Supporting migrant inclusion: the role of linguistic diversity in community-led organisations

Abstract

This empirical study explores migrant inclusion in the linguistically diverse city of Glasgow. The particular focus is on the minoritisation of emergent speakers of English, who can find it especially difficult to access support. The research involved in-depth interviews with professionals at third-sector organisations supporting people with a refugee or migrant background. Interviewees gave examples of flexible communicative practices that support migrant inclusion. Such communicative practices can be understood in terms of translanguaging: the way that speakers fluidly draw on their full linguistic repertoires to make meaning. The analysis indicates that language minoritisation can be reduced when services better reflect the linguistic diversity of community members who access them. The examples given show how organisations can embrace linguistic diversity in ways that appear to enable inclusion, valuing the linguistic and cultural resources of recently arrived and settled community members. The article concludes that organisations which are more community led and linguistically diverse can better support the inclusion of language-minoritised migrants.