The aim of this presentation is to interrogate the changing and shifting face of the work order and its impact on language use and multilingual practices by looking at a specific work place: an international airport located in Switzerland. The boom of the tourism industry, the increase of international business relations as well as the spread of transport facilities positions travel and tourism as strategic sectors within the globalized new economy. Furthermore, the act of traveling implies that people – and goods – are circulating across borders inducing diverse forms of language practices and language contact. In that regard, airports can be considered as a key space for the exploration of a) the impact of the circulation of people on language practices, and b) the strategies used by globalized institutions in order to manage [linguistic] diversity.

Based on ethnographic research in a Swiss International Airport - including the collection of different types of data (interviews, recorded interactions in workplaces, institutional policy documents, participant observations) - I will first describe the institutional policies on language choice and communication practices and pinpoint their underlying ideologies. Second, I will move on to actual language practices on the basis of interactional data recorded at the Check-In and the Transit Counters. Through this analysis I will highlight the various challenges airport employees are facing in relation to multilingual competences and the discrepancies between institutional language policies and daily practices.

I will argue that the use of specific communication patterns or the choice of specific language(s) promoted within this airport is linked to economic and symbolic considerations. Multilingualism appears as a commodity and language choice is predominantly market-oriented.