Valentin Balczesak

Valentin Balczesak holds a Master's degree in Learning and Communication in Multilingual and Multicultural Contexts from the University of Luxembourg, which he obtained in 2025. His master's thesis explored how linguistic purist and anti-multicultural discourses in France are experienced by multilingual individuals, and how such discourses shape their sense of legitimacy, language, and belonging. He is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies, under the supervision of Prof. Jianwei Xu and Prof. Rik Vosters. His doctoral project, "Constructing Integration From Below: A Multi-Layered Analysis of Dominant Discourses and Everyday Agency Among Arabic-Speaking Migrants in Brussels", examines integration not as a fixed social outcome, but as something continuously produced through discourse, interaction, and everyday multilingual life. Focusing on Arabic-speaking migrants in Brussels, his research looks at the relationship between public narratives on migration and the ways migrants themselves respond to, reinterpret, and resist these narratives in daily practice. 

Research expertise: sociolinguistics of multilingualism and migration, integration discourse, linguistic purism and anti-multiculturalism, digital discourse and extremism 

Research methods: Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), digital discourse analysis, sociolinguistics interviews, Ecological Momentary Assessment.