Immigrant specters of heritage language

Abstract Drawing on 12 months of ethnographic participant observation, interviews with Dominicans of Haitian descent (ages 18–24), and focus groups with public school teachers in a northern province of the Dominican Republic, this study examines how language ideologies in formal and nonformal language learning spaces shape perceptions and uses of heritage language (Kreyòl). Ethnographic and discursive analyses reveal that the immigrant specter of Haitian heritage informs raciolinguistic ideologies about both Kreyòl and French, regardless of young people’s actual language practices or production of linguistic signs. Findings highlight three processes: (1) Dominicans of Haitian descent repress their Haitian heritage and language in public schools as socializing agents of a Hispanicized national identity; (2) Dominican students’ engagement in state-sponsored language learning at school is shaped by the conflation of French and Kreyòl alongside anti-immigrant sentiments; and (3) Dominicans of Haitian descent invert language ideologies about their heritage language practices despite linguistic insecurity.