1.3 Contemporary Migration Situation in the UK

Despite considerable scholarly attention to transnationalism and multilingualism, relatively few studies have explicitly centred on intercultural or intermarried families.

尽管学术界对跨国主义和多语言主义关注颇多，但明确以跨文化或跨种族通婚家庭为研究对象的研究却相对较少。

As such, there is a pressing need to investigate how these families navigate the complexities – or, indeed, the absence – of challenges in their everyday lives, particularly in relation to language, identity and cultural negotiation.

因此，迫切需要研究这些家庭如何应对日常生活中复杂的挑战，或者说，如何应对缺乏挑战的挑战，尤其是在语言、身份认同和文化协调方面。

While the UK is often celebrated for its cultural richness and linguistic plurality, research exploring the specific language dynamics within its multilingual, transnational families remains limited.

尽管英国因其文化丰富性和语言多元化而备受赞誉，但探索其多语言、跨国家庭内部特定语言动态的研究仍然有限。

In contexts historically perceived as homogeneous and predominantly monolingual, there has been a marked rise in families where parents originate from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Over recent decades, the UK has experienced substantial waves of migration, drawing individuals both from emerging countries of origin – such as Poland, Somalia and Lebanon – and from nations with longer histories of emigration, including China (see Curdt-Christiansen et al., 2021; Vertovec, 2007).

在历史上被认为是同质化且以单语为主的环境中，父母来自多元文化和语言背景的家庭数量显著增加。

近几十年来，英国经历了大规模的移民潮，吸引了来自波兰、索马里和黎巴嫩等新兴移民来源国以及包括中国在内的移民历史更悠久的国家的移民（参见 Curdt-Christiansen 等人，2021 年；Vertovec，2007 年）。

These migratory flows have continually shaped, revitalised and redefined diasporic communities, contributing significantly to the UK’s evolving linguistic landscape and vibrant multicultural practices (Curdt-Christiansen et al., 2021), as evidenced by recent demographic data (see Figure 1).

这些移民流动不断塑造、振兴和重新定义了侨民社群，为英国不断发展的语言格局和充满活力的多元文化实践做出了重大贡献（Curdt-Christiansen 等人，2021 年），最近的人口统计数据也证明了这一点（参见图 1）。

Although migrants now arrive from an increasingly diverse range of countries, Poland, Romania and India remain the predominant countries of birth for foreign-born residents in the UK, with China ranking as the 11th most common (Migration Observatory, 2020).

尽管如今移民来自的国家越来越多元化，但波兰、罗马尼亚和印度仍然是英国外国出生居民的主要出生国，而中国则位列第 11 位（移民观察站，2020 年）。

Figure 1

Top 10 Non-UK National Identities of Usual Residents, 2011 and 2021, England and Wales (Source: Office for National Statistics, Census 2021)

图 1

2011 年和 2021 年英格兰和威尔士常住居民十大非英国国籍身份（数据来源：国家统计局，2021 年人口普查）

The population in focus in this study comprises Chinese–English families. Defining a Chinese and English multilingual, transnational family is not a straightforward task. In this study, Chinese and English refer not only to the languages but also to their corresponding countries and national identities – that is, China or Chinese and the UK or English.

本研究的重点人群是中英家庭。定义一个中英多语种跨国家庭并非易事。在本研究中，“中英”不仅指语言，还指其对应的国家和民族身份——即“中国”（China）和“英国”（UK）。

Such families are defined in relation to the child and their parents – namely, families in which both parents (and grandparents) originate from China or families in which one parent is of Chinese background. In these families, the children (pre-adolescents) and adolescents were born and raised in either Chinese-speaking or English-speaking societies and currently reside in the UK with their parents.

这类家庭的定义基于儿童及其父母——即父母（及祖父母）均来自中国，或父母一方具有华裔背景的家庭。在这些家庭中，儿童（青春期前）和青少年出生和成长于华语或英语社会，目前与父母居住在英国。

Chinese is among the most frequently studied languages in research on multilingual families over the past two decades. However, systematic reviews of the literature indicate that these studies are often conducted in contexts where Chinese is a majority immigrant language or in countries with significant immigration histories, such as the United States and Australia (Curdt-Christiansen, 2009, 2016).

在过去二十年中，中文是多语种家庭研究中研究最频繁的语言之一。然而，系统性文献综述表明，这些研究通常发生在中文作为主要移民语言或具有重要移民历史的国家，例如美国和澳大利亚（Curdt-Christiansen，2009，2016）。

While research into heritage Chinese language policies and practices has been conducted in various global contexts (Curdt-Christiansen, 2016; Curdt-Christiansen & LaMorgia, 2018), there remains a notable gap in understanding how Chinese-speaking transnational families maintain and transmit the language – particularly within the UK context, where this area of inquiry remains relatively underexplored.

尽管全球范围内已有关于传承中文政策和实践的研究（Curdt-Christiansen，2016；Curdt-Christiansen & LaMorgia，2018），但在理解讲中文的跨国家庭如何传承和传承中文方面仍然存在显著差距，尤其是在英国，这一研究领域相对而言仍未得到充分探索。

Although the Chinese population is one of the largest and oldest immigrant groups, according to the 2021 Census, the total population of the Chinese ethnic group numbered 502,216, representing 0.8% of the UK population (Census, 2021).

尽管华裔人口是规模最大、历史最悠久的移民群体之一，但根据2021年人口普查，华裔总人口为502,216人，占英国总人口的0.8%（人口普查，2021年）。

In England and Wales (see Figure 1), data for individuals specifying a non-UK national identity indicate a decrease in the number of people from mainland China between 2011 and 2021 – from 138,479 to 123,906 (rounded to 124,000 in Figure 1).

在英格兰和威尔士（见图1），表明非英国国籍的个人数据显示，2011年至2021年间，来自中国大陆的人数有所减少，从138,479人减少到123,906人（图1中四舍五入为124,000人）。

While they were among the top five in 2011, they now rank 11th. In 2021, the Hong Kong Chinese population numbered 27,465, ranking 37th (Census, 2021), which is still considerably lower than that of other ethnic groups.

2011年，香港华裔人口曾位列前五，如今却跌至第十一。2021年，香港华裔人口为27,465人，位列第37位（人口普查，2021年），但与其他族裔相比仍显低迷。

In addition, English – as the dominant language – has increasingly encroached on major domains of family life, often at the expense of Chinese and its regional varieties. Research on immigrant families has shown that parents frequently face a dilemma: whether to raise their children bilingually or solely in the societal or school language (Bezcioglu-Göktolga & Yagmur, 2018; Kwon, 2017; Song, 2019).

此外，英语作为主导语言，日益侵蚀着家庭生活的主要领域，往往以牺​​牲中文及其方言为代价。针对移民家庭的研究表明，父母经常面临一个两难境地：是让孩子双语化，还是只用社会语言或学校语言来教育孩子（Bezcioglu-Göktolga & Yagmur，2018；Kwon，2017；Song，2019）。

In relation to this study, the situation among Chinese families is one in which the current status of the HL (i.e. Mandarin Chinese) is unequal to that of the societal language, with Chinese generally placed behind English (Curdt-Christiansen, 2020). Consequently, the extent to which Chinese can still be regarded as a HL is gradually being questioned.

就本研究而言，华人家庭中目前的情况是，HL（即普通话）的地位与社会语言的地位并不平等，中文通常被置于英语之后（Curdt-Christiansen，2020）。因此，中文在多大程度上仍可被视为HL逐渐受到质疑。

Therefore, the combination of Chinese and English as a family language is distinctive in the UK context. This study aims to provide new insights into how ideologies and practices interact within this language combination in the home environment and, in turn, what contributions this might make to the field of sociolinguistics.

因此，在英国，中英结合作为家庭语言的情况显得尤为独特。本研究旨在探讨家庭环境中意识形态和实践如何在这种语言组合中相互作用，以及这可能对社会语言学领域产生何种影响，从而提供新的见解。