Abstract
This paper addresses the challenges service providers are facing amidst growing ethnolinguistic diversity in a neoliberal climate. We focus on the public service provider Kind & Gezin (K&G), the agency that monitors the wellbeing of young children on behalf of the Flemish authorities in Belgium. We demonstrate that the organisation has taken various multilingual measures that go against the government’s preference for monolingual service provision. This is particularly the case for ‘bottom-up’ bilingual practices, where bilingual family support workers and medical staff developed bilingual routines in service provision, much in line with the ‘client-centered communication’ which K&G professes. Whereas these practices were initially endorsed by K&G’s management, a further diversification of K&G’s clientele, along with budgetary restrictions, prompted management to restrict these practices and explore alternative ways of providing multilingual services that do not require the recruitment of extra staff. Drawing on ethnographic data we explore the rationale underlying the organisation’s decision to restrict its multilingual policy and the way this decision is influenced by neoliberal principles which foreground effectiveness, efficiency, flexibility and entrepreneurialism. We conclude that the policy shift leads to ideological reconceptualisations of ‘language’ and ‘language difference’ that sit uncomfortably with the reality of language-discordant service encounters, as well as to redefinitions of the professional identity of bilingual family support workers.
References
Allan, Kori. 2013. Skilling the self: The communicability of immigrants as flexible labour. In Alexandre Duchêne, Melissa Moyer & Celia Roberts (eds.), Language, Migration and Social Inequalities. A critical sociolinguistic perspective on Institutions and work, 56–78. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.10.21832/9781783091010-004Search in Google Scholar
Allan, Kori. 2016. Self-appreciation and the value of employability: Integrating un(der)employed immigrants in post-fordist Canada. In Lisa Adkins & Maryanne Dever (eds.), The post-Fordist sexual contract. Living and working in contingency, 49–69. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9781137495549_3Search in Google Scholar
Allan, Kori & Bonnie McElhinny. 2017. Neoliberalism, language and migration. In Suresh Canagarajah (ed.), The Routledge handbook of migration and language, 79–101. Abingdon New York, NY: Routledge.10.4324/9781315754512-5Search in Google Scholar
Angouri, Jo (ed.). 2014. Multilingualism at work. [Special issue]. Multilingua 33. 1–2.10.1515/multi-2014-0007Search in Google Scholar
Ball, Stephen J. 1997. Policy sociology and critical social research: A personal review of recent education policy and policy research. British Educational Research Journal 23(3). 257–274.10.4324/9780203015179-7Search in Google Scholar
Baraldi, Claudio. 2009. Forms of mediation: The case of interpreter-mediated interactions in medical systems. Language and Intercultural Communication 9(2). 120–137.10.1080/14708470802588393Search in Google Scholar
Block, David, John Gray & Marnie Holborow. 2012. Neoliberalism and applied linguistics. London: Routledge.10.4324/9780203128121Search in Google Scholar
Blommaert, Jan & Jef Verschueren. 1998. Debating diversity: Analysing the discourse of tolerance. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Boutet, Josiane. 2008. La vie verbale au travail. Des manufactures aux centres d’appels [The verbal life at work. From factories to call centers]. Toulouse: Octares.Search in Google Scholar
Boutet, Josiane. 2012. Language workers. Emblematic figures of late capitalism. In Alexandre Duchêne & Monica Heller (eds.), Language in late capitalism. Pride and profit, 207–229. New York/London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Codó, Eva. 2008. Immigration and bureaucratic control: Language practices in public administration. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110199086Search in Google Scholar
Codó, Eva. 2018. Language awareness in multilingual and multicultural organisations. In Peter Garret & Josep M. Cots (eds.), The Routledge handbook of language awareness, 467–481. Abingdon, Oxon and New York: Routledge.10.4324/9781315676494-29Search in Google Scholar
Codó, Eva & Maria Rosa Garrido Sardà. 2010. Ideologies and practices of multilingualism in bureaucratic and legal advice encounters. Sociolinguistic Studies 4(2). 297–332.10.1558/sols.v4i2.297Search in Google Scholar
Collins, James & Stef Slembrouck. 2015. Classifying migrants in the field of health: Sociolinguistic scale and neoliberal statecraft. In Christopher Stroud & Martin Prinsloo (eds.), Language, Literacy and Diversity. Moving Words, 16–33. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Creese, Angela & Adrian Blackledge (eds.). 2018. The Routledge handbook of language and superdiversity. Abingdon/New York: Routledge.10.4324/9781315696010Search in Google Scholar
Dalmau, Sabaté, Maria, Maria Rosa Garrido Sardà & Eva Codó. 2017. Language-mediated services for migrants. Monolingualist institutional regimes and translinguistic user practices. In Suresh Canagarajah (ed.), The Routledge handbook of migration and language, 558–576. Abingdon New York, NY: Routledge.10.4324/9781315754512-32Search in Google Scholar
Davidson, Brad. 2000. The interpreter as institutional gatekeeper: The sociolinguistic role of interpreters in Spanish–English medical discourse. Journal of Sociolinguistics 4(3). 379–405.10.1111/1467-9481.00121Search in Google Scholar
Davidson, Brad. 2001. Questions in cross-linguistic medical encounters: The role of the hospital interpreter. Anthropological Quarterly 74(4). 170–178.10.1353/anq.2001.0035Search in Google Scholar
De Wilde, July, Ellen Van Praet & Pascal Rillof. 2016. Contesting the monolingual mindset: Practice versus policy: The case of Belgium. Journal of Language and Politics 15(2). 121–146.10.1075/jlp.15.2.01dewSearch in Google Scholar
Del Percio, Alfonso & Mi-Cha Flubacher. 2017. Language, education and neoliberalism. In Mi-Cha Flubacher & Alfonso Del Percio (eds.), Language, Education and Neoliberalism, 1–18. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.10.21832/9781783098699-003Search in Google Scholar
Del Percio, Alfonso & Sarah Van Hoof. 2017. Enterprising migrants: Language and the shifting politics of activation. In Mi-Cha Flubacher & Alfonso Del Percio (eds.), Language, Education and Neoliberalism, 140–162. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.10.21832/9781783098699-010Search in Google Scholar
Duchêne, Alexandre. 2011. Néolibéralisme, inégalités sociales et plurilinguisme: L’exploitation des ressources langagières et des locuteurs [Neoliberalism, social inequalities, and multilingualism: The exploitation of linguistic resources and speakers]. Langage et Société 2(136). 81–108.10.3917/ls.136.0081Search in Google Scholar
Duchêne, Alexandre, Melissa Moyer & Celia Roberts (eds.). 2013. Language, migration and social inequalities: A critical sociolinguistic perspective on institutions and work. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.10.21832/9781783091010Search in Google Scholar
Flubacher, Mi-Cha, Alexandre Duchêne & Renata Coray. 2018. Language investment and employability. The uneven distribution of resources in the public employment service. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1007/978-3-319-60873-0Search in Google Scholar
Flubacher, Mi-Cha & Shirley Yeung. 2016. Discourses of integration: Language, skills, and the politics of difference. Multilingua 35(6). 599–616.10.1515/multi-2015-0076Search in Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1981. Forms of talk. Oxford: Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar
Gsir, Sonia, Jérémy Mandin & Elsa Mescoli. 2015. Corridor Report on Belgium: The case of Moroccan and Turkish Immigrants. Migration Policy Center. INTERACT RR 2015/03, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, San Domenico di Fiesole (FI): European University Institute. http://orbi.ulg.ac.be/handle/2268/177147 (accessed 12 July 2017).Search in Google Scholar
Haffner, Linda. 1992. Translation is not enough: Interpreting in a medical setting. The Western Journal of Medicine 157(3). 255–259.10.1075/z.56.39harSearch in Google Scholar
Hale, Sandra Beatriz. 2007. Community Interpreting. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9780230593442Search in Google Scholar
Harvey, David. 2005. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780199283262.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Kind & Gezin. 2004. Functiebeschrijving: gezinsondersteuner [Job Profile: Family support worker] http://docs.vlaamsparlement.be/pfile?id=347494. (accessed 24 September 2017).Search in Google Scholar
Kind & Gezin. 2012. Kind in Vlaanderen 2012 [Child in Flanders 2012. Annual Report]. https://www.kindengezin.be/img/Het_kind_in_Vlaanderen_2012.pdf (accessed 21 August 2017).Search in Google Scholar
Kind & Gezin. 2016. Kind in Vlaanderen 2016 [Child in Flanders 2016. Annual Report]. Available https://www.kindengezin.be/img/kiv2016.pdf (accessed 21 August 2017).Search in Google Scholar
Kind & Gezin. s.d. Werken met gezinsondersteuners [Working with family support workers] https://www.kindengezin.be/img/Werken-met-gezinsondersteuners.docx. (accessed 15 June 2017).Search in Google Scholar
Moyer, Melissa G. 2013. Language as a resource. Migrant agency, positioning and resistance in a health care clinic. In Alexandre Duchêne, Melissa Moyer & Celia Roberts (eds.), Language, migration and social inequalities: A critical sociolinguistic perspective on institutions and work, 196–224. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.10.21832/9781783091010-010Search in Google Scholar
Myria 2017. Migratie in cijfers en in rechten 2017. http://www.myria.be/files/MIGRA2017_NL_AS.pdf. (accessed 13 September 2017)Search in Google Scholar
Piller, Ingrid. 2016. Linguistic diversity and social justice. An introduction to applied sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199937240.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Piller, Ingrid & Kimie Takahashi. 2011. Linguistic diversity and social inclusion. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 14(4). 371–381.10.1080/13670050.2011.573062Search in Google Scholar
Reniers, Georges. 1999. On the history and selectivity of Turkish and Moroccan migration to Belgium. International Migration 37(4). 679–713.10.1111/1468-2435.00090Search in Google Scholar
Rillof, Pascal, Ellen Van Praet & July De Wilde. 2015. Eindrapport Communicatiematrix Kind en Gezin [Final report Communication Matrix Child and Family]. http://www.kruispuntmi.be/eindrapport-communicatiematrix-kind-en-gezin (accessed 13 May 2017).Search in Google Scholar
Silverman, Jonathan, Suzanne Kurtz & Juliet Draper. 2013. Skills for communicating with patients. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.Search in Google Scholar
Urciuoli, Bonnie. 2008. Skills and selves in the new workplace. American Ethnologist 35(2). 211–228.10.1111/j.1548-1425.2008.00031.xSearch in Google Scholar
Urciuoli, Bonnie. 2016. The compromised pragmatics of diversity. Language & Communication 51. 30–39.10.1016/j.langcom.2016.07.005Search in Google Scholar
Vertovec, Steven. 2007. Super-diversity and its implications. Ethnic and Racial Studies 30(6). 1024–1054.10.1080/01419870701599465Search in Google Scholar
Willemyns, R. 2013. Dutch. Biography of a language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
