Katrijn MARYNS is assistant professor in the Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication at Ghent University, Belgium. Her linguistic ethnographic research examines multilingual discursive practices and linguistic inequality in institutional contexts of globalisation, with a particular focus on asylum and migration. She has published on diverse aspects of the Belgian asylum procedure, including the role of narrative construction, credibility assessment, interpreting and lingua franca interaction. She is the author of ‘The asylum speaker: Language in the Belgian asylum procedure’ (Routledge 2006), editor (with Philipp Angermeyer, York University) of the book series ‘Translation, Interpreting and Social Justice in a Globalised World' (Multilingual Matters), and she has published in various international peer-reviewed journals (Applied Linguistics, Language in Society, Journal of Sociolinguistics, Language & Communication). Address: Groot-Brittanniëlaan 45 9000 Gent Belgium
This study examines interactional management practices and narrative co-construction in lawyer-as... more This study examines interactional management practices and narrative co-construction in lawyer-asylum seeker consultations in Flanders, Belgium. Drawing upon linguistic-ethnographic fieldwork, it presents a case study of a consultation between an Afghan applicant for international protection, his adviser, and his lawyer. The purpose of the consultation is to prepare the applicant for testifying at the upcoming asylum hearing. Data analysis focuses on (i) the reorientation of the asylum narrative from an authentic-experiential towards a more objectified formal-institutional account; (ii) the participants’ positioning work that indexes this reorientation process; and (iii) their fluctuating alignment of local-interactional and translocal-gatekeeping perspectives. In the discussion, we analyse the consultation in terms of competing legal and experiential voices and views on participant roles/responsibilities. We reflect on how this ambiguity of roles and ideologies relates to the const...
Hoe vertel je een Iraanse vrouw dat de pil geen bescherming biedt tegen infecties? Hoe kan een Sy... more Hoe vertel je een Iraanse vrouw dat de pil geen bescherming biedt tegen infecties? Hoe kan een Syrisch koppel zich voorbereiden op een bevalling in België? Of hoe vertel je een Afghaanse man dat mensen van hetzelfde geslacht in België kunnen huwen? De communicatie met anderstalige migranten over seksualiteit en seksuele gezondheid loopt niet altijd van een leien dakje. Toch is die volgens Sensoa vzw, het Vlaams expertisecentrum voor seksuele gezondheid, essentieel. Om de kennis van kwetsbare migranten rond seksuele gezondheid te verhogen, lanceerde Sensoa vzw eind 2015 in samenwerking met het Duits Federaal Agentschap voor Gezondheidspromotie BZgA de 14-talige website Zanzu.be. Een onderzoeksteam van de Universiteit Gent evalueert nu of de website haar doel bereikt.
Abstract The constitutive role of discourse in asylum determination procedures cannot be underest... more Abstract The constitutive role of discourse in asylum determination procedures cannot be underestimated. Legal decision-making in the domain of asylum and international protection is essentially discourse-based: spoken and written discourse form the main input for the (re)production and the assessment of asylum applications. As these proceedings can have a direct bearing on the lives of individual applicants, critical reflection and analysis of these discursive dynamics can be considered a core task for researchers in this area. But not a straightforward one. Issues of voice—in the Hymesian sense as the freedom of having one's voice heard—and linguistic-narrative inequality, are central to much of the data that we analyze in this field, but also apply to the impact of language research at policy level, where language is not given priority. We draw from our own experiences as ethnographic fieldworkers in the Belgian asylum and migration context to examine the dynamics of research design, access and dissemination of research findings. We argue for the strength of grassroots initiatives and public engagement in local organizations as fruitful arenas for developing a voice that can be heard locally, and, potentially, also having an impact higher up the institutional hierarchy.
ABSTRACT More than half of the world’s displaced population has moved to urban or peri-urban area... more ABSTRACT More than half of the world’s displaced population has moved to urban or peri-urban areas, and in Brussels, the superdiverse Belgian and European capital, the emergency care sector provides an important setting for analysing the multilingual challenges faced by health practitioners. To gain a better insight in the interactional dynamics of emergency department consultations with immigrant patients, this paper focuses on multilingual strategies that include ‘ad hoc’ communicative solutions used in the absence of professional interpreters (lingua franca use, non-verbal communication, medical translation software, language mediation through companions or hospital staff). Despite their efforts, the participants in our two case-studies lacked the linguistic and interpreting subtleties needed to perform complex linguistic-interactional tasks, and in this way, a form of ‘false fluency’ was created. Ad hoc multilingual solutions, significant as they are, require additional language support to avoid diagnostic insecurity. At the level of patient management, a ‘linguistic assessment’ of patients could potentially be integrated into the triage process, and clinicians should be trained on how to recognise and remediate communication problems under the specific conditions of the emergency department.
ABSTRACT In this article, we explore the multiple challenges faced by health service providers an... more ABSTRACT In this article, we explore the multiple challenges faced by health service providers and immigrant patients when addressing sensitive issues in the context of HIV/STD counselling. To do so, we adopt a case-study approach which enables a deeply contextualised examination of the interactional process. The analysis will draw particular attention to the issue of contextual common ground, or the lack thereof, and how this correlates with the complex interactional conditions of the encounter. These conditions entail a combination of challenges, including the use of ad hoc interpreters on sensitive topics, in a remote, non-face-to-face constellation and with the use of digital support tools that are not equally accessible for all participants. We argue that this accumulation of multilingual, multimodal and multi-contextual challenges engenders the emergence of parallel tracks and limited consonance between institutional-counselling concerns on the one hand and experiential-patient concerns on the other.
... Publishing year, 2005. Start Page, 174. End Page, 193. Publisher, St. Jerome Publishing. Plac... more ... Publishing year, 2005. Start Page, 174. End Page, 193. Publisher, St. Jerome Publishing. Place of Publication, Manchester ; UNITED KINGDOM. Book Title, Dislocations/ Relocations: narratives of displacement. Editor, Mike Baynham; Anna De Fina. ISBN, 978-1900650793; 1900650797 ...
This paper investigates LADO practices in the Belgian asylum procedure. It explores the ways in w... more This paper investigates LADO practices in the Belgian asylum procedure. It explores the ways in which linguistic expertise is called in to assist asylum determination agencies with the task of fact-finding on the basis of speaker identification. LADO is conducted in different ways in the Belgian asylum application process: (a) the use of bilingual language tests in asylum interviews and (b) language examination at the language analysis desk, a governmental information service that applies LADO practices to inform the Belgian asylum agencies. It is argued that although language plays a key role in a person’s socialisation and leaves traces of identity, it bears no transparent relation to the social history and the origin of a person. In this respect, this paper takes up a very cautious stand on LADO practices in the Belgian asylum procedure: it advises against the use of bilingual language testing and encourages the development of reliable, linguistically informed research methods.
In institutional settings of globalization, labelled languages are generally preferred over multi... more In institutional settings of globalization, labelled languages are generally preferred over multilingual repertoires and mobile language resources. Drawing on linguistic-ethnographic analysis of the way English is treated as an invariable ‘ad hoc’ idiom in the Belgian asylum interview, this article demonstrates how institutional measures and routines relating to multilingualism fail to address the communicative needs and practices of the participants involved. I argue that by privileging the variety of the host institution as a means to monitor all incoming Englishes, the institution perpetuates traditional—though academically contested—centre-periphery categorizations of global Englishes. I proceed by discussing how the divergent potentialities of the speakers’ linguistic repertoires reflect a remarkable inversion of client-gatekeeper resources in the way the participants with the least linguistic resources in the interview process eventually have the power to act as arbiters of what is or is not institutionally relevant for the case.
This study examines interactional management practices and narrative co-construction in lawyer-as... more This study examines interactional management practices and narrative co-construction in lawyer-asylum seeker consultations in Flanders, Belgium. Drawing upon linguistic-ethnographic fieldwork, it presents a case study of a consultation between an Afghan applicant for international protection, his adviser, and his lawyer. The purpose of the consultation is to prepare the applicant for testifying at the upcoming asylum hearing. Data analysis focuses on (i) the reorientation of the asylum narrative from an authentic-experiential towards a more objectified formal-institutional account; (ii) the participants’ positioning work that indexes this reorientation process; and (iii) their fluctuating alignment of local-interactional and translocal-gatekeeping perspectives. In the discussion, we analyse the consultation in terms of competing legal and experiential voices and views on participant roles/responsibilities. We reflect on how this ambiguity of roles and ideologies relates to the const...
Hoe vertel je een Iraanse vrouw dat de pil geen bescherming biedt tegen infecties? Hoe kan een Sy... more Hoe vertel je een Iraanse vrouw dat de pil geen bescherming biedt tegen infecties? Hoe kan een Syrisch koppel zich voorbereiden op een bevalling in België? Of hoe vertel je een Afghaanse man dat mensen van hetzelfde geslacht in België kunnen huwen? De communicatie met anderstalige migranten over seksualiteit en seksuele gezondheid loopt niet altijd van een leien dakje. Toch is die volgens Sensoa vzw, het Vlaams expertisecentrum voor seksuele gezondheid, essentieel. Om de kennis van kwetsbare migranten rond seksuele gezondheid te verhogen, lanceerde Sensoa vzw eind 2015 in samenwerking met het Duits Federaal Agentschap voor Gezondheidspromotie BZgA de 14-talige website Zanzu.be. Een onderzoeksteam van de Universiteit Gent evalueert nu of de website haar doel bereikt.
Abstract The constitutive role of discourse in asylum determination procedures cannot be underest... more Abstract The constitutive role of discourse in asylum determination procedures cannot be underestimated. Legal decision-making in the domain of asylum and international protection is essentially discourse-based: spoken and written discourse form the main input for the (re)production and the assessment of asylum applications. As these proceedings can have a direct bearing on the lives of individual applicants, critical reflection and analysis of these discursive dynamics can be considered a core task for researchers in this area. But not a straightforward one. Issues of voice—in the Hymesian sense as the freedom of having one's voice heard—and linguistic-narrative inequality, are central to much of the data that we analyze in this field, but also apply to the impact of language research at policy level, where language is not given priority. We draw from our own experiences as ethnographic fieldworkers in the Belgian asylum and migration context to examine the dynamics of research design, access and dissemination of research findings. We argue for the strength of grassroots initiatives and public engagement in local organizations as fruitful arenas for developing a voice that can be heard locally, and, potentially, also having an impact higher up the institutional hierarchy.
ABSTRACT More than half of the world’s displaced population has moved to urban or peri-urban area... more ABSTRACT More than half of the world’s displaced population has moved to urban or peri-urban areas, and in Brussels, the superdiverse Belgian and European capital, the emergency care sector provides an important setting for analysing the multilingual challenges faced by health practitioners. To gain a better insight in the interactional dynamics of emergency department consultations with immigrant patients, this paper focuses on multilingual strategies that include ‘ad hoc’ communicative solutions used in the absence of professional interpreters (lingua franca use, non-verbal communication, medical translation software, language mediation through companions or hospital staff). Despite their efforts, the participants in our two case-studies lacked the linguistic and interpreting subtleties needed to perform complex linguistic-interactional tasks, and in this way, a form of ‘false fluency’ was created. Ad hoc multilingual solutions, significant as they are, require additional language support to avoid diagnostic insecurity. At the level of patient management, a ‘linguistic assessment’ of patients could potentially be integrated into the triage process, and clinicians should be trained on how to recognise and remediate communication problems under the specific conditions of the emergency department.
ABSTRACT In this article, we explore the multiple challenges faced by health service providers an... more ABSTRACT In this article, we explore the multiple challenges faced by health service providers and immigrant patients when addressing sensitive issues in the context of HIV/STD counselling. To do so, we adopt a case-study approach which enables a deeply contextualised examination of the interactional process. The analysis will draw particular attention to the issue of contextual common ground, or the lack thereof, and how this correlates with the complex interactional conditions of the encounter. These conditions entail a combination of challenges, including the use of ad hoc interpreters on sensitive topics, in a remote, non-face-to-face constellation and with the use of digital support tools that are not equally accessible for all participants. We argue that this accumulation of multilingual, multimodal and multi-contextual challenges engenders the emergence of parallel tracks and limited consonance between institutional-counselling concerns on the one hand and experiential-patient concerns on the other.
... Publishing year, 2005. Start Page, 174. End Page, 193. Publisher, St. Jerome Publishing. Plac... more ... Publishing year, 2005. Start Page, 174. End Page, 193. Publisher, St. Jerome Publishing. Place of Publication, Manchester ; UNITED KINGDOM. Book Title, Dislocations/ Relocations: narratives of displacement. Editor, Mike Baynham; Anna De Fina. ISBN, 978-1900650793; 1900650797 ...
This paper investigates LADO practices in the Belgian asylum procedure. It explores the ways in w... more This paper investigates LADO practices in the Belgian asylum procedure. It explores the ways in which linguistic expertise is called in to assist asylum determination agencies with the task of fact-finding on the basis of speaker identification. LADO is conducted in different ways in the Belgian asylum application process: (a) the use of bilingual language tests in asylum interviews and (b) language examination at the language analysis desk, a governmental information service that applies LADO practices to inform the Belgian asylum agencies. It is argued that although language plays a key role in a person’s socialisation and leaves traces of identity, it bears no transparent relation to the social history and the origin of a person. In this respect, this paper takes up a very cautious stand on LADO practices in the Belgian asylum procedure: it advises against the use of bilingual language testing and encourages the development of reliable, linguistically informed research methods.
In institutional settings of globalization, labelled languages are generally preferred over multi... more In institutional settings of globalization, labelled languages are generally preferred over multilingual repertoires and mobile language resources. Drawing on linguistic-ethnographic analysis of the way English is treated as an invariable ‘ad hoc’ idiom in the Belgian asylum interview, this article demonstrates how institutional measures and routines relating to multilingualism fail to address the communicative needs and practices of the participants involved. I argue that by privileging the variety of the host institution as a means to monitor all incoming Englishes, the institution perpetuates traditional—though academically contested—centre-periphery categorizations of global Englishes. I proceed by discussing how the divergent potentialities of the speakers’ linguistic repertoires reflect a remarkable inversion of client-gatekeeper resources in the way the participants with the least linguistic resources in the interview process eventually have the power to act as arbiters of what is or is not institutionally relevant for the case.
This book highlights the need to develop new educational perspectives in which multilingualism is... more This book highlights the need to develop new educational perspectives in which multilingualism is valorised and strategically used in settings and contexts of instruction and learning. Situated in the current educational debate about multilingualism and ethno-linguistic minorities, chapter authors examine the polarised response to heightened linguistic diversity and how the debate is very much premised on binary views of monolingualism and multi- or bilingualism. Contributors argue that the diverse linguistic backgrounds of immigrant and minority students should be considered an asset, instead of being regarded as a barrier to teaching and learning. From its title through to its conclusion, this book underlines the current perspective of multilingualism as possessing cutting edge potential for transforming diverse classrooms into more inhabitable, more equitable and more efficiently organised spaces for learning. This book will be of interest to scholars and researchers in educational linguistics, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, anthropological linguistics, pedagogics, educational studies, and educational anthropology.
Uploads
Papers by Katrijn Maryns