The ‘politics of speed’ and language integration policies: on recent developments in Austria

Taking the hasty implementation of ‘German support classes’ in Austria in 2018 as a starting point, I will lay out recent political developments in Austria similarly marked by speed, i.e. I will focus on language integration policies in more detail, which form a central concern for studies on bilingualism and bilingual education with regard to compulsory language learning in the context of migration policies. In order to understand the role of speed in this contemporary development (i.e. introduction and revision) of language integration policies, I will introduce speed as a theoretical concept, before turning back to what I will call the Austrian case of politics of speed, which goes hand in hand with executive decreeing and a disregard of parliamentary democracy. As I argue in the concluding discussion, this has serious effects on institutions and the population, in the form of institutional lag and systemic confusion. It is my aim to tease out how this politics of speed results in a culture of confusion that, in the end, could serve a political purpose.