Culture and Language

Culture and language are essential assets for immigrant communities. Preserving the emigrant language and its transfer to the next generation (heritage language) is vital to keeping culture alive and vibrant in these communities. Dual language and dual culture have positive mental and health impacts on immigrant children (Toppelberg and Collins, 2010). However, learning the receiving country’s language is crucial in the adaptation process, as acquiring the receiving country’s language supports social and economic integration.

Culture understood as “the complex of values, customs, beliefs, and practices that constitute the way of life of a specific group” (Eagleton, 2005), links very closely with the language an emigrant carries and the one they learn. It is through language that culture is constituted and disseminated. It is also through these links that identity processes occur. Language and culture thus intertwine and complete each other in the space of individual and social life.