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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2024

Camilla Nordberg Open the ORCID record for Camilla Nordberg [Opens in a new window]  and
Anna Simola Open the ORCID record for Anna Simola [Opens in a new window]
Camilla Nordberg*
Affiliation:
Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland
Anna Simola
Affiliation:
University of Louvain (UCLouvain), Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
*
Corresponding author: Camilla Nordberg; Email: [email protected]
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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.

Keywords

Languagemigrantsrelational approachstreet-levelwelfare state
Type
Article
Information
Social Policy and Society , First View , pp. 1 - 12
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press

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