Translation policy in health care settings in Ontario
Problems, challenges and language ideologies
In a world of increasing globalisation, governments, including Canada, face ongoing challenges in their efforts to
integrate immigrant languages and to communicate with their users in public service settings. By exploring the translation policy
in health care settings in Ontario, Canada, this research investigates how immigrant language barriers in health care access are
addressed there, and probes into ideologies around the issue of immigrant language integration. Ontarian translation policy in
health care settings is pragmatic yet cautious and laissez-faire. It indicates inclusiveness to accommodate immigrants; but it
also reveals considerable tensions and hesitations. The belief that translation is a necessary measure to secure immigrants’ equal
health care rights has been largely overridden at the regional and institutional level in Ontario, hindering further planning and
more effective provision. The inadequate value designated to translation in terms of immigrant integration by government
authorities, the ambiguous and ambivalent stances of Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network and some hospitals on
translation provision against budgetary concern and the expectation for linguistic homogeneity all play roles in determining the
flexibility and fluctuation of translation policy in health care settings in Ontario.
Article outline
- Introduction
- Language policy and translation policy
- Methodology
- Translation policy in the health care settings of Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network: Hesitating and sporadic efforts
- Federal legislation that presupposes translation in health care settings
- Translation is a tool to secure equality and non-discrimination
- Translation as a measure to enable integration
- Problems, challenges and underlying ideologies
- Lack of planning efforts
- Slack management
- Translation is a budgetary burden
- Translation is for newcomers
- Translation as accommodation versus linguistic acculturation
- Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- Note
-
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