Language-mediated services for migrants: Monolingualist institutional regimes and translinguistic user practices

This chapter focuses on the second type of services, that is, those constituted by the migrant experience, and it adopts a general perspective on them linked to the analysis of language ideologies and practices. This has two consequences. First, it does not focus exclusively on language services, that is, on the institutional provision of translation, mediation, or interpreting in migrant languages, but on how these services shape access to resources key for survival such as residence visas, shelter, or technology. Second, it reaches beyond the examination of language-focused services, such as local language training schemes, and into various other types of key institutional contexts. The chapter discusses how public, nonprofit (NGO) and private institutions manage linguistic diversity and how current transnational populations react to this management as service users. Finally, it provides some recommendations for further research on migration, language, and service provision.