Language as a trigger for racism : language barriers at healthcare institutions in Slovenia

Čebron Lipovec, Uršula (author)

The article analyzes the impact of language barriers on the medical treatment of foreignspeaking patients and illustrates that the absence of systemic, institutional responses to language barriers in healthcare facilities exacerbates racist attitudes toward migrants and ethnic groups. The article is based on 201 interviews with healthcare workers, employees of public or non-governmental institutions as well as users of healthcare services that were conducted between 2018 and 2019 in twelve local communities in Slovenia. Following the methodological and conceptual framework, the first part of the article highlights the various negative consequences of language barriers experienced by healthcare workers and foreign-speaking patients. The second part shows that in the absence of an accessible network of professional intercultural mediators or interpreters, healthcare workers are left to their own devices with respect to overcoming language barriers. Finally, the last part of the article shows that many interlocutors are increasingly searching for the culprit for this situation. Some healthcare workers attribute the responsibility to the abstract concept of the “system”, while others attribute the responsibility exclusively to migrants, thus perpetuating key elements of the culture of racism present in Slovenia. In this culture of racism, knowledge of Slovene language becomes one of the most important criteria that distinguishes deserving from undeserving migrants. The latter are a privileged object of racist responses at the level of cultural, institutional and personal racism, which is proving to be mutually toxic.

• Language: English
• Keywords: healthcare, language barriers, intercultural mediation, racism, Slovenia
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2021
• Number of pages: 17 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 10, iss. 4, art. 125
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-135236
• UDC: 323.14:61
• ISSN on article: 2076-0760
• DOI: 10.3390/socsci10040125
• COBISS.SI-ID: 58609667
• Publication date in RUL: 02.03.2022

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Social sciences
• Shortened title: Soc. sci.
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 2076-0760
• COBISS.SI-ID: 32378973

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.
• Licensing start date: 01.04.2021

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: zdravstveno varstvo, jezikovne ovire, medkulturna mediacija, rasizem, Slovenija

Projects

• Funder: Other - Other funder or multiple funders
• Funding programme: Slovenia, National Institute of Public Health
• Project number: C2711-18-031037
• Name: Model of community approach to promoting health and reducing health inequalities in local communities
• Acronym: MoST