Languages of origin and education in Europe: A systematic review

European education policies have tended to cultivate lin-guistic hegemony and preserve cultural uniformity, which has made it difficult for schools to support different cul-tural backgrounds. This has contributed to the promotion of artificial monolingual interactions that reinforce linguis-tic decapitalisation processes. The aim of the review on which this article reports was to investigate the treatment and education of languages of origin in Europe. We present findings from a systematic review of scientific articles pub-lished during the period 2010–2020. The main findings indi-cate that language and nationality are equated in European discourses and that public policies are promoted accord-ingly. These articulations draw on models that alternate between assimilationism and multiculturalism. Both assimi-lationist and multiculturalist approaches are detrimental to the supposed objective: that of promoting multilingualism. Thus, it is urgent that a consensus be reached, and certain public policies and educational practices promoted which are respectful of linguistic diversity, since the future social cohesion of our multicultural societies depends on this.