Language diversity is a major challenge in contemporary Europe, but all too often the issue is reduced to the 24 official languages of the European Union and the difficult multilingual arrangements in EU institutions. A larger issue, however, is the language diversity in European cities, the languages that are spoken daily by their inhabitants and visitors. How many there are we do not know for certain, but certainly more than the 24 official languages of EU Member States. In many cities, like in Amsterdam, the authorities do not keep statistics on language knowledge and language use, but we do know that nationals of almost all states in the world are represented among Amsterdam residents. This multilingualism is overwhelming but nonetheless carelessly overlooked. In contrast to the government's policy on the Dutch language, there is as yet no targeted government policy on multilingualism. Dealing with this language diversity is difficult – perhaps not as explosive as dealing with religious or sexual diversity but just as controversial. While some fear that language diversity leads to fragmentation, segregation and conflict, and that it therefore forms a threat to social cohesion, others celebrate this diversity as the foundation of urbanity and a symbol of the richness of metropolitan culture. By mixing and exchanging, new language forms are created. City dwellers borrow words from each other, and many residents of Amsterdam have adopted the foreign names for their city without necessarily speaking the language from which the name originates. Yiddish is rarely spoken in Amsterdam anymore but Mokum (after Mokum Aleph what means ‘safe city A’ in Yiddish) is still the city's nickname, and not everyone who refers to Amsterdam as Damsko speaks Sranan, the Creole language of Suriname.

Territorial integration and cities

Cities are by definition a meeting place for people with different cultural, socio-economic and geographical backgrounds who come to the city for various reasons. Urbanity is therefore multilingual, but this multilingualism is structured by power relations. The linguistic landscape of a city is determined by dominant representations of languages and by the correct and appropriate use of language. Not all languages, language variants, dialects and sociolects are equal, and they are also not considered suitable to be spoken by everyone, at every moment of the day, in every part of the city and on every occasion.