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In:Italo-Romance Heritage Languages: Multiple approaches
Edited by Eugenio Goria and Margherita Di Salvo
[Studies in Bilingualism 68] 2025
► pp. 228–246

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Onward migration from Italy to the UK

Italian language maintenance and use

 | University of Exeter
Published online: 11 September 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sibil.68.10gog
Abstract
This study examines Italian language maintenance among onward-migrating families from Italy to the UK, focusing on children’s perspectives on how they and their families use Italian in their new environment. In endogamous families, parents primarily communicate in language(s) of their country of origin. Older children, fluent in Italian at the time of migration, play a key role in promoting its maintenance within the family. Italian extends beyond family interactions, used among friends, classmates, and online. For many, Italian represents valuable linguistic capital, with participants opting to study it formally at school and university. This study highlights the active role children play in maintaining Italian as a heritage language in diverse social and educational contexts.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Italian onward migrants in the UK
  • 3.Onward migration and Italian maintenance and use in the UK
  • 4.Methodology and data
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Italian in the family domain
    • 5.2Italian in the friendship domain
    • 5.3Italian as linguistic capital in the UK
    • 5.4Italo-Romance dialects
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
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