ABSTRACT

Much of our understanding of language attainment among immigrants and their descendants focuses on the US with substantial evidence of mother-tongue loss within a few generations. However, these patterns may differ in Canada given its unique linguistic context, such as continuous migration, multicultural policy, two official languages, and a skilled migration policy. Thus, this study focuses on several contexts under which immigrants and their children are received. Specifically, this article examines the role of the coethnic community and coethnic resources on unofficial and official language proficiency among the first, 1.5, and second generations in Canada. Using data from the 2002 Ethnic Diversity Study and 2001 Canadian microdata, this study finds that simultaneous proficiency in non-official and official languages is structured by the availability of coethnic resources and the average size and education of the coethnic community. Specifically, individuals with greater access to coethnic resources and many coethnic neighbors are more likely to maintain the mother tongue with the official language(s).

摘要

我们对移民及其后代的语言习得的大部分理解都集中在美国，并在几代之内有大量母语丧失的证据。但是，鉴于加拿大独特的语言环境，例如持续移民，多元文化政策，两种官方语言和熟练移民政策，这些模式在加拿大可能会有所不同。因此，本研究着重于接收移民及其子女的几种情况。具体来说，本文考察了加拿大第一代，1.5代和第二代人中，民族社区和民族资源对非官方和官方语言能力的作用。利用2002年种族多样性研究和2001年加拿大微观数据得出的数据，这项研究发现，非官方语言和官方语言的同时熟练程度是由种族资源的可获得性，种族社区的平均人数和受教育程度构成的。特别是，拥有更多民族资源的人和许多民族邻居更倾向于使用官方语言来保持母语。