State of the Art Migrants’ Relational Experiences with the Welfare State at the Street Level: A Focus on the Role of Language

Camilla Nordberg*, Anna Simola

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

Abstract

While previous research has highlighted the significant role of language in conditioning migrants’ access to key institutions of the welfare state, the question of how individual migrants experience linguistic disadvantage has been less in focus. Drawing on a relational approach, the article moves beyond the idea of language barriers as a static structure of (in)equality or a matter of individual shortcomings. It demonstrates how language policies and language ideologies, and their entanglements with more general trends in welfare policies and ideologies, shape migrants’ relational experiences with the welfare states and their representatives, and what are the implications of such interactions - or the lack of interaction. Empirically, it builds on qualitative data collected in Belgium and Finland, showing how language barriers and discrimination can result in Kafkaesque administrative processes that produce both material and affective hardship for migrants in these national contexts.

Original languageEnglish
JournalSocial Policy and Society
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 2024
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • Language
  • migrants
  • relational approach
  • street-level
  • welfare state

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