Language and translation policies in a bilingual city with a multilingual population

Abstract

Many metropolises today are sites of unprecedented linguistic diversity. This diversity raises issues of linguistic, but also of social and economic, integration and non-discrimination. Cities face the challenge of granting their citizens equal access to public services, irrespective of their linguistic background. As a consequence, translation, interpreting and other types of linguistic mediation practices (e.g., a simplified language, a contact language, pictograms and gestures) come to the fore to guarantee accessibility of public services and to contribute to building inclusive cities. The city’s future shall be translation or shall not be. This chapter first discusses four prototypical language and translation policies for communication between authorities and citizens in public services. It then analyzes current language and translation policies in officially bilingual Brussels (Belgium) and their link with issues of integration and non-discrimination of Brussels’s inhabitants. Finally, it draws some theoretical-methodological conclusions for translation studies and language policy studies.