Lay summary
This 18-month project aims to enable more inclusive, effective and interactive crisis communication to improve health outcomes for linguistic minority communities. Our project focuses on the experiences of linguistic minorities during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canterbury as a compelling, contemporary health and social crisis case study with important implications for the country in terms of community wellbeing and resilience. Our aims are to: 1) explore linguistic minorities' experience of (or lack of) multilingual crisis communication and its impacts on their health and wellbeing; 2) identify the opportunities for and barriers to effective multilingual crisis communication; and 3) encourage discussion and raise greater awareness among stakeholders to continue to improve research and practice of multilingual crisis communication. While the primary focus of this study is on linguistic minorities who are recent migrants, we acknowledge the resonance of this project’s focus on inclusion for Māori and Pasifika communities.