Community Interpreting and Translation

With the rise of immigration and settling of minority groups in urban areas, there is an increasing need for community interpreters in the UK. In urban areas, where there is a high concentration of ethnic minority groups, there is an increasing need for individuals who speak and write minority ethnic languages such  as Hindi, Guajarati, Farsi, and many more.

As the UK experiences a surge in its immigration and pockets of minority communities settle in large urban areas, some of these immigrants have a limited or poor grasp of the English language. These community interpreters provide a service where they can translate and interpret at court hearings, police stations, tribunal hearings, and other such situations.  They can also provide translation services in the production of government paperwork, where forms and documents are translated to community languages to enable these individual’s access public services. 

Community interpreters also work with the police, social services and the Home Office to assist where necessary during court cases, at community meetings and at application hearings.  This service is set to grow even further as the UK becomes more and more multicultural in its make-up.  This means there is set to be an even greater need for individuals from these communities to train as interpreters and translators to facilitate the integration of these community groups into the wider society.

How can this be addressed?  Currently there are not enough trained individuals to carry out these roles so raising awareness of what they do could be the first step in recruiting individuals to act as interpreters and translators. Secondly, community interpreting should be made more widely available and its services encouraged particularly in urban areas that have high concentrations of migrant communities.  Also community interpreting should be made widely available as a course at colleges and education centres, once again with more publicity being provided to raise public awareness.

Community interpreting and translation is also a good way of fostering community relations and integrating these communities fully into society, while at the same time respecting and acknowledging their differences. It is a good way of promoting the value and importance of languages in the community.