A WAR ON LANGUAGES: A LINGUISTIC SHIFT AMONG UKRAINIAN REFUGEES IN CANADA
Date
2025-04-21
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
0009-0003-4277-5381
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
Language changes are often influenced by social changes (Sacco & Bossio, 2015; Saroj & Pal, 2020), as seen in the significant impact of the Ukrainian-Russian war on language use in Ukraine (Kulyk, 2015; Racek et al., 2024). While previous research has explored the shift from Ukrainian-Russian bilingualism to Ukrainian dominance within Ukraine (Shevchuk-Kliuzheva, 2020), very limited of research has emerged about this language shift among Ukrainians in other countries, particularly Ukrainian refugees. The 2022 Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) program facilitated the arrival of over 200,000 Ukrainian refugees in Canada (Paas-Lang, 2023). In a new environment, immigrants undergo an adjustment process known as “adaptation” (Berry, 1997). This process may affect their use of languages and attitudes towards them (Makarova et al., 2019). For Ukrainian refugees already navigating linguistic identity changes at home (Taranenko, 2023), this process becomes even more complicated, alongside typical immigrant difficulties (Berry & Hou, 2016).
This study aims to outline the change in the use of languages by Ukrainian refugees in Canada, their attitudes to different languages, and what difficulties they are experiencing in their adaptation process. The methodology is a mixed method as I analyze the survey responses of 65 participants (descriptive and correlation statistics) as well as 23 interviews thematically analyzed (Braun & Clarke, 2006) with the NVivo package.
The results demonstrate that the language shift that happened in 2022 was overwhelming and sudden, and affected almost all domains. The attitude change demonstrated a full switch from Russian language preference to a current severely negative attitude towards Russian language in both Canada and Ukraine. The adaptation process was significantly affected by the official languages’ proficiencies, such as having difficulties with finding a job or accessing services because of language barrier. However, the Ukrainian refugees demonstrated surprising resilience in trying to overcome difficulties by incorporating any means they had access to, such as translation applications. The findings of this study can inform future research on war-related language change among Ukrainians, as well as applied to create better resources to help all refugees to improve their adaptation and language-learning process in Canada.
Description
Keywords
Language shift, adaptation, Ukrainian refugees
Citation
Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
Linguistics
Program
Linguistics