National healthcare under pressure
Linguistic diversity, nation-state values and welfare state needs
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11293178 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Martha Sif Karrebæk (0000-0001-7742-3077, University of Copenhagen, corresponding author), Rasmus Toke Sommer (University of Copenhagen), Johanna Lindell (0000-0002-7994-7779, University of Copenhagen) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 123-145 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-23 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Multilingua (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0167-8507 • E-ISSN: 1613-3684 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1515/multi-2025-0103 |
| OpenAlex | W4417227136 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 32 |
This article examines the interaction between the welfare state and the nation state in Danish parliamentary politicians’ discourse on migrants. The focus is on public healthcare. Drawing on Critical Sociolinguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis, we look at two debates in the parliamentary health committee, and we examine how the two categories of migrants patients and doctors are represented discursively. We show that migrant patients are portrayed as disloyal and societal burdens due to insufficient Danish language skills. These skills get articulated as resulting from patients’ own choices, and therefore some politicians find it reasonable and legitimate to restrict their rights to healthcare interpreting. In contrast, migrant health professionals are portrayed as valuable and as willing resources for a healthcare system in crisis. Yet this category of migrants are seen as faced with bureaucratic obstacles which the state is articulated as responsible of failing to remedy. We argue that it is difficult for the state to handle its new role as employer for international professionals as for decades the focus has been on keeping migrants out. Furthermore, we show a general lack of understanding of what language learning implies for adult learners
Bureaucracy · Critical discourse analysis · Danish · Health care · Sociolinguistics · State (computer science · Welfare · Welfare state · Interpreting and Communication in Healthcare · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Multilingual Education and Policy
Discourse and Migration
Neoliberalism, language, and migration
Signs of Difference
Discourse
Language and Neoliberal Governmentality
Us and Them
Traits of a representative welfare state
Migration and welfare state solidarity in Western Europe
Deservingness in the Danish context
Social Identity, Investment, and Language Learning
Nordicity, language and the nation-state
Discourse, social theory, and social research
Rinkeby Swedish and semilingualism in language ideological debates
The Commodification of Language
Language Management/Labor
Revisiting Theory and Method in Language Ideology Research
Skills and selves in the new workplace
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |