Family Language Policy Among Ukrainian Refugees in Zadar

This paper deals with family language policy among Ukrainian refugees in the Croatian town of Zadar. The data that were collected via interviews conducted in May and June 2023 indicate that there is a certain correlation between families’ language ideologies and war-induced circumstances. Moreover, the newly arrived Ukrainians retain the use of their mother tongue in the family domain, while their use of other languages primarily depends on the level of linguistic competence, attitudes about language as a symbol of national identity, but also attitudes towards foreign language learning. Ukrainian refugees seem to encounter some language barriers, but due to similarities among Slavic languages and their efforts to adjust to the new sociocultural context, they are largely successful in overcoming them. Since many Ukrainian children are introduced to the Croatian educational context after migration, besides their parents, the children also become influential agents in designing aspects of their family language policy.