Approaching Linguistic Complexity in Medical Care

Rising world-wide migration can sometimes create linguistically complex situations. This is even more so the case in regions where so-called new minorities meet so-called old minorities. This paper describes a case in which migrant workers from outside the Province of South Tyrol (Italy) cope with a linguistic scenario whose current regulations seem at times out of touch with the linguistic reality and are therefore rarely reproducible, even for natives to the region. This paper sheds light on the results of a limited interview study, in which general practitioners who have been working for several years in the Province of South Tyrol recounted their experiences with an unexpected and linguistically complex workplace situation