Affiliation:
1. Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
Abstract
Immigrant children are a growing and demographically important segment of the world's population. One key aspect of immigrant children's experience is navigating multiple languages, creating both opportunities, and challenges. However, the literature on bilingualism rarely centers the experiences of immigrant children. Focusing on immigrant children in the United States, this article brings together cognitive science research on bilingualism with the integrative risk and resilience model of adaptation in immigrant-origin children to elucidate how common contexts that immigrant children encounter can support or discourage multilingualism. Policy must consider immigrant children's intersecting identities—both as immigrants and as learners of minoritized, and often racialized, languages. A proposed framework can guide policies to support multilingualism in immigrant children, with downstream consequences for their health and development.
Funder
National Institute of Health
Ford Foundation Fellowship Programs
Institute of Education Sciences
Subject
Public Administration,Social Psychology
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