La comunicazione istituzionale per i cittadini stranieri: pratiche di facilitazione e accesso all'informazione

In today’s globalized world, the need for an evolution of institutional communication in Italian that could enhance its intelligibility and translatability into other languages is a pressing one. This is particularly true for the language of administration and bureaucracy, which plays a crucial role in the current process of internationalization. Of particular significance is the positive impact that this linguistic evolution may have for Italy’s integration into the new European socio-political environment, and for the social inclusion of a growing percentage of non-native people coming to Italy with long-term life plans. It is a crucial evolution which is also needed to fill the enormous gap that still exists between everyday spoken language and the language used in written institutional communication. In this paper, we present research on the readability and intelligibility of Italian and foreign language texts issued by Italian institutions. In this respect, we consider the connection between language simplifi- cation, complexity of content and personalization of public communication addressed to immigrants. Our study points out that many problematic aspects, emphasized in the literature on Italian bureaucratic language, also feature in institutional texts addressed to foreigners. The analysis indicates that institutions show a low degree of awareness in addressing immigrants’ communicative needs and expectations. This also applies to their scarce awareness of the social functions that the Italian language should play in a multilingual and multicultural society.