Challenges and contradictions at play in heritage bilingualism practices: experiences of newly arrived immigrant parents from Peoples Republic of China

Immigrant parents with transnational capital often play an active role in making decisions on which language(s) to invest in, forego, or even forbid for their childrens educational and employment future within and across national borders (Curdt-Christiansen and Wang, Lang Cult Curric 31:235–254, 2018; Fuentes, Multilingua 39:475–498, 2020). Accompanied by the increasing significance of Mandarin Chinese in the global world, the demand for Chinese language maintenance and learning is growing in the parental discourse of the broad Chinese diaspora (Wang & Li, 2024; Zhang, Between two generations: language maintenance and acculturation among Chinese immigrant families. Lfb Scholarly Pub Llc, Texas, 2008). However, minority language attrition and shift to the dominant societal language constitute the common pattern of childrens bilingual development in diasporic transnational families (Blackledge and Creese, Multilingualism: a critical perspective. Continuum International, London, 2010; Piller and Gerber, Int J Biling Educ Biling 1–14, 2018). Seeing parents as agents navigating childrens language decisions in the transnational world, the current research aims to bring forth the factors that interfere with the language maintenance desires of Chinese immigrant parents and hinder their maintenance practices. This ethnographic qualitative research involves 16 first-generation Chinese immigrant families. Data were collected through open-ended interviews, informal conversations, observations, and background questionnaires. Findings show that difficulties and obstacles undermining parental maintenance efforts mainly lie in the assimilative forces of mainstream schooling, childrens resistance, parents dual expectations regarding heritage language maintenance, and mainstream educational success. At the same time, both childrens resistance to heritage language practice and parents dual expectations reveal the unbalanced power relations entrenched in the educational system and beyond. The findings have implications for heritage language maintenance, bilingual childrearing, and language-in-education policies.