Children as Linguistic Rights Holders in the Swedish Welfare System

Abstract

This paper investigates an encounter in a multilingual welfare setting where a child with migration experiences is the rights holder. The empirical basis is a story told by the interpreter Nour, about an encounter at a youth clinic. The analysis is guided by the concept of linguistic (in)justice. Findings show that linguistic injustices are a result of the reproduction of monolingual mindsets and linguistic paternalism in the intersection of layers of power asymmetries when welfare professionals do not let the child client talk, when adults talk on the child’s behalf, and the speakers give priority to the majority language on behalf of the language that the child speak. These findings suggest that professionals and policymakers must recognise the special conditions of a multilingual setting and children as a particular group of language rights holders.