Language Barriers in Doctor-Patient Communication with Arabic-Speaking Patients: A Qualitative Study in Milan’s Outpatient Clinics

This study explores the language barriers encountered by volunteer doctors when communicating with Arabic-speaking patients in two outpatient clinics in Milan, Italy, and investigates the strategies they adopt to address these challenges. Based on twelve semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke 2006, 2012), the findings highlight how language barriers affect communication in outpatient clinical contexts, limiting narrative richness and making it harder to construct a coherent clinical picture. Communication often relies on informal interpreters or digital tools, which provide partial solutions. The study also highlights the challenge posed by a mismatch between physicians’ expectations and patients’ ways of presenting symptoms. These difficulties are compounded by the linguistic heterogeneity within Arabic-speaking communities, which can further undermine informal interpreting practices. The research offers qualitative insights into how language barriers impact healthcare communication, anamnesis, and, as a result, the diagnostic process in multilingual outpatient settings involving Arabic-speaking patients with a migrant background.