Family language policy in immigrant families: a scoping review of theoretical and thematic developments, 2005–2025

Family Language Policy (FLP) has consolidated over the past two decades as a distinct field examining how immigrant families negotiate heritage language transmission, bilingual development, and cultural identity within the home. This scoping review maps the field through 86 empirical studies published between 2005 and 2025, identified through searches of ERIC, Scopus, and Web of Science. Rather than descriptively aggregating findings, the review traces the development of theoretical frameworks, methodological approaches, and thematic concerns, and examines three conceptual tensions shaping the field. First, the field has diversified theoretically but remains anchored in (Spolsky, B. [2004]. Language policy. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511615245), (Spolsky, B. [2012]. Family language policy: The critical domain. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 33(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2011.638072) tripartite framework of ideology, management, and practice; translanguaging perspectives have emerged within this literature, yet the field has not clarified how the two views of language relate. Second, although the field routinely invokes multilingualism, most studies operate within a bilingual logic pairing one heritage language with one majority language. Third, the findings derive predominantly from institutionally accessible, middle-class, motivated families, so established patterns may reflect who is studied rather than immigrant family life generally. The review argues these tensions constitute a substantive agenda and proposes lines of inquiry engaging them directly.