Cover not available
Article published In:
FORUM
Vol. 18:2 (2020) ► pp.150–178

Impartiality and accuracy as a case in point while interpreting in a refugee context

| Universitat Jaume I

This paper examines the fundamentals of professionalism focusing on the code of ethics as a pivotal parameter. Attention is paid to the difficulties of implementing two of the core principles of codes of ethics for interpreting in a refugee context: impartiality and accuracy. The aim of this article is to explore interpreters’ appreciation of these principles and self-identification with them versus actual observance in refugee settings. Ninety-six US-based interpreters completed a survey on self-perceptions regarding adherence to the principles and real actions performed. Findings show that a high number of interpreters do not comply with the principles despite having previously declared their full endorsement and self-identification with them. Impartiality presented more deviations than accuracy. Internal and external demands have proven to be stronger than adherence to the code. Calls to rethink and refine codes of ethics for interpreting in a refugee context are also presented.

Keywords: interpreting, refugees, code of ethics, impartiality, accuracy
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Fundamentals of professionalism
  • 3.Codes of ethics for interpreters
    • 3.1Codes of Conduct for interpreting in a refugee context
  • 4.Interpreting for refugees in practice
  • 5.Method
    • 5.1Research design and procedure
    • 5.2Participants
    • 5.3Results
      • 5.3.1Appreciation of the selected principles of the Code of Ethics
      • 5.3.2Attitudes and action related to the principles
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 11 November 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/forum.19024.jim
References (57)
AIIC
1999 Practical Guide for Conference Interpreters. Available at: [URL]
2004b Medical Interpreting and Cross-cultural Communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Angermeyer, Philip Sebastian
2015 Speak English or What? Code switching and Interpreter Use in New York City Courts. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Baker, Mona
2006 Translation and Conflict: A Narrative Account. London and New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bancroft, Marjory, Lola Bendana, Jean Bruggeman & Louis Feuerle
2013 Interpreting in the gray zone: Where community and legal interpreting intersect. Translation & Interpreting, 5(1), 94–113.Google Scholar
Bámbaren-Call, AnaMaria, Marjory Bancroft, Nora Goodfriend-Koven, Karen Hanscom, Nataly Kelly, Virginia Lewis, Cynthia Roat, Liliya Robinson & Lourdes Rubio-Fitzpatrick
2012 Interpreting Compassion A Needs Assessment Report on Interpreting for Survivors of Torture, Trauma and Sexual Violence. Available at [URL] Accessed 5/5/2019.
Barsky, Robert
1996 The interpreter as intercultural agent in convention refugee hearings. The Translator, 2(1), 45–63. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Boéri, Julie & Carol Maier
(Eds.) 2010 Translation Interpreting and Social Activism. Granada: ECOS.Google Scholar
Boéri, Julie
2015 Key internal players in the development of the interpreting profession. In Mikkelson, Holly & Renée Jourdenais (Eds), The Routledge handbook of interpreting (41–56). Oxon & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bossers, Ann, Jean Kernaghan, Lisa Hodgins, Lean Merla, Charlene O’Connor & Monique Van Kessel
1999 Defining and developing professionalism. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 66(3), 116–121. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Davidson, Brad
2000 The interpreter as institutional gatekeeper: The social-linguistic role of interpreters in Spanish-English medical discourse. Journal of Sociolinguistics (4)31, 379–405. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dysart-Gale, Deborah
2007 Clinicians and medical interpreters. Negotiating culturally appropriate care for patients with limited English ability. Family and Community Health 301, 237–246. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dragovic-Drouet, Mila
2007 The Practice of Translation and Interpreting During the Conflicts in the Former Yugoslavia (1991–1999). In Salama-Carr, Myriam (Eds.), Translating and Interpreting Conflict. Amsterdam-New York: Rodopi BV, 29–40. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
EULITA European Association for Legal Interpreters and Translators. Code of Professional Ethics
2013 Available at [URL]
Evetts, Julia
2013 Professionalism: Value and ideology. Current sociology, 61(5–6), 778–796. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fatahi, Nabi, Lena Nordholm, Beng Mattsson & Michael Hellström
2010 Experiences of Kurdish war-wounded refugees in communication with Swedish authorities through interpreter. Patient Education and Counselling, 78(2), 160–165. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fenton, Sabine
2004 Expressing a well-founded fear: Interpreting in convention refugee hearings. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 501, 263–270.Google Scholar
Fishbein, Martin, & leek Ajzen
1975 Belief, attitude, intention, and behaviour. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
García-Beyaert, Sofia, Marjory Bancroft, Katherine Allen, Giovanna Carriero-Contreras & Denis Socarrás-Estrada
2015 Ethics and standards for the community interpreter. An international training tool. The Community Interpreter: An International Textbook. Culture & Language Press 1–30. Available at [URL]
Gentile, Paola
2017 Political Ideology and de Deprofessionalisation of public service interpreting: The Netherlands and the United Kingdom as case studies. In Valero Garcés & Rebecca Tipton (Eds.) 2017 Ideology, ethics and policy development in public service interpreting and translation. Bristol-Blue Ridge Summit PA, USA: Multilingual Matters. 63–83. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goldstein, J.
1976 Professional mobility in Israel’s secondary schools: Results of a survey of attitudes. Educational Administration Quarterly, 121, 51–67. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Granger, Emily & Martyn Baker
2003 The role and experience of interpreters. Working with interpreters in mental health. Hove, UK: Brunner–Routledge.Google Scholar
Greenhalgh, Trisha, Nadia Robb. & Graham Scambler
2006 Communicative and strategic action in interpreted consultations in primary health care: a Habermasian perspective. Social Science & Medicine, 63 (5), 1170–1187. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hatton, Diane & Teresa Webb
1993 Information transmission in bilingual, bicultural contexts: A field study of community health nurses and interpreters. Journal of Community Health Nursing, 10(3), 137–147. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hebenstreit, Gernot, Alexandra Marics, and Jim Hlavac
2017 Professional ethics and professional conduct. In UNHCR (Eds.), Handbook for Interpreters in Asylum Procedures, 70–84. Vienna: UNHCR. Available at [URL]
Hewit, William
1995 Model code of professional responsibility for interpreters in the judiciary in court interpretation: Model guides for policy and practice in the State Courts. Available at [URL]
Hsieh, Elaine
2008 “I am not a robot!” Interpreters’ views of their roles in health care settings. Qualitative health research, 18(10), 1367–1383. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hwa-Froelich, Deborah & Carol Westby
2003 Considerations when working with interpreters. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 24(2), 78–85. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Inguilleri, Moira
2010 Afterword by Moira Inguilleri. Exploring the task of the activist translator. In Boéri, Julie & Carol Maier (Eds.), Translation Interpreting and Social Activism. Granada: ECOS. 152–155.Google Scholar
Keselman, Olga, Ann Christin Cederborg, Michel Lamb & Örjan Dahlström
2010 Asylum-seeking minors in interpreter-mediated interviews: what do they say and what happens to their responses? Child & Family Social Work, 15(3), 325–334. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
León Pinilla, Ruth
2015 La interpretación en el contexto de refugiados. Camino hacia el bienestar. Ph. D. Dissertation. Universitat Jaume I of Castellón.Google Scholar
Metzger, Melanie
1999 Sign language interpreting: Deconstructing the myth of neutrality. Washington DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
NAAJIT. National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators
2011 Available at [URL]
NCIHC. National Council on Interpreting in Healthcare
2004 A National Code of Ethics for Interpreters in Health Care. NCIHC, Washington, DC Available at [URL]
Ng, Thomas W. & Feldman, Daniel C.
2008 The relationship of age to ten dimensions of job performance. Journal of applied psychology, 93(2), 392. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
NSGCIS. National Standard Guide for Community Interpreting Services
Available at [URL]
Patel, Nimisha
2003 Speaking with the silent: addressing issues of disempowerment when working with refugee people. Working with Interpreters in Mental health, 219–237. Available at [URL]
Pennsylvania rules of professional conduct for interpreters. Act 172 of 2006 (42 Pa.C.S. §§ 4411(e). and 4431(e)
Available at [URL]
Pöllabauer, Sonja
2004 Interpreting in asylum hearings: Issues of role, responsibility and power. Interpreting, 6(2), 143–180. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roberts, Roda
1997 Overview of community interpreting. In Silvana Carr, Roda Roberts, Aideen Dufour & Dini Steyn (Eds.), The Critical Link: Interpreters in the Community. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 127–138. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roy, Cynthia
1999 Interpreting as a Discourse Process. New York: Oxford University Press, USA.Google Scholar
UNHCR Self-Study Module 3: Interpreting in a Refugee Context
2009 Available at [URL]
Splevins, Katie, Keren Cohen, Stephen Joseph, Craig Murray, & Jake Bowley
2010 Vicarious posttraumatic growth among interpreters. Qualitative Health Research, 20 (12), 1705–1716. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tipton, Rebecca, & Olgierda Furmanek
2016 Dialogue interpreting: A guide to interpreting in public services and the community. Oxon & New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Todorova, Marija
2017 Interpreting at the border: ‘Shuttle interpreting’ for the UNHCR. CLINA: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Translation, Interpreting and Intercultural Communication, 3(2), 115–129. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tribe, Rachel & Jean Morrissey
2003 The refugee context and the role of interpreters. Working with Interpreters in Mental Health, 198–218.Google Scholar
Tymoczko, Maria
2003 Ideology and the position of the translator: in what sense is a translator “in between”? In Maria Calzada Perez (Ed.). Apropos of Ideology –Translation Studies on Ideology– Ideologies in Translation Studies, Manchester: St Jerome, 181–201.Google Scholar
UNHCR
2010 Improving Asylum Procedures: comparative analysis and recommendations for law and practice. Available at [URL]
Valero-Garcés, Carmen
2006 Formas de Mediación Intercultural, Traducción e Interpretación en los Servicios Públicos. Conceptos, datos, situaciones y práctica. Granada: Comares.Google Scholar
Wadensjö, Cecilia
2001 Interpreting in crisis-The interpreter’s position in therapeutic encounters. In Ian Mason (Ed.). Triadic Exchanges: Studies in Dialogue Interpreting. Manchester: St. Jerome, 71–85.Google Scholar
1992 Interpreting as interaction: On dialogue-interpreting in immigration hearings and medical encounters. Ph. D. Dissertation, Linköpings universitet. Published by Routledge in 2014 Interpreting as interaction.Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by 2 other publications

Campanella, Alejandra González
2023. ‘Trauma informs so much of what happens:’ interpreting refugee-background clients in Aotearoa New Zealand. Perspectives 31:3 ► pp. 413 ff. DOI logo
González Campanella, Alejandra
2023. Availability and acceptability of interpreting services for refugees as a question of trauma-informed care. Interpreting and Society 3:1 ► pp. 75 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.