and language, 
cultural chauvinism and separatism. Migrants in order to survive had only one 
option: complete adaptation to the culture they lived through affiliation and 
dependence. Migrants and members of the new cultural group could not 
develop a dialogue.
Migrant adaptation is based on direct experience and observation. By 
comparison and imitation a migrant believes that he adapts to a new cultural 
environment, but the subject does not involve reflexivity, self-questioning 
and questioning of what surrounds him. On the other hand, the members of 
the cultural group, whom they want to belong, are not willing to engage a 
dialogue, because migrants are often perceived as intruders, as disturbing 
factors of the existing identity, a cultural, religious and linguistic balance. The 
lack of dialogical experience is evident in both parties. At this level of 
everyday social life cultures in a spherical shape, as they were described by 
Herder, are the most relevant image. Interacting cultures collide and the 
collision causes an evident rejection.

287 
Preserving cultural identity requires a cultural transmission, which is a 
complex phenomenon because of its ramification on at least two levels: on a 
temporal level (the diachronic and synchronic image of the perpetuation of 
the common cultural background of a human community) and on a spatial 
level (the image of transgression of the own cultural area) [2].
Social phenomenon in terms of acculturation is specific in multicultural 
contexts, and not only in those contexts that openly declare their trends to 
assimilation, segregation or integration. Through acculturation the individual 
takes values, norms, conventions, and behaviour from individual or a group 
with another cultural identity than his own, but the takeover is not subject of 
reflection and interpretation of various reasons such as age, education, 
profession, available time for comprehension. In most cases acculturation 
mechanism produces fractures of identity because of the individual’s inability 
to form the bridge between two cultures and different realities. 
Multiculturalism through its indifference to anindividual and by reducing or 
rather annihilating alterity and diversity has very serious effects on human 
existence. Anindividual remains suspended between two cultures, unaccepted 
by the target culture and rejected by the home-culture; this is manifested in 
practice by exclusion or marginalization, and the behavioural actions of 
individuals are dominated by anxiety, depression and the identity-crisis. The 
attempt to impose replacing of a mental construction or behaviour takes the 
individual to a denial of self-identity and an award of another identity, that he 
can’t admit, he is not able to assimilate the new identity.
Multiculturalism is therefore a specific phenomenon in societies where 
different cultures coexist in a peaceful way. Individual is still firmly anchored 
in his own closed cultural context, which does not allow the development of 
dialogue, on the contrary, it separates and excludes. Herder’s image persists: 
the spheres collide but they don’t interact with each other. 

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