Conceptualising Linguistic Disadvantage in the Context of Diversifying Welfare Institutions

Abstract

Social policy has not systematically addressed linguistic disadvantage and its enactment through welfare policies and practices. In this state-of-the-art article, we review literature on linguistic disadvantage in various fields, highlighting its dialogue with broader social policy research on inclusive and exclusive tendencies within welfare policies and practices. We distinguish between three thematically separate, yet intertwined, perspectives that we find important for future research: (1) language policy, linguistic disadvantage, and social (in)justice; (2) language ideologies and current nativist ideologies and discourses; and (3) the influence of (1) and (2) on the enactment of welfare policies at the street-level. We argue that more direct focus on issues of language and linguistic disadvantage is needed in social policy research. Particularly, it would benefit from a stronger conceptualisation that recognises how language policies and ideologies surface in minority language speakers’ relational encounters with the street-level welfare state, leading to linguistic disadvantage and discrimination.