Beyond Segmented Assimilation: Signaling Ethnolinguistic Identity with Language Preference

Abstract

According to ethnolinguistic identity theory (ELIT), immigrants weigh the social value of their ethnolinguistic community, and make decisions as to whether or not they will attempt to improve their community’s value, depending on two factors: 1) if they have sufficient motivation to improve their status, and 2) if they have the agency to do so. Studying the variables that influence immigrants’ decisions to prefer their heritage languages over English, I investigate how immigrants construct their ethnic identities in ways consistent with ELIT. Much of the recent literature studying immigrant incorporation into the United States focuses on the ways in which immigrants weigh the economic costs and benefits of expressing certain ethnic markers. While useful, this segmented approach to assimilation overlooks the meaningful, non-economic aspects of identity formation that immigrants undergo. I conduct complex regression analyses using Wave 1 of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS) – a set of data that has frequently been used to defend segmented assimilation theory – and find support for ELIT as a possible alternative in explaining the variation in heritage language preference within immigrant communities.