Linguistic Vulnerability and Slow Bureaucratic Violence inInstitutional Welfare Borderscapes

Despite the fact that public services in contemporary societies are increasingly marked by language diversity, research on language as a vantage point for understanding social (in)justice in human service work is still scarce. The logic of the neoliberal welfare state emphasises an individual’s responsibility and thus produces a situation where one has to actively claim services, such as interpretation. Drawing on conceptualisations of bureaucratic and slow violence, we examine language barriers as a site for oppression that is intimately linked with other material and symbolic disadvantages. Empirically, we build on a set of qualitative interviews collected in Finland, addressing the role of language in migrants’ experiences of welfare encounters. The analysis shows that language barriers dehumanise and isolate structurally vulnerable non-speakers of dominant languages and produce practices of silence. In this article, we demonstrate that linguistic and structural vulnerabilities and intersectional power asymmetries often create concrete harm and, ultimately, obstacles for substantive citizenship. Moreover, we ask what kind of agency is being produced when complaining actively is not possible and where non-native speakers turn to assistance if their needs are ignored in public welfare service encounters.