Investigating the processes of professional identity of UK medical interpreters in times of crisis

Abstract

Superdiversity, intertwined with neoliberalism, is a crucial feature of our modern societies. In the context of increased mobility and linguistic diversity, communication relies extensively on the cross-cultural understanding of others. Healthcare interpreting, which has traditionally been marginalised over other areas of public service interpreting, has been described by scholars as an ‘invisible’ profession. This PhD project, therefore, explores the invisibility of the public service interpreting profession at the time of crisis and offers a platform for advocacy. It examines the narratives of despair emerging from the cultural and communicative work conducted by healthcare interpreters and other professionals across UK healthcare institutions before, during, and after COVID-19. In the changing UK healthcare landscape, accompanied by political changes (e.g., Brexit) and crisis (e.g., the war in Ukraine), this research investigates how medical interpreters become powerless in the face of an increasingly privatised and fluctuating healthcare system in post-Brexit UK.
This project’s findings and recommendations are based on the testimonies of my respondents, which are presented throughout the fieldwork chapters using vignettes as a method. Ethnographic vignettes offer a valuable method to analyse the limits and challenges posed, and opportunities opened by the COVID-19 outbreak. During the months of confinement imposed by the UK government, observations were limited. Therefore, my research offers an innovative approach consisting of a variety of vignettes portraying individual stories, events and solutions in medical interpreters’ daily encounters and tasks.
In my thesis, public service interpreters, represented by medical interpreters, call for accessible, fair and equitable access to the health system. Medical interpreters claim that to protect their profession from managerial hegemony, it is necessary to guarantee a more human approach and safeguard communication in healthcare. Raised awareness of medical interpreting will secure a strong and healthy democratic society. To back medical interpreters’ esteem and support their fight for equal and democratic healthcare free from discrimination, it is indispensable to protect the title of Public Service Interpreter and regulate agencies to make them accountable for the process of language provision.

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for Marion Demossier: orcid.org/0000-0001-6075-1461

ORCID for Roderick Rhodes: orcid.org/0000-0002-1886-2392

Catalogue record

Export record