Managing Multilingualism in Nordic Healthcare

While the Nordic societies share similar forms of governance and organisation of welfare services, policies and programmes for language training and labour market insertion for work migrants and refugees differ significantly between the countries. The Managing Multilingualism in Nordic Healthcare network will facilitate the exchange of knowledge and experience of researchers, practitioners and policy makers across the Nordic countries. By compiling and contrasting research and practice results, the network will 1) compare developments in the Nordic countries; 2) discuss how to use sociolinguistic insights to facilitate the practical and political aspects of the recruitment and integration of migrant healthcare workers; 3) develop a thorough understanding of globalisation, language and the Nordic welfare state in the 21st century which can feed into sociolinguistic theorisation.

• The network will meet once per semester from autumn 2025 to spring 2028.
• A two-day workshop on the theme of ’Language training and testing for highly-skilled work migrants’ will take place Södertörn University in Spring 2026.
• A two-day workshop on the theme of ’Language learning and testing for migrants with little school experience’ will take place University of Agder in Spring 2027.
• A two-day workshop on the theme of ’Workplace interaction and literacy’ will take place University of Copenhagen in Spring 2028.

For information on future events, please sign up to our mailing list by sending an email to the network coordinators Dorte Lønsmann and Verónica Pájaro. Please also contact us with any inqueries about the network.