Interpreting as mediation of migrants’ agency and institutional support. A case analysis

Abstract

This paper deals with the social construction of migrants’ personal problems of social inclusion in an Italian Migrant Support Centre. This Centre has the function of delivering information and assistance to migrants who need to confirm residence permits, to apply for family reunion permits, to find a job or to gather information about laws and procedures. In this Centre, social workers provide information/assistance to migrants, and intercultural mediators provide language and cultural support during interactions between social workers and migrants. The paper is based on the analysis of 18 interpreter-mediated interactions involving two social workers, a Nigerian mediator, and 18 English-speaking migrants from West Africa. The analysis of interpreter-mediated interactions shows the production and negotiation of migrant’s problems, the participants’ positioning, and the meaning of language mediation as intercultural mediation. In particular, the analysis shows the importance of the mediator’s positioning as active agent in coordinating interpreter-mediated interactions. The mediator provides expansions of social workers’ explanations, checks migrants’ understanding, supports migrants’ construction of problems, and challenges migrants’ conflictive utterances to avoid conflict escalation. Mediation can be considered intercultural in that it can define cultural conditions and produce support of migrants’ actions, narrowing the gap between migrants’ social problems and institutions.