Over the past twenty years, a number of political theorists have been focusing on the just political treatment of linguistic diversity in liberal democratic societies. This body of work, known as ‘linguistic justice’, has mainly examined two specific categories of linguistic groups: autochthonous linguistic minorities and immigrants. However, it has entirely neglected non-resident citizens, i.e. citizens of a country who reside in a different one, and their distinctive language interests. In this paper, we address this gap by developing a theory of linguistic justice for non-resident citizens, using diaspora institutions as a case study. More specifically, we draw on the linguistic justice literature to outline four categories of non-resident citizens’ language interests, i.e. those related to a) equality of opportunity, b) democracy, c) autonomy and life-world, and d) dignity. We finally suggest ways in which language-related diaspora institutions could be reformed in order to better fulfil non-resident citizens' language interests.

Matteo Bonotti (PhD University of Edinburgh) is a Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Monash University, having previously taught at Cardiff University, Queen’s University Belfast, and the University of Edinburgh. Matteo’s research interests include political liberalism and public reason, linguistic justice, free speech, food justice, and the normative dimensions of partisanship. His work has appeared in such journals as the American Political Science Review, The Journal of Politics, the British Journal of Political Science, Political Studies, the Journal of European Public Policy, the Journal of Common Market Studies, the Journal of Applied Philosophy, Law and Philosophy, and the European Journal of Political Theory. He is the author of Partisanship and Political Liberalism in Diverse Societies (Oxford University Press, 2017) and the co-author of Brexit, Language Policy and Linguistic Diversity (with Diarmait Mac Giolla Chríost - Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), Recovering Civility during COVID-19 (with Steven T. Zech - Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), and Healthy Eating Policy and Political Philosophy: A Public Reason Approach (with Anne Barnhill - Oxford University Press, 2022).