Across Three Generations: Bilingual Aspirations in Second-generation Parenting

• In Event: 498 - Regular Session. Immigrant Families and Communities: Challenges and Changes

Abstract

This study is motivated by a puzzling finding from the third round of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS). The data show that children of immigrants, as new and future parents, are putting their personal preference for English language aside and aspire to raise their children bilingually. This paper offers preliminary examination of this discrepancy through the examination of three hypotheses about cultural bridging, identity affirmation, and human capital. The data supports that latter two hypotheses: the second-generation parenting effectively bridges the linguistic needs of the first, second, and the third generations. Two conditions in immigrant families contribute to the saliency of bilingual aspiration in the second-generation parenting: the immunity of the immigrant family from the outside linguistic influences and the second-generation extensive use of ethnic languages with their parents. Ultimately, however, the second-generation personal preference for English and their ethnic language use with the parents emerge as the two competing forces defining whether children of immigrants would aspire to raise their children bilingually or would choose the English only path.

Author

• Maria Medvedeva, Princeton University