Language, responsibility, and agency: How UK's immigrant‐background young adults navigate linguistic heritage

Abstract

This study explores the intersection of agency and responsibility in navigating linguistic heritage among immigrant‐background young adults (18–29 years old) in the UK. Drawing on Judith Butler's theorisation, it provides a nuanced understanding of how individuals engage with and respond to the burdening aspects of heritage language maintenance within the complex context of globalised power structures and privileged dynamics. The research employs a qualitative approach, integrating journal entries, interview transcripts, and co‐analysis to elucidate participants' experiences. Through grounded theory development, the study identifies key themes such as: negotiating responsibility across temporalities; the sense of guilt, shame and indebtedness embedded in the process of language maintenance; and finding agency through renarration. The paper contributes to geographical thought on migration and language by going beyond discussions of family language policy and proficiencies and drawing attention to the multifaceted implications of navigating linguistic heritage within immigrant families and monolingual Britain across the instabilities of social and temporal relations and power‐laden positionings. It also highlights the repertoires of narrative and interrelational approaches to reframing heritage that immigrant‐background young adults may access as they formulate their identities with and against language expectations, norms, proficiencies and hegemonies.