In the past ten years, there has been a noticeable rise in studies investigating family language policies in immigrant groups and transnational, mixed-marriage families in Greece (e.g. Chatzidaki & Maligkoudi, 2013; Gogonas & Maligkoudi, 2020; Maligkoudi, 2019). This paper reports on a small-scale study focusing on family language policies in Greek-Ukrainian families living in the city of Thessaloniki, in Northern Greece.

The participants in our study are six Ukrainian mothers married to Greek citizens who have been living in Greece for five to 14 years; among them they have eight children between the ages of 5 to 14 which were born in Greece (with one exception). All mothers are highly-educated, multilingual individuals most of whom have occupations which exploit their ethnic and linguistic background. They have raised their children in two or three languages (Greek, Ukrainian and/or Russian), and are strong supporters of the maintenance and transmission of the Ukrainian language. They have also been actively involved in supporting the Ukrainian cause since the beginning of the war with Russia.

Our study is framed within a Family Language Policy (henceforth FLP) framework drawing from earlier (e.g. Curdt-Christiansen, 2009; King, Fogle & Logan-Terry, 2008; Spolsky, 2004; 2012) and more recent conceptualizations of the field which focus on meaning-making, experiences, agency, and identity constructions in transnational families (e.g. Curdt-Christiansen, 2018; Curdt-Christiansen & Lanza 2018; Fogle & King, 2013; King & Lanza, 2019; Smith-Christmas, 2019).

In particular, the aim of the study was to investigate the families’ language policies as revealed through an examination of the parents’ language practices and language ideologies and measures falling under the language management aspect of FLP (Spolsky, 2004; 2012). Following Curdt-Christiansen (2009; 2020), we deemed it important to take into consideration not only the language ideologies and patterns of communication among family members, but also factors such as the mothers’ educational background, personal language learning experiences, migrant profile, and the financial resources of the family.

Moreover, we wished to investigate how broader sociolinguistic issues impact these mothers’ choices, and, in particular, the stance our informants take with regard to the hotly debated issue of abandoning Russian as an everyday language in Ukraine. After Ukraine became an independent nation in 1991, a process of Ukrainisation was established, which entailed measures in favour of the Ukrainian language as a means to construct a new national identity (Seals & Beliaeva, 2023). However, a large segment of the population continued to use Russian instead of Ukrainian irrespective of their allegiance; apparently, for many Russian-speaking Ukrainians the Ukrainian language is not necessarily a token of nationhood and is not intricately linked to the Ukrainian identity (Bilaniuk, 2016; Kulyk 2016; 2018). However, in the aftermath of the political developments of the past ten years (the Euromaidan and the Revolution of Dignity in late 2013–2014, the annexation of Crimea by the Russians, the strife at the eastern border, and finally, the Russian invasion in 2022) there seems to be a rise in the number of people who call for the abandonment of the Russian language and the adoption of Ukrainian instead (Harrison, 2021; Seals & Beliaeva, 2023),  a phenomenon some authors refer to as ‘linguistic conversion’ (Bilaniuk, 2020). In this context, we wished to examine how the six participants negotiate the ongoing changes in language ideologies and attitudes in Ukraine and the impact this may have had on their language policies with regard to the two languages.

The population we intended to study included mothers of Ukrainian origin who at the time of the study had been living in Greece for at least five years. The first author gained access to the community through her acquaintance with a mother to whom she had previously taught Greek. Using a ‘snowball’ approach, five more mothers were approached and agreed to take part in the study, after assurances of anonymity were given (pseudonyms are used and information about their studies or occupation is presented in as general terms as possible). The six participants were among a group of parents who, in the past few years, organized weekly meetings in order for their children to socialize with other Ukrainian speakers and be immersed in the Ukrainian language and culture through art and play. Since September 2022, this informal ‘club’ was transformed into a small community school for Greek-Ukrainian children operating at the weekend. The school is supported by an NGO (which offers their premises for the courses) while the staff offers their services on a voluntary basis. Children have the opportunity to take Ukrainian language courses and to experience the Ukrainian culture through playful and creative activities. The first author, who is also a member of an association promoting bilingualism among transnational families was invited to visit the school in this capacity and observe its functioning. This also facilitated the participants’ recruitment, as it fostered a certain degree of familiarity with and involvement in their community, Data collection was based on semi-structured interviews which took place in spring 2023 at the community school’s premises. The interview protocol comprised questions which dealt, first, with the mother’s educational background and current occupation and the family’s length of residence in Greece. Another set of questions referred to patterns of multilingualism in the family: who can speak which languages, which languages are used by whom to whom. There was a question regarding the child’s experiences at the Ukrainian school, and finally, a question which referred to probable changes in the mother’s linguistic behaviour in the aftermath of the recent political strife in Ukraine. The data is being analysed following ‘thematic analysis’ (Braun & Clarke, 2017).

Some preliminary findings include the following: With regard to practices aimed at supporting Ukrainian language development in their children, we found that, in most families, the parents followed a strict OPOL policy and provided plenty of meaningful input in Ukrainian, via exposure to print and media, and ensuring frequent contact with Ukrainian speakers. Two cases stand out, though, and prove the complexity of the situation; in one family the Greek father uses Russian with the children instead of Greek, while in another, the child was born in an Asian country and grew up speaking English, Russian and Greek, until the age of seven when the mother decided to switch to Ukrainian and stopped using Russian with her daughter. With regard to language ideologies, all mothers agree on the importance of their children speaking Ukrainian as an integral part of their identity and heritage. They also seem to agree on viewing the mastery of many languages as an asset, drawing on their own educational and professional experiences. However, the most interesting findings are those which emerge with regard to the linguistic conversion. The six participants seem to represent various positions on a continuum which range between the uninhibited, continued use of Russian at home to taking distance from using this language. Some of the mothers link this stance to feelings of patriotism, even expressing feelings of guilt or shame for previously using the Russian language, while others seem to downplay the importance of rejecting the language, despite their feelings of loyalty to the Ukrainian nation.

Bilaniuk, L. (2020). Linguistic conversions: Nation-building on the self. Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society, 6 (1), 59-82. Braun, V. & Clarke, V. (2017). Thematic analysis. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 12(3), 297–298. Chatzidaki, A., & Maligkoudi, C. (2013). Family language policies among Albanian immigrants in Greece. Ιnternational Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 16(6), 675-689. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2012.709817 (first published online 2012) Curdt-Christiansen, X.L. (2009). Invisible and visible language planning: ideological factors in the family language policy of Chinese immigrant families in Quebec. Language Policy, 8, 351–375. Curdt-Christiansen, X.L. (2018). Family language policy. In J. Tollefson & M. Perez-Millans (Eds.), The Ox-ford handbook of language policy and planning (pp. 420-441). Oxford University Press. Curdt-Christiansen, X. L. & Lanza, E. (2018). Language management in multilingual families: Efforts, measures and challenges. Multilingua, 37 (2), 123-130. Curdt-Christiansen, X.L. (2020). Educating migrant children in England: language and educational practices in home and school environments. International Multilingual Research Journal, 14 (2), 163-180. Fogle, L.W., & King, K. A. (2013). Child Agency and Language Policy in Transnational Families. Issues in Applied Linguistics, 19, 1-25. https://doi.org/10.5070/L4190005288 Gogonas, N. & Maligkoudi, C. (2020): ‘Mothers have the power!’: Czech mothers’ language ideologies and management practices in the context of a Czech complementary school in Greece, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, DOI: 10.1080/13670050.2020.1799324 Harrison K. (2021). ‘In Ukrainian, Please!’: Language Ideologies in a Ukrainian Complementary School. Languages, 6(4), 179. King, K., Fogle, L. & Logan-Terry, A. (2008). Family Language Policy. Language and Linguistics Compass, 2(5), 907-922. King, K., & Lanza, E. (2019). Ideology, agency, and imagination in multilingual families: An introduction. International Journal of Bilingualism, 23(3), 717-723. Kulyk, V. (2018). Shedding Russianness, Recasting Ukrainianness: The Post-Euromaidan Dynamics of Ethnonational Identifications in Ukraine. Post-Soviet Affairs, 34, 119–38. Μaligkoudi, C. (2019). Issues of Language Socialization and Language Acquisition Among Italians in Greece. Εducation Sciences, 2019(2), 149–165. https://doi.org/10.26248/.v2019i2.596 [in Greek] Seals, C. & Beliaeva, N. (2023). Aspirational family language policy. Language Policy 22, 501–521. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-023-09674-3 Smith-Christmas, C. (2019). When X doesn’t mark the spot: the intersection of language shift, identity and family language policy. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 255, 133-158. Spolsky, B. (2004). Language Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Spolsky, B. (2012). What Is Language Policy? In B. Spolsky (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Language Policy (pp. 3-15). Cambridge University Press.