Crisis Management in Local Emergency Communication

1. Introduction:

International migration made linguistic minorities a new global phenomenon (Uekusa, 2011). A linguistic minority is a small community that chooses to speak different languages from the ones spoken by the host country (Oliver & Exell, 2020). These communities are under the pressure to adapt linguistically to the host country, and so, they have inferiority feelings for not speaking the local language well enough (Uekusa, 2009; Abukhalaf & von Meding, 2021b). Linguistic minorities develop social infrastructure and a linguistic landscape in which they use their own language among different cultural, political, and social events, where they avoid any interaction with native speakers, in an attempt to escape language-based discrimination (Uekusa, 2019). Language-based discrimination (also known as linguicism, linguistic discrimination, languagism, and glottophobia) is an unfair treatment based on characteristics of speech, such as having different mother languages (Jean-Pierre, 2018). Based on some differences in the use of language, many people tend to form judgments automatically about a linguistic minority. These judgments may relate to wealth, character, education, etc., which can lead to unfair treatment (Oliver & Exell, 2020). Linguicism was studied in many contexts, such as social, educational, political, environmental; however, linguicism is barely addressed in disaster studies and emergency planning, and even when it is addressed, it is commonly inappropriately analyzed (Uekusa & Matthewman, 2017; Abukhalaf, 2021).

2. Literature review:

The world is getting more complex little by little, and so a new attitude toward language became necessary to make communication process faster and more effective (Miller, 1967). Many studies were conducted to explore the bilingual mind. Some researchers investigated the bilingual mind clinically, while others did it psychologically; however, this kind of studies is rarely conducted in a disaster context (Abukhalaf, 2021). Available studies have shown that for bilinguals, unconscious access the native language when they read or write in their second language, which means they bring attitudes of their mother language to the second language, creating a fusion of language perspectives (Abukhalaf & von Meding, 2021a), which is very hard to consider in any kind of communication, especially in emergency communication.

Language is open to the same influences that affect human behavior, so it is crucial to learn language with a context that includes the speaker's perceptions, needs, and cultural background (Miller, 1963). Context refers to the totality of conditions that might be affecting behavior, and for linguistics, context stands for the arrangements of verbal units that adds to the meaning, also called the language grammatical structure (Miller, 1967). No matter how instinctive some feel towards language structures, and how easily it can be perceived by them, it might be completely confusing or illogical for others. For example, “Fire again house at started”, where this can be illogical for many English speakers, words are in the right order in Korean (Abukhalaf & von Meding, 2021a).

One way to think of languages is to consider them as coding systems. Every language is a unique coding system that consist of two main phases; encoding, and decoding (Miller, 1963). However, each language adopted different symbols centuries ago, and agreed on rules of combining them, so using different rules can isolate us from other people who speak that language (Miller, 1967). These symbols go beyond words; they also include sounds that can carry more meaning than words themselves; 'ee' might stand for 'Please help me!' and 'Ah' for 'Can you say that again?' and that can vary drastically from one language to another (Miller, 1963).

Many governments focus on teaching the dominant language to linguistic minorities (Page & Chahboun, 2019), even when research shows that the most effective way for information accessibility in disasters is to provide information and services in different languages (Qin & Li, 2020). Timely information in disasters is critical to the well-being of the public, and the role that languages play in diffusing information and disaster warnings is extremely crucial in disaster preparedness and disaster response (Uekusa & Matthewman, 2017). Languagism might be responsible for making critical disaster information inaccessible to some people, leading to a higher likelihood of devastating damages and fatalities (St. Cyr, 2005).

3. Discussion:

Previous disaster studies have noted that ‘language skills’ is a major factors that contribute to social vulnerability (O’Brien & Federici, 2019), and the National Research Council have recognized warning dissemination as one of the main seven existing gaps in disaster studies (National Academies Press, 2011). Achieving effective communications and overcoming any language barriers have become the central concern of many disaster studies (O’Brien et al., 2018). However, current literature on specific vulnerabilities and capacities of migrated linguistic minorities in the face of disasters remains very limited (Thorup-Binger & Charania, 2019), causing a theoretical gap in the existing body of knowledge.

Language is the most important tool for emergency communication (Bodenreider et al., 2019). Not being able to distribute critical disaster information and warnings is a matter of life or death (O’Brien & Federici, 2019). Hurricane Katrina has hit Latin communities harder than any other ethnic community in the US; most Latinos didn't as the storm warnings were broadcast mostly in English (Uekusa, 2018). Similarly, another 30 Latinos died in 1987 when a tornado struck Saragosa, Texas (Méndez et al., 2020). And even after the sorrowful events, the government agencies fail in understanding vulnerabilities of disaster survivors among these linguistic minorities (Uekusa, 2020), because not being able to tell the stories in their language means that most likely they will not be heard ( Uekusa & Matthewman, 2017). Some sociolinguists believe that when history is written and stories are told, they are narrowly focused on one small portion of speakers: the portion with resources and power to control information distribution (Lippi-Green, 2012).

The importance of including linguistic minorities actively in emergency communication has been stressed through multiple past experiences (Gómez, 2013), such as the Tohoku earthquake, Brisbane flood, and New Zealand 2011 earthquake, where over 180 people died, many of which were particularly linguistic minorities (Thorup-Binger, 2018). The linguistic minorities’ vulnerability has been documented in multiple disaster studies, and newly arrived and young members among linguistic minorities were found even extremely vulnerable (Thorup-Binger & Charania, 2019). Migrated linguistic minorities face unique disaster vulnerability due to structural inequality, low socioeconomic status, limited access to resources, reduced social support, cultural differences, lack of disaster knowledge, and most importantly, disaster linguicism (Uekusa, 2018; Abukhalaf, 2021). Marginalized subgroups are often not included proactively in emergency planning (He et al., 2007). Linguistic minorities may receive general information about disasters; however, the provided information focuses on basic preparedness for disasters, but overlooks the recovery process when a disaster happens (Méndez et al., 2020).

After being exposed to natural hazard, migrated linguistic minorities can experience trauma, depression, increased anxiety; as a result of not having someone to talk to, where having someone to communicate in their native languages during stressful times should not be seen as a privilege (Franco et al., 2018; Cohen & Abukhalaf, 2021). Moreover, migrated linguistic minorities have lower self-esteem and limited confidence when it comes to asking for critical information during emergencies and for disaster relief aids when a disaster strikes (Uekusa, 2020). As a result, these minorities are made to feel responsible for their limited language competency, which makes them responsible for their recovery, and eventually, blamed for not being able to ask for help in such circumstances (Abukhalaf & von Meding, 2021a).

4. Conclusion and recommendations

This paper sheds a light on a research angle that was not well researched before, which will allow us to contribute to an increased and better understanding of the complexity of linguistic minorities’ behaviors during disasters in our communities. When it comes to the recommendations, many agencies and institutions have a strategy for language standardization in order to transfer information (Abukhalaf & von Meding, 2021b); however, they found that when one common communication language is adopted in agencies, they face a significant loss in performance. Consonantly, Volk recommends that communication specialists should be more mindful of the individualization versus the strategic choices for language standardization, where he introduced the brain-drain model that explains several negative consequences for using a foreign language in self-regulation and decision making (Volk et al., 2013).

Several studies have shown that emergency communication requires a greater specificity (Watson et al., 2011), and even that unifying communication can carry a lower operation cost, it is not the answer; unified communications are proven to create rejection, which could be the reason behind why many people are not enrolled in disaster-related communication (Christal et al., 2019). It is very important to tailor the communication to the needs of the community at risk as a whole, where the installation, evaluation, and maintenance of these communication systems has to be orderly carried out (Miller, 1963), and regular studies have to be conducted on how all stakeholders of the warning dissemination and communication, especially the ones facing the hazards, get and understand signs and warning messages, and making sure they get involved actively in the process (Abukhalaf & von Meding, 2020).

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