Inside Refugee Support Work - (Language, Mobility and Institutions) by Jonas Hassemer (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book explores the construction of linguistic, 'languaged' and professional subjectivities in the context of refugee support work in Austria. It becomes clear that language remains a sign of Otherness, even while being central to the services offered.

Book Synopsis

Presents a situated, ethnographically grounded, sociolinguistic critique of politics of difference and inequality in contemporary Central Europe.

This book explores the construction of 'languaged' and professional subjectivities in the context of refugee support work in Austria. It presents ethnographic insights into how language and linguistic practice come to matter both as part of a migration infrastructure in transformation, and in the efforts within a particular institution to reinvent itself as it struggles for survival in the context of shrinking public and state support for refugee provision.

The author focuses on how transformation processes play out in counsellors' and volunteer interpreters' conceptions of themselves as professionals and speaking subjects when confronted with the political and ethical dilemmas of an increasingly precarised work context. It becomes clear that language, while being central to the services offered, remains a sign of Otherness in a 'languaged' instutional order.

Review Quotes

This fascinating ethnography of an Austrian refugee support organisation provides an exceptionally unique window into the fault lines of inequality constituting the neoliberalised workplace in the non-profit sector. Through an extremely thorough analysis of empirical data, Hassemer builds a compelling case for centring language in the analysis of contemporary labour.-- "Eva Codó, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain"

How does being a responsible and professional social service worker position one within relations of power? Jonas Hassemer's clear-eyed and thought-provoking ethnography traces the complex dynamics of language underlying refugee support work, uncovering the insidious process by which neoliberal subjectivities are crafted under precarious conditions of labor.-- "Joseph Sung-Yul Park, National University of Singapore"

About the Author

Jonas Hassemer is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Linguistics, University of Vienna, Austria. His research focuses on ethnographic approaches to multilingualism, language and social inequality, subjectivation and the lived experience of language.