Teaching for Integration: The Linguistic Identity of Russophone Immigrants in Canada

Canada, ID LLCE2015-114

According to the 2011 census, about 600,000 Canadians do not speak either official language: 12,475 of these are immigrants from the ex-USSR. Their psycho-social integration is crucial, and also contingent upon their negotiation of a new blended linguistic identity where mother tongue, Russian, and English competences work in tandem. The case study presented reports on this population’s linguistic identity-building process through a combination of demographic, migratory, linguistic, and social psychology metrics. The results point to the urgent need for incorporating identity-building into educational policy and language education.
Key Words: Linguistic Identity, Immigration, Educational Policy, Psycho-Social Integration.