This article proposes a synthesis of a range of studies from the Greek educational context on teachers’ and immigrant students’ views on issues of bilingual acquisition and of heritage language learning and teaching. Though covering heterogeneous samples and using quantitative and qualitative instruments, the data functioned in a complementary way, forming a converging ‘picture’ about the status of heritage language and immigrant students in the Greek educational context. From the total of the studies, it was disclosed that both teachers and immigrant students fluctuate between the contrasting forces of assimilation and acceptance of the ‘other’/opposition to assimilation.