The Importance of Being Understood: Intercultural Communication in Social Professions as a Tightrope Walking

Global migration continues to reshape demographic and societal landscapes, requiring close attention to refugee integration and the intercultural communication it demands. This study aims to understand how social professionals navigate intercultural encounters with refugee families in the context of family education and counselling. Using a qualitative longitudinal design, we conducted repeated expert interviews with professionals from 33 institutions in 2016 and 2019 to examine communication patterns, challenges, and evolving dynamics over time. The findings show that limited language proficiency initially posed the greatest barrier, hindering effective communication and leading to misunderstandings and frustration; however, this challenge diminished as refugees’ language skills and mutual intercultural empathy improved. Nonverbal communication also played a significant role, with differences in chronemics, kinesics, and proxemics contributing to cultural disfluency and heightened uncertainty. Sudden cultural heterogeneity and information overload further intensified stress and communicative apprehension among professionals. Overall, intercultural encounters were experienced as both enriching and demanding. The study concludes that verbal and nonverbal competencies, awareness of cultural display rules, and reflexive engagement are central to effective communication across cultures. These insights hold practical implications for social professions supporting vulnerable groups and offer guidance for policymakers seeking to strengthen institutional responsiveness to evolving intercultural settings.