English-medium instruction (EMI) has long been offered as an educational option in upper secondary schools and higher education in Sweden. More recently, however, EMI has increased in popularity for younger students, mainly in Years 4-9. In this presentation, I will first present EMI in Sweden, followed by the results of a small-scale study of EMI school choice (Paulsrud & Cunningham, forthcoming), focusing on the linguistic aspirations and imagined outcomes that five parents express for their children who are either just starting or just ending EMI programmes. The analysis of the parents’ motives was framed in Darvin and Norton’s (2015) model of investment, and informed by theories of language ideologies, linguistic hierarchies, and parental aspiration. Tensions in the three key areas of investment (capital, ideology, and identity) were evident. I will then conclude the presentation with a consideration of the connections between the parental motives expressed in the interviews and the contestation concerning these schools in current media and political debates, with claims that EMI is not compatible with Swedish language or education policies, is only a money-making scheme, and hinders students’ language development in Swedish.