Pr. Iakovou Maria - National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens (Greece)

Pr. Dragona Thaleia - National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens (Greece)

Dr. Naiga Resty - Makerere University, Kampala (Uganda)

Since 2015, Greece has served as the main entry point for displaced populations fleeing war, violence, persecution, and destitution. National social inclusion policies towards refugees and migrants have oscillated between discourses of assimilation and exclusion, reflecting broader social tensions. Similar discourses on social inclusion as well as monoculturalism versus multiculturalism have long characterized attitudes towards the only officially recognized Muslim minority in northeastern Greece. Uganda, on the other hand, is the world’s third-largest refugee-hosting country, currently sheltering over 1.7 million refugees in need for a refugee self-reliance model having far-reaching implications for social cohesion among refugee and local communities due to rising conflicts over water and land. In both Greece and Uganda, language constitutes a central barrier to inclusion, mediating relations between the populations in question and local communities and often determining the degree of participation and belonging. 

Across both contexts, there is a growing need to design, implement, and evaluate interventions that integrate language into real-life social practices, thereby enhancing participants’ capacity to navigate complex sociopolitical realities. 

This tandem talk positions language as a social practice intertwined with identity, agency and participation rather than as a mere communication tool. Drawing on principles of Collaborative Action Research, case studies from Greece and Uganda, involving refugees, migrants and ethnic minorities explores how participatory, research-informed interventions can transcend linguistic barriers to foster inclusion and empowerment. They illustrate how embedding language learning in authentic, community-oriented contexts enhances knowledge co-construction, intercultural understanding and critical consciousness. 

A methodological framework is presented redefining language as a catalyst for social change and transformation under conditions of displacement, conflict and exclusion. 

This work further demonstrates how participatory approaches can effectively bridge academic theory and social practice.