Language and culture mediator

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The language and cultural mediator supports linguistic and cultural communication between people with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, mostly in the narrower sense between members of a minority or fringe group, especially migrants , and representatives of the majority culture in the respective country. Language and cultural mediators are mainly used in the non-profit area.

task description

The tasks of language and cultural mediators are usually not formally established. Individual projects define their area of ​​responsibility independently. Language and cultural mediators most often appear as companions at official appointments or in medical or social institutions.

In the German-speaking world, this activity is described with different, synonymous or overlapping terms: in Germany, it is community interpreters , language and cultural mediators , cultural interpreters or - if they are qualified according to the nationally standardized SprInt model - language and integration mediators ; in Austria it is municipal interpreters and in Switzerland intercultural translators . (In English the terms linguistic and cultural mediator , community interpreter , public service interpreter , liaison interpreter .)

The language and cultural mediator is specially trained in the socio-cultural differences between the relevant cultural groups and intercultural communication , and the activity includes elements of mediation and conflict management . With language and cultural mediators, the additional function of mediating in the event of misunderstandings and in explaining cultural backgrounds plays an essential role. In this way, they not only help migrants, but also explicitly the employees of institutions by reducing misunderstandings and thus saving time and reducing the risk of costly over / under / incorrect supply.

Even if the demarcation to other activities is not always clearly formulated and is sometimes debated, language and cultural mediators play a different role than “language mediators” (as a generic term for translators and interpreters ) than “intercultural mediators” (as conflict mediators) and as integration guides .

Implementation in Germany

Various providers and publicly funded projects train people interested in the activity to become language and cultural mediators. Often these are bilingual or multilingual people with their own immigration history. The first projects, SpraKuM and TransKom, which were funded by the EU from 2002 to 2007 within the framework of EQUAL, explicitly included refugees and asylum seekers (also with tolerance ).

By working as a language and cultural mediator, the living situation of these people is to be improved and their previously largely unused linguistic and socio-cultural resources come into play. At the same time, the employability of these people is increased both in the country of immigration and in their country of origin, and thus regardless of the outcome of an asylum recognition procedure. In addition, the presence of language and cultural mediators improves the effectiveness of health and social care for people from other cultures.

Job description language and integration mediator

In 2009, several providers of language and cultural mediation services jointly founded a federal working group on “Professional Development of Language and Integration Mediators” (BAG). This defines a uniform curriculum with a duration of 18 months for language and integration mediators, regulates the modalities of deployment and coordinates the nationwide process for developing a job profile. The process is supported by the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and the Central Office for Further Education in Skilled Trades (ZWH). "The aim of the federal working group is the enactment of a further training regulation according to §53 BBiG." This job description is expressly aimed at the professional language mediation in health and social services .

See also

literature

  • Niels-Jens Albrecht, Theda Borde, Latif Durlanik (eds.): Language and cultural mediation . (= Migration - Health - Communication. Volume 2). Cuvillier publishing house. Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-86537-454-9 .
  • Carsten Becker, Tim Grebe, Enrico Leopold: Language and integration mediator as a new profession. Diakonie Wuppertal (ed.). 2010.
  • Diakonie Wuppertal: Comparative study on language and culture mediation in different European countries. 2007. (online)
  • Theda Borde, Niels-Jens Albrecht (Ed.): Innovative concepts for integration and participation - needs analysis for intercultural communication in institutions and for models of new fields of work . (= Migration - Health - Communication. Volume 3). IKO-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-88939-858-1 .
  • Franz Pöchhacker: Interpreting as mediation. In: Carmen Valero Garcés, Anne Martin (Ed.): Crossing Borders in Community Interpreting - Definitions and dilemmas. John Benjamin Publishing, Amsterdam 2008, ISBN 978-90-272-1685-4 , pp. 9-26.
  • Miguel Tamayo: Language and integration mediators remove barriers to understanding. Portal for skilled workers for child and youth welfare, October 20, 2010.
  • Carmen Valero Garcés, Anne Martin (Eds.): Crossing Borders in Community Interpreting - Definitions and dilemmas. John Benjamin Publishing, Amsterdam 2008, ISBN 978-90-272-1685-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Diakonie Wuppertal: Comparative study on language and culture mediation in different European countries . Wuppertal 2007.
  2. ↑ MedInt: Development of a curriculum for medical interpreters. Summary report: work package 3. (PDF; 387 kB) (No longer available online.) April 2008, formerly in the original ; accessed on April 30, 2013 (English).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.uni-graz.at
  3. ^ Carsten Becker, Tim Grebe, Enrico Leopold: Language and integration mediator as a new profession . Ed .: Diakonie Wuppertal. Berlin / Wuppertal 2010, p. 58 .
  4. ↑ Ramazan Salman: Community interpreting services as a contribution to the integration of migrants into the regional social and health system - the model of the Ethno-Medical Center . In: The Federal Government Commissioner for Migration, Refugees, and Integration (Ed.): Health and Integration - A manual for models of good practice . BUB, Bonn 2007, p. 249 .
  5. ↑ Carsten Becker; Tim Grebe; Enrico Leopold: language and integration mediator as a new profession . Ed .: Diakonie Wuppertal. Berlin / Wuppertal 2010, p. 18 .
  6. ^ Position of the BDÜ on the project "Language and Integration Mediators" (SprInt-Transfer). (PDF) BDÜ, March 2015, accessed on December 3, 2017 .
  7. ^ Roman Lietz: Professionalization and Quality Assurance in Integration Work Criteria for the Implementation of Integration Pilot Projects . 1st edition. Budrich UniPress, Leverkusen 2017, ISBN 978-3-86388-754-4 , p. 48-52 .
  8. ^ Franz Pöchhacker: Interpreting as mediation. In: Carmen Valero Garcés, Anne Martin: Crossing Borders in Community Interpreting: Definitions and Dilemmas. John Benjamin Publishing, 2008, ISBN 978-90-272-1685-4 , pp. 9-26. (P. 24)
  9. ^ Andreas Deimann: A possibility of social integration in German asylum. Results of the empirical research accompanying the model project: “Language and cultural mediators”. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Ministry for Generations, Women, Family and Integration of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, 2008, archived from the original on September 10, 2016 ; accessed on February 20, 2018 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.transkom.info
  10. ^ A b Varinia Fernanda Morales: Language and culture mediation - employment of refugees and asylum seekers . In: Innovative concepts for integration and participation: needs analysis for intercultural communication in institutions and for models of new fields of work . tape 3 : Migration - Health - Communication . IKO-Verlag, 2007, p. 224–232 ( bikup.de [PDF; accessed December 3, 2017]).
  11. ↑ a b c Carsten Becker, Tim Grebe, Enrico Leopold: Language and integration mediator as a new profession . Ed .: Diakonie Wuppertal. Berlin / Wuppertal, p. 7 .
  12. ↑ SprInt service point: SprInt qualification to become a language and integration mediator. Retrieved January 16, 2018 .