The aim of this article is to describe and analyse the working conditions of interpreters and interpreting services in Sweden. An understanding of interpreters’ working conditions is a key to such factors as the management of resources, the reading and implementation of legislation, the organisation of interpreting services and the performance of interpreters in different situations. An understanding of interpreters’ working conditions is also important in understanding how multiculturalism and multilingualism are viewed on a national scale in Sweden. This review of the working conditions of interpreters is based on material from two joint research projects, which appear to indicate that interpreters as a group have much to say and often reflect on their work and working conditions. The interpreters participating in this study often demonstrated a strong commitment to professionalism. At the same time, however, many of the reflections recorded for this study were about things that undermine professionalism: bad working conditions, low pay, the feeling of being “as replaceable as potatoes”, and the feeling that the social status of interpreters is low. In analysing the consequences of working conditions we have found a tension between professionalism and deprofessionalisation. This tension has consequences for the rule of law and integration.
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Geiling, Angelika, Maria Böttche, Christine Knaevelsrud & Nadine Stammel
2022. A comparison of interpreters’ wellbeing and work-related characteristics in the care of refugees across different work settings. BMC Public Health 22:1
Kara, Hanna & Camilla Nordberg
2023. Configuring public service interpreting in Finland as a sentient professional practice and affirmative social service work: emotion in the work of public service interpreters. Nordic Social Work Research 13:4 ► pp. 563 ff.
Lee, Jieun, Moonsun Choi, Jiun Huh & Aili Chang
2016. Community interpreting services by marriage migrants for marriage migrants in South Korea. Perspectives 24:2 ► pp. 179 ff.
Maslovskaya, E. V.
2022. The field of legal translation: Organizational structures and forms of capital. RUDN Journal of Sociology 22:3 ► pp. 590 ff.
Maslovskaya, Elena V.
2022. Legal Translation: Professional Activities at the Periphery of the Juridical Field. Russian Journal of Legal Studies (Moscow) 9:2 ► pp. 65 ff.
Nikolaidou, Zoe, Hanna Sofia Rehnberg & Cecilia Wadensjö
2023. ‘Do I Have to Say Exactly Word by Word?’ (Re)producing and Negotiating Asymmetrical Relations in Asylum Interviews. Journal of International Migration and Integration 24:S4 ► pp. 745 ff.
2023. Working with interpreters in the family violence sector in Australia: “It's very hard to be in between”. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 96 ► pp. 101871 ff.
Tiselius, Elisabet, Elisabet Hägglund & Pernilla Pergert
2020. Distressful Situations, Non-Supportive Work Climate, Threats to Professional and Private Integrity. In Handbook of Research on Medical Interpreting [Advances in Medical Diagnosis, Treatment, and Care, ], ► pp. 54 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 31 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
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