From Negative Comes Positive: When a Displaced Person Becomes a Successful Interpreter

Abstract

This presentation investigates the motivations of several people displaced by violent conflicts in choosing to settle and become public service interpreters in the UK, e.g. do their experiences give them greater empathy for those arriving in the UK in need of assistance as they were, and how does that compare with colleagues here through birth, personal choice or economic considerations? How have their homeland experiences coloured their interpreting work? Can they envisage continuing making a contribution to their new community as an interpreter? Do they feel being a UK public service interpreter restricts them by excluding the area of advocacy?
The paper also investigates the UK Government’s assistance, or lack of it, for those who acted as interpreters for the Armed Forces in recent conflicts.
The speaker draws on seventeen years public service interpreter training for amongst others displaced persons from ex-Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan and those displaced by the Arab spring.