Igbo Diaspora Language Planning in the United Kingdom: Community Agency, Institutional Support, and Heritage Language Transmission

This dissertation investigates Igbo diaspora language planning in the United Kingdom, examining how community organisations, religious institutions, and individual families in London, Manchester, and Glasgow plan for and support Igbo heritage language transmission across generations in the British diaspora context. Nigerian diasporas in the UK represent one of the largest African diaspora populations in Europe, with the Igbo community constituting a numerically and culturally significant segment, yet Igbo language planning in the UK diaspora has received no systematic academic attention. The research employs a longitudinal ethnographic design over twenty months, combining participant observation of community language planning activities, semi-structured interviews with sixty-two community members across three generations, institutional case studies of five Igbo community schools, and policy document analysis of UK Heritage Language Funding frameworks. Findings reveal a vibrant but resource-constrained grassroots language planning ecology in which community associations and churches carry the dominant institutional burden of Igbo heritage language support without substantive engagement from either Nigerian state authorities or UK heritage language policy frameworks. Second-generation parents exhibit a complex ideological landscape, simultaneously valuing Igbo heritage and prioritising English-dominant child-rearing for socio-economic reasons. Digital technology, particularly WhatsApp family groups, Igbo YouTube channels, and remote grandmother interaction, emerge as critical informal language planning resources. The dissertation makes original theoretical contributions to diaspora language planning theory and African heritage language scholarship. Keywords: Igbo diaspora, heritage language planning, United Kingdom, community agency, intergenerational transmission.