Ukrainas ģimenes Latvijā: lingvistiskā attieksme un valodu pārvaldība latviešu valodas apguvei un dzimtās valodas saglabāšanai

This article aims to explore the language policies of Ukrainian refugee families living in Riga following the full-scale war initiated by Russia. The article pays particular attention to 1) language attitudes and their impact on motivation to learn languages, and 2) the planning of language development events within the family (family literacy events) to learn Latvian while also preserving the languages used within the family. To achieve this goal, structured interview data were collected from six Ukrainian refugee families in the spring of 2025, clarifying their linguistic attitudes, language values, and the impact of linguistic beliefs on their motivation to learn languages. The results showed that in all families, the linguistic attitude towards the Latvian language is neutral or positive, recognising its value as the family continues to live and the children continue to study in Latvia. A dual attitude towards the Russian language was revealed in the interviews. The Ukrainian language holds mostly symbolic meaning, a function of identity awareness and family communication that parents wish to pass on to their children. Not all respondents expressed a willingness to encourage their children to achieve a high level of proficiency in Ukrainian. The study identified and summarised the educational activities planned by families for learning Latvian and preserving their native language. In interviews, families revealed which language learning techniques they use at home to develop their native language and the Latvian language. The set of educational events in both cases – learning Latvian and preserving the family language – is similar. The learning process at home includes both entertaining activities and planned speech activities. Outside of independent learning at home, adults emphasise the importance of Latvian language courses, but point to the frequent linguistic attitude of Latvians themselves, who switch to foreign languages in communication situations, thus limiting the practice of Latvian language use by non-native speakers.