1 What is All this About? In the past, the primary focus of studies of interpreting has been on communication between groups of people with different languages and cultures at an international level. The present and the future are as much about communication between people of different languages and cultures within national borders and concerned with the events of peo ple’s everyday lives. The social and professional context Globalisation and modern modes of transport have resulted in the increasing movement of people between countries for shorter or longer periods of time. People travel to other countries for work, education and pleasure. They also do so to escape natural and man-made disasters. As a consequence, most countries have multilingual, multicultural popula tions. In London, for example, 30 per cent of schoolchildren speak at home one of the estimated 300 languages spoken in the capital (Baker & Eversley 2000). How that situation is handled in each country has significance for the overall national social infrastructure and cohesion. Influxes of groups of people with differing views, attitudes, perceptions and needs, who may also be in a state of anxiety and insecurity, can lead to wider repercus sions. In Australia, Canada and Sweden in particular there are well established examples of how such transitions have been skilfully dealt with, optimising the use of their multilingual resource. This book is not about whether or not migration is a good thing or how This book is not about whether or not migration is a good thing or how it should be managed. It deals with one dimension of the situation found in most countries and suggests practical solutions. The dimension under discussion is how individuals and groups who do not speak the languageof the country can communicate with such essential services as health care, housing, education and social services and the legal process. If, to use the London example, one third of the children in the UK capital had limited or no access to essential services, the consequences would be dis advantageous both to them and to the country. It benefits no one if a proportion of the population suffers increased infant mortality rates, mis carriages of justice, substandard housing, education and social care. It is possible to remove barriers caused by lack of language and related skills so that nurses, doctors, lawyers and so on can provide appropriate stan dards of expertise to individuals with whom they do not share a lan guage, thus enabling the individuals concerned to regain control of their own affairs and become functionally self-sufficient within a new country. There are many who may, and do, say that people should learn the language of the country in which they live. However, they often over look the time it takes to learn a second language and the factors that affect second language acquisition (Schellekens 2001), as well as the fact that the language of medicine, the legal system and social services is often highly specialised. The ability to communicate accurately and reliably in such contexts as the police station and the doctor’s consult ing room requires a native speaker fluency that would be measured at postgraduate level in academic terms. Communication of that sort also demands a background understanding of the associated systems and conventions to make sense of the contexts. The migration process is never static. In the ten to twenty years it might take for one group of other-language speakers to attain native speaker fluency in the language of their new country and understanding of its public service systems, other groups would have moved between countries, speaking another set of languages. The Gujarati speakers who arrived in Britain from East Africa some 30 years ago, and their children, now usually speak fluent English. They are generally economically stable and many are successful doctors, lawyers and business people. But since then there have been ongoing waves of migration from all over the world arising from such causes as the wars and natural disasters of the Balkans, Asia and Africa. The right to freedom of movement within the European Union also enables individuals to seek work and education in any mem ber state. According to BBC survey in 2006 (www.bbc.co.uk/bornabroad), between 1991 and 2001, the total number of people resident in the British Isles who were born abroad, rose by 36.4 per cent, against an over all population increase of 4.03 per cent.
