11: Multi-Lingual and Multi-Cultural Conditions

The workshop participants were a diverse group of researchers and research users with experience in investigation of minority or immigrant communities in European countries and the United States, as well as in linguistically diverse countries such as South Africa. Although the specific context of the participants' research efforts varied a great deal, the group found the workshop exchanges and sharing of experience to be highly productive.

The scope of the workshop topic of multi-lingual and multi-cultural conditions was discussed extensively and it was determined that, frequently, the conditions have more to do with economic disadvantages, minority status and social marginalisation which represent barriers to research that function beyond language and culture. There were also extensive discussion and a fair amount of consensus that the underlying characteristic could be viewed as “hard-to-survey” populations or “hard-to-survey” conditions.