Immigrant the new version of colonized: Language power play The case of Iranian Immigrants

Language is power, the power to name and therefore to construct the lens through which understanding takes place. As the most potent instrument of culture control, thelanguage of the host power (country) therefore plays an essential role in the process of immigration. According to Brown (1997:27) the bilingual intelligentsia of immigrantsmust negotiate the power dynamics regarding such tensions as host- immigrant and indigenous-alien. The present paper has focused on Iranian immigrants’ strategies to diminish the language power play in the host country to cope with their immigration. To achieve thegoal, first a comparison between colonization and immigration is made to pinpoint the similarities and differences, and second some evidences regarding the Iranianimmigration are provided. It is shown that Iranian immigrants try to maintain their identity through two main strategies: sticking to their native language and cultural values, and simultaneously gaining a high degree of proficiency in the host language not to lose the language power play.