Planning parenthood: How important is it for people who plan to become parents to maintain their cutlure and language while raising their children in a bicultural and bilingual environment?

Abstract: The current study aims to investigate the way Greek immigrant couples who live in the United Kingdom and are going to have children, plan to maintain and transmit their language and culture to their future children. Furthermore, the study mainly includes the perceptions of participants about bilingualism and biculturalism. The present study investigates the importance of language and cultural maintenance since many peole migrate to a new country because of globalization. The study highlights the way participants picture themselves as parents and the practices they want to adopt in order to familiarize their children with both the native language and the societal language. The influence of culture on childrearing perspectives and plans is also discussed. Five different interviews via Skype were conducted and analyzed qualitatively with the aid of thematic analysis. The study confirms that cultural and language maintenance is essential to the participants and that they want their future children to be familiar with their country of origin. Participants are conscious about thei decision and there are also some negative aspects of their culture which they want to avoid. Traditions seem to play a major role in Greek culture; therefore maintaining most of them would enhance children's familiarization with Greece. Participants want to combine both their own culture and the host culture as well and they are planning practices to maintain the Greek language. On the whole, this study shows that bilingualism and biculturalism afeect parental practices but they could also have a positive impact on children's development.