Eva Norström, Lund University

The aim of the research project

The aim of the research project  was to investigate the role of community interpreters and their experiences of interpreted encounters. This aim has not been changed. We have made an addition through a research project entitled Behind closed doors - the importance of interpreting for the rule of law and for integration, with special focus on the reception of separated minors. This addition was co-financed by the European Refugee Fund III and made it possible to examine the whole field of interpretation: interpreter services, procurement of interpreter services, public employees (authorities, healthcare, municipal services), training and authorisation of interpreters. In the reception of separated minors we have examined the non-Swedish speakers' needs and experiences of speaking through an interpreter. An overriding aim of the research was to analyse the importance of interpreting for the rule of law and for integration.

Three main results

a. Interpreters have to respect the ethical guidelines set out in Good Interpreting Practice. The rules are that the interpreter shall be impartial and neutral, interpret everything said in the room and interpret in the first person. The interpreter is bound by confidentiality. Our research shows that interpreters know these rules well. However, during training they are scrutinized, neither in content nor in method. We have shown that, in reality, it is impossible to be neutral and impartial. The interpreter is a broker, and how the interpreter handles this depends on his/her self-awareness. The neutrality and objectivity of the interpreter is also affected by roles the public employee or client/patient assigns to the interpreter in relation to gender, class, religion and age. E.g. in a situation where a patient has to undress the gender of the interpreter makes him/her a representative of the male or female sex. Other representations may be "compatriot," "traitor," "collaborator" or simply "instrument of communication." The interpreters can choose to position themselves in different ways in order to neutralise or emphasise a role assigned as well as a role of the interpreters' choice. Thus, there is room for the interpreter to exercise power and to influence a meeting, while adhering to the ethical rules. Interpreters testify that they use different techniques to contribute to communication, such as pretending that it is they who do not understand when they notice that a patient does not understand what the doctor says. Interpreters are regularly exposed to requirements that go beyond their mandate, for example, they might be asked to translate a written text, to call a taxi, or to otherwise help patients. This is often due to employees' ignorance of the interpreters' mandate and other working conditions.

Through the system of procurement interpreters are marginalised and payment has dramatically worsened over the past 20 years. An interpreter's only opportunity to take power is to refuse assignments from agencies that pay poorly. It has happened that authorities and county councils have been left without qualified interpreters due to contracts with poor conditions for the interpreters.

b. There is a need to develop knowledge among public employees of the interpreter's role, the relationship between the ethics in Good Interpreting Practice and what happens during an interpreted meeting. This is a matter of legal security. Public employees need knowledge about the impact of having an interpreter in the room, i.e. what techniques and ethical attitudes that the employee must master in order to create maximum benefit for the both the employee and the client/patient.

c. During our research it has become clear that professionals in the public service are not normally trained for using interpreters in a multicultural society. Although the Administrative Procedure Act (1986:223) indicates that the interpreter is a tool for the public employee, it is common that the interpreter is considered to be a need for non-Swedish speakers. Furthermore the need for an interpreter is considered to be an immigration issue rather than a question of legal security and equality for all who cannot speak Swedish (minorities, persons who are hard of hearing and immigrants). It is essential to look towards an understanding of what a multicultural society is. It is also important to look at how training programs for professionals in the public service must be adapted to ensure that all residents are treated as members of society in equal terms. We have compared the training to sign language interpreter with training for interpreters in spoken languages. Sign language interpreters are studying for six to eight semesters, while interpreters in spoken language study for one semester. Almost all the actors in our material ask whether this difference depends on which client / patient the interpreter is trained for. Answers to the question require further research.

New issues

Already in the beginning of our research (Autumn 2008), we found that interpreters working conditions needed to be examined more closely. This realisation led to new research questions about how working conditions affect interpreters, what training is available, what payment interpreters receive and the relation between them and the public employee as well as between them and the agencies. Through the above-mentioned co-financing by the ERF III, we had the opportunity to take care of these new questions. We have identified, described and analysed the role of interpreters and their work situation in relation to other areas of the interpreter field.

In The interpreter - a cultural broker we put the interpreter in the centre as an important tool for public employees. During our research it became clear that in general the awareness of the interpreters' role and skills is low among public employees. Often the interpreter is perceived as a friction in their everyday work. A future research is to investigate interpreted meetings as an arena where democracy is practiced and create the conditions for reciprocity, equality, democracy and justice. Such an analysis is a key to the understanding of Swedish self-image as a multicultural society in a global world.

We went into the research with an understanding of the interpreter as a relatively invisible actor. Most people know that the interpreter interprets between two or more people who do not share a spoken language. Often there is a lack of knowledge about what the interpreter's role as intermediary requires, i.e. what skills a professional interpreter must have, not only in the two languages (different variations and professional language), but about culture, interpretation techniques, realia, ethics, communication and linguistics. There is also a lack of knowledge about what the roles as public employee requires when it comes to knowledge about communication and interpreter-user techniques and ethics. New research questions are: How can training be integrated into various educational programs for the public sector? What benefits might increased knowledge among public employees provide in terms of confidence between the parties, improved efficiency in the municipalities, healthcare and authorities, mutual integration as well as medical security and the rule of law?

Two main publications

Ten articles have been published or are accepted for publication in 2012. Two more are under review. One of the two main articles is "The Interpreter - A Cultural Broker?". It will be published in the among interpreter research internationally well known publication from Critical Link, Interpreting in a changing landscape, during spring 2012. We presented our article at the Critical Link 6, an international interpreter conference in Birmingham in 2010. The publication has given us an understanding that we, as cultural analysts have something to contribute to the extensive research on interpretation, which is often carried out by linguists and communication scientists. Our analysis and theory of the interpreter's position and handling of the role of the broker have been well received. It also means a vital contribution to a more practically and ethically oriented international discussion about the limits of the interpreter's role and ethical frames.

A second publication is the article "Interpreters in Sweden - a tool for Equal Rights?" which will be published in the journal Gramma in spring 2012. The article describes interpreter skills and the work situation in Sweden as well as interpreters' experiences of interpreting encounters with separated minors. The article leads to the questions we want to continue with on the basis of our extensive material, namely analysing interpreted meetings from the perspectives of different actors and from the perspectives of democratic practice, equality and justice, concepts that are fundamental to public authority, health and education.

Distribution

We have made 32 presentations or lectures about our research. We have held a total of five graduate seminars at the Department of Cultural Sciences at Lund University and the Institute for Interpretation and Translation Studies at Stockholm University. In August 2011, we held a two-day conference in Stockholm, where actors from the field of interpreting participated, including the Swedish Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency, Ministries, the City Office, and other researchers. We made five different presentations. Four parallel seminars discussed various aspects of the interpreting area. The conference concluded with a panel discussion. The report we wrote for the conference is available on the Interpreter Project website www.tolkprojektet.se. This will be open until 2019.