Linguistic Communication and Labor Insertion of Haitian Immigrants: Perspectives of Managers and Teachers

Abstract

Learning the local language is characterized as a pillar for the integration of immigrant employees into the workplace. The growing immigration in Brazil, combined with the importance of communication for interaction in companies, leverages initiatives coming from the contracting organizations to promote the learning of the Portuguese language for these workers, as recorded in this multiple case study centered on two industrial companies located in the state of Santa Catarina, southern Brazil. Through interaction with four managers responsible for human resources management and two teachers, this study aimed at analyzing the impact of linguistic communication –in the functions of reading, listening, speaking, and writing– on the labor insertion of Haitian immigrant workers in Brazil, students in a Portuguese language course. The research is qualitative, exploratory, and data collection used semi-structured interviews with teachers and managers, in addition to the application of evaluative descriptors from the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages through the expression "can do" on the performance of the immigrant students in four linguistic functions. The contribution of the study converges in the proposition that more successful communication between the actors, and improvement of interpersonal and collaborative relationships in the organizational place, favors the integration and development of the immigrant.