Poverty has a language

by Keetie Roelen

A few weeks ago, I asked for your help to identify terms that we use to describe poverty, people in poverty and those receiving social assistance. You responded en masse! Via Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, I received many thoughts and reflections from all over the world. Thank you to everyone who has contributed!

Here is what I learned (so far):

First, the language around poverty and those who experience it is rich, nuanced, and multi-layered. Various terms reappear across contexts and languages, such as variations on the word ‘poverty’ as well as terms such as having limited resources, being disadvantaged or being vulnerable. Examples from Brunei and Zimbabwe (borrowed from research by Blessing Gweshengwe) also point to the many nuanced meanings of words that are used to describe poverty. A rich vocabulary points to distinct levels of severity, different types of hardship and degree of value-laden meaning.

“…there is no shortage of words that pass judgement on those living in poverty, in need of support or living on social assistance”

Second, there are many uses for the language of poverty. Certain terminology may be chosen to avoid stigma and uphold dignity, such as ‘mais desfavorecidos’ (most disadvantaged) as opposed to ‘pobres’ (poor people). In other cases, words are carefully chosen in order to deny or downplay the existence of poverty, such as in Uzbekistan and British Virgin Islands. Frequently, language is deliberately chosen to stigmatise people in poverty and receiving social assistance.

This leads to the third point: the range of pejorative terminology is perhaps unsurprising but no less startling. Across high, middle, and low-income countries, there is no shortage of words that pass judgement on those living in poverty, in need of support or living on social assistance. These often include judgement of character, suggestive of the notion that poverty is an individual failure. Examples from Germany and Paraguay relate poverty with being socially weak, lazy or a ‘lost cause’.

“…no words are value-neutral in and of itself. Instead, it depends on who uses them, in what context and for what purpose“

Finally, there is no such thing as neutral language. When asked about whether words were value-laden, many responses suggested that they are technical terms that were used in a neutral manner. But, as pointed out by Santi Kusumaningrum and others, no words are value-neutral in and of itself. Instead, it depends on who uses them, in what context and for what purpose. As Santi notes: “I think we need to admit that as researchers or policy thinkers, we might not assign any degrading meaning to the words “poor” and “vulnerable.” But once we use that in a conversation with bureaucrats, politicians, etc, what we thought as neutral might not be the case anymore.”

Below is the full overview of words and terms, and notes about them. I consider this a living document – please do respond here or on social media if you have additions or other reflections! Getting a fuller insight into the language of poverty will be vital to choosing our words more carefully.

Note: This overview is based on crowdsourcing. This has its inherent flaws, and the information should be considered with that in mind. I have not attributed individual contributions, except when they originate from published research. Language is specified if it was highlighted by those who made the contribution.

	poverty			people in poverty			people receiving income support
	original term	English translation	remarks	original term	English translation	remarks	original term	English translation	remarks
Africa
Rwanda				umutindi nyakujya	poor person	used in more judgemental way
Zimbabwe (Shona)*	kuchoboka, kusauka, kuomerwa, kukamambwa	financial poverty
	kukwangaya, urombo	both financial poverty and the lack of basic necessities
	kutambura, kushupika, kunhonga masvosve/sunzi nemukanwa, pfumvu	severe poverty
	nhamo	poverty/ hard life	term can make one feel inferior
	rombe	being unemployed and materially deprived	term can make one feel inferior
	kudya nhoko dzezvironda	extreme poverty	term can make one feel inferior
Asia
Bangladesh	daridri	poor		had daridro poriwar	family living in ultra-poverty
Brunei (Malay)*	miskin	non-severe poverty	sensitive to use within the Bruneian community
	fakir	severe poverty	sensitive to use within the Bruneian community
	tidak or kurang mampu/kurang kemampuan	living in need/cannot afford basic needs	preferable term
	kesusahan dalam kehidup/hidup susah	hardships/difficulties or difficult life	preferable term
	orang or keluarga susah	people with difficulties or hardships	preferable term
India	gareeb	poor		gareeb log	poor people
Indonesia				penyandang masalah kesejahteraan sosial	people with social welfare problems		pemerlu layanan kesejahteraan sosial	people who need social welfare services	hidden groups who need social services (who are spoken about less because policy focuses more on cash rather than other  assistance), they could be more stigmatized
				rentan miskin	vulnerable people	terms used in a neutral way to categorize people’s economic/welfare status, not to label them
				miskin	poor people
Japan				浮浪者 /furōsha/	‘a tramp’, ‘vagrant’, ‘wandering person’	they are a silenced minority
				ホームレス /hōmuresu	homeless person
				乞食/kojiki/	beggar
				野宿者/nojukusha	a person sleeping outside	politically correct term
Mongolia				арчаагүй	lazy, someone who doesn’t take care of themselves	poverty is seen as an individual failure.
Nepal	garibi	poverty		Garibiko rekha muni raheka janata	people under the poverty line
Pakistan (Urdu)	Ghurbaat	poverty		Faqeer (male) faqeerun or faqeerni (female)	someone with no belongings	traditionally it denotes a Sufi/mystic, but used as a term for the poor
	Ghurbaat Mitaou	poverty alleviation		Muft-khor	free-loader
				Kaam-chor	someone who shirks from work
				Hudd-haram	lazy bones, or someone who couldn’t be bothered to move their bones
Philippines							benepisyaryo	beneficiary
							pálamunín	someone who depends on others to live	derogatory term that is openly used
Uzbekistan				kam ta’minlangan	low-income people	to avoid admitting to poverty	ijtimoiy himoyaga muhtoj	in need of social assistance	neutral term
				kambag’al	poor people	harsher term for poverty, not necessarily derogatory
Carribean
British Virgin Islands				vulnerable people		poverty is not an acceptable term due to relatively high GDP
Europe
Germany				sozial schwach	socially weak	derogatory term	Hartzer	someone receiving social assistance under Hartz VI	implying they are taking advantage of the support system
Kosovo (Albanian)				familje skamnore	destitute/penurious families.	most common term in (esp. written) media for families in extreme poverty	raste sociale	social cases	social assistance recipients
							k’ta te sociallit	those from the “social”	more derogatory in nature, referring to social assistance beneficiaries
Hungary							mélyszegénységben élők	those who live in deep poverty	target population for social assistance
Netherlands	armoede	poverty		arme mensen	poor people		uitkeringstrekker	living off benefits	mostly used in derogatory way
Portugal				pobres	poor people		famílias carenciadas	needy households
				mais desfavorecidos	most disadvantaged/underprivileged	term to avoid ‘pobres’	grupos/pessoas vulneráveis	vulnerable groups/ people
Latin America
Argentina							planeros	people living off social plans
Colombia				pobres	people in poverty		beneficiarios de programas	people receiving benefits
							personas que viven de asistencialismo	people that have been receiving benefits for some/long time	more judgemental term
Panama				personas de bajos recursos	persons with few resources
				personas con escasos recursos	people with limited resources
Paraguay							haraganes	lazy	term to describe people in poverty or receiving support
							falta de aspiración	lack of aspiration	term to describe people in poverty or receiving support
							están así porque quieren	they’re in that situation because they want to be	term to describe people in poverty or receiving support
							no tienen solución/no tienen remedio	they’re a lost cause	term to describe people in poverty or receiving support
							les di oportunidades y no la aprovecharon	I gave someone an opportunity once and he didn’t take advantage	term to describe people in poverty or receiving support
							apáticos	apathetic	term to describe people in poverty or receiving support
							ignorantes	ignorant	term to describe people in poverty or receiving support
Venezuela				Personas con limitaciones económicas	people with limited economic resources

*https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/23311886.2020.1768669?needAccess=true