Community Translation by Taibi Mustapha Ozolins Uldis

Author:Taibi, Mustapha,Ozolins, Uldis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bloomsbury Advances in Translation
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK
Published: 2016-03-01T16:00:00+00:00

5

Translating for temporary communities

5.1 Temporary communities

The term ‘temporary community’ is used here to refer to various types of conglomerations that may occupy a local space and form a multilingual microcosm during a limited time, which may vary from a couple of weeks to a couple of years. The creation of small communities within a larger one (society) may come as a result of different circumstances and reasons. These include emergencies such as wars and natural disasters causing populations to seek refuge in another part of the same country or another country; international or inter-ethnic religious events that take place periodically; foreign guest or seasonal workers forming a local community for a certain time; or sporting events such as the World Cup or the Olympics, to cite just a few examples.

The movement of refugees and displaced people, for instance, can generate a number of situations, one being the creation of temporary communities in enclosed refugee camps. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (2015: 3) reports that ‘[b]y the end of 2013, 51.2 million individuals were forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, generalized violence, or human rights violations’. Of these, approximately 16.7 million were classed as refugees (11.7 million under UNHCR’s mandate and 5.0 million Palestinian refugees registered by UNRWA) and 33.3 million as internally displaced persons (refugees within their respective countries). When the issue is discussed in political, media or popular discourse in developed countries, the main destinations of the refugee influx are often assumed to be Europe, North America and Australia. However, statistics show that developing countries such as Pakistan, Iran, Lebanon, Ethiopia and Kenya host the largest numbers (United Nations High Commission for Refugees, 2015: 6). For these countries – most battling troubled economies and scarce resources, and some with questionable human rights records – it is to be expected that refugee services, especially interpreting and translation, will receive lowest priority.

It is worthwhile to distinguish the dynamicity of the situations that produce temporary refugee communities. A controlled refugee intake fosters a gradual resettlement, individually or in small groups, as witnessed, say, with Asian, African or South American asylum seekers in Europe and North America. New arrivals live freely in the host society, avail themselves of the services available, send their children to school, look for employment and start a new life in a new country. They therefore do not constitute a temporary community in the sense in which the term is used here. However, when there is a mass influx of refuge seekers, the host country’s authorities can only offer a temporary solution to a humanitarian emergency, and the question becomes one of containment and organization within restricted areas (refugee camps).

Language services are an important, but often underestimated aspect of welfare in such temporary communities. The housing of Syrian refugees between Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey is one example. In the first half of 2014, Syrian refugees numbered approximately three million: over one million were temporarily established in Lebanon, and approximately the same number in Turkey (United Nations High Commission for Refugees 2015).

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