Category Archives: Asylum

by monzo

“Uno se siente mudo”: disponibilidad, accesibilidad y aceptabilidad del apoyo lingüístico para personas refugiadas en Nueva Zelanda

Alejandra González Campanella

Nueva Zelanda es un país multicultural por excelencia, con más de 160 grupos étnicos (Statistics NZ, 2020). Sin embargo, diversos autores han señalado la ausencia de una clara política lingüística, sumada a múltiples informes de problemas en los servicios de interpretación y traducción para poblaciones cultural y lingüísticamente diversas (CALD, por su sigla en inglés) (Enríquez Raído et ál., 2020, entre otros). Estas deficiencias se vuelven incluso más críticas cuando la barrera lingüística se produce entre proveedores de servicios públicos y personas refugiadas. En este caso, la falta de acceso a información y servicios esenciales puede tener consecuencias muy negativas para una población con una constatada prevalencia de experiencias traumáticas (Carswell et ál., 2011; Kotovicz et ál., 2018). Asimismo, la vulnerabilidad durante el proceso de (re)asentamiento (Marlowe, 2018) requiere una garantía por parte de las autoridades de que las personas refugiadas cuentan con apoyo lingüístico accesible y aceptable.

Esta presentación expone los resultados de una investigación doctoral sobre interpretación en contextos de asilo y refugio en Nueva Zelanda, basada en entrevistas con personas refugiadas, intérpretes y otras partes interesadas. El estudio de caso sugiere un impacto negativo para las personas refugiadas a raíz de las barreras lingüísticas y las experiencias negativas en el uso de intérpretes. Asimismo, se observaron problemas relacionados con la disponibilidad y la aceptabilidad de este servicio esencial para permitir la comunicación de personas vulnerables. Por lo tanto, se concluyó la necesidad de garantizar una comunicación culturalmente segura y con conocimiento de trauma a través de cambios en la formación de intérpretes y las prácticas institucionales vinculadas con el suministro de apoyo lingüístico para poblaciones vulnerables.

Referencias

Carswell, K., Blackburn, P., & Barker, C. (2011). The relationship between trauma, post-migration problems and the psychological well-being of refugees and asylum seekers. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 57(2), 107-119. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/0020764008105699

Enríquez Raído, V., Crezee, I., Ridgeway, Q. (2020). Professional, ethical and policy dimensions of public service interpreting and translation in New Zealand. Translation and Interpreting Studies, 15(1), 15-35. https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.20007.enr

Kotovicz, F., Getzin, A., & Vo, T. (2018). Challenges of Refugee Health Care: Perspectives of Medical Interpreters, Case Managers, and Pharmacists. Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews, 5(1), 28-35. https://doi.org/10.17294/2330-0698.1577

Marlowe, J. (2018). Belonging and transnational refugee settlement: Unsettling the everyday and the extraordinary. Taylor & Francis. Statistics NZ. (2020, September 3). Ethnic group summaries reveal New Zealand’s multicultural make-up. https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/ethnic-group-summaries-reveal-new-zealands-multicultural-make-up

Palabras clave: apoyo lingüístico, interpretación, servicios públicos, personas refugiadas, Nueva Zelanda.

by monzo

Linguistic Refoulement: Indigenous-Language Speakers Seeking Asylum in the United States

Katherine M. Becker

The principle of non-refoulement undergirds international asylum law. Non-refoulement stipulates that states should not return people to places where they will face particular forms of danger. This paper analyzes language as a nexus of refoulement, employing as a case study the experiences of Indigenous-language speakers seeking asylum in the United States.

This paper makes two principal contributions to the study of language and asylum law—one theoretical and one empirical. First, it introduces linguistic refoulement as a theoretical tool for understanding the intersections of language and asylum. Linguistic refoulement refers to situations where a lack of language-access protections cause states to return people to places where they face harm. The paper develops a taxonomy of five related linguistic bordering practices that produce linguistic refoulement: linguistic erasure, linguistic neglect, linguistic subordination, linguistic impatience, and linguistic isolation.

Second, this paper offers empirical evidence suggesting that the United States immigration system contravenes non-refoulement by failing to meet the language-access needs of asylum seekers who speak Mam, K’iche’, Nahuatl, and the hundreds of other Indigenous languages spoken in the Western Hemisphere. By subjecting Indigenous-language speakers seeking asylum to these overlapping linguistic bordering practices, the United States disproportionately refouls them back to situations involving threats, persecution, and torture.

This paper then offers a framework for developing strategies to protect people against linguistic refoulement, arguing that it is only by understanding the varied manifestations of linguistic refoulement that we can meaningfully protect linguistically vulnerable populations. The paper concludes by proposing policy changes, including a special immigrant visa for skilled interpreters and the abolition of immigration detention for linguistically vulnerable populations.

by monzo

Action research into developing language solutions to improve multilingual communication during the registration of persons seeking international protection in Belgium

Kerremans, Koen; Cox, Antoon; De Wilde, July; El Hahaoui, Karima; Guaus, Aline; Maryns, Katrijn

When persons seeking international protection arrive in Belgium, they need to register their application at the Arrival Centre of  Federal Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers in Brussels. The registration process involves, amongst others, a medical screening and social intake. This registration is a challenge in a context where multilingualism, intercultural diversity, and time pressure are the rule rather than the exception. For instance, applicants sometimes receive a vaccine without being properly informed and have to undress (for the chest scan) without knowing what is going to happen. This is a violation of the Belgian patient rights.

This paper discusses the results and experiences of the AMICA project on multilingual needs and practices in the context of the Belgian reception of applicants. Particular attention is paid to the linguistic and communicative needs of people with vulnerable linguistic profiles (i.e. low literate people as well as people only speaking languages for which it is difficult to find language support in the Belgian context, such as Somali or Pashto).

In the scope of this paper, our focus will be on the setting of the Arrival Centre. We present a research-action framework aimed at developing language solutions to better inform applicants during the intake flow. These solutions involve a series of multilingual information videos pertaining to different steps in the intake flow as well as a web application, featuring audio-recorded questions and answers in several languages, to assist service providers during social intakes. Both types of language solutions (available in more than 10 languages) have been developed based on ethnographic observations and interviews with stakeholders.

The project allows us to study how applicants and service providers experience the intake flow. It also allows us to involve the (busy) staff of the centre, who saw the language solutions as relevant to their work.

Keywords: language solutions, linguistic rights, language app, multilingual information videos, Belgian asylum reception.

by monzo

Lost in Translation: Interpretation as a barrier to asylum in Immigration Courts

Edith Muleiro

Panel: Inclusive Responses to Language Violence

Chair: Edith Muleiro

The first presentation focuses on research surrounding interpretation in U.S. Immigration Courts and social services, with a comparative lens based on the panelist’s work in Spain. For asylum seekers worldwide, lack of language access is particularly problematic because the inability to convey their stories may be the difference between life and death. 

In the US, this research was carried out in Texas. Immigrants who speak a language other than English struggle to access quality interpretation and translation in US courtrooms due to a variety of linguistic, social, and cultural challenges. To learn more about this language polemic, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 professionals who work in social service and judicial systems related to immigration courts in Texas. 

Findings indicated that the largest gaps and challenges pertain to interpreter training, reporting pathways, working conditions, telephonic interpretation, translation of documents, and interpretation for detained respondents. Policy implications include suggested changes to the current interpretation system which integrate language justice principles. 

These findings will be compared to observations of interpretation practices within social services in Spain, based on Edith Muleiro’s role as a social service coordinator at a non-profit that works with LGBTI+ migrants. This comparison seeks to highlight the similarities within the systems that asylum seekers travel through worldwide.