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ABSTRACT
The massive influx of refugees into Europe in the past few years has given rise to different kinds of challenges among which is the challenge to successfully communicate with newly arrived immigrants. In this article, we will focus on the public service provision sector where quality of service is to a large extent determined by the capability of a service provider and his or her “client” to understand one another. The article centres on a study involving public organisations providing asylum services or (mental) healthcare services in the multilingual and multicultural city of Brussels. Several interviews were conducted to gain insight into the communication problems such organisations face, as well as their communication requirements and solutions when providing services to people of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. We will focus on the types of bridging functions commonly deployed by these organisations in multilingual service encounters and on the motivations for using them. In addition, we will discuss the subject of technology-enabled communication in the context of public service provision. Finally, in presenting the results of our study we will formulate specific recommendations on how to improve the use and integration of bridging functions into common service practice.
Acknowledgement
The authors wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on an earlier draft of this article.
Notes
1. Blommaert, Ethnography, Superdiversity and Linguistic Landscapes.
2. Janssens, Meertaligheid Als Cement.
3. Rillof and Buysse, “Getting Organized to Beat Babel,” 186.
4. Rillof and Michielsen, “Mind the Gap,” 117–33.
5. The full reference of this decree (in Dutch) is “Decreet betreffende het Vlaamse Integratie- en Inburgeringsbeleid” (June 7, 2013).
6. Source: Brussels Institute for Statistics and Analysis (2017).
7. Janssens, Meertaligheid Als Cement.
8. Ribera et al., “Is the Use of Interpreters.”
9. Rillof, Van Praet, and De Wilde, Eindrapport.
10. Rillof and Michielsen, “Mind the Gap,” 117–33.
11. Ibid.
12. Chan et al., “Interpreter Services in Emergency Medicine,” 133–39.
13. Ibid.; Phillips, “Remote Telephone Interpretation,” 505–23; McLaughlin et al., “Technology-Based Medical Interpretation,” 137–46.
15. Alvarez, “Visual Design,” 33–40.
16. Brogan, Adriaenssens, and Kelly, “Vocal-Medical,” 159–70.
17. Costa, Corpas Pastor, and Durán Muñoz, “Comparative User Evaluation,” 68–76.
18. Pilegaard, “Collaborative Repositories,” 57–71.
19. Gotou et al., Resource Sharing.
20. Dowbor et al., “Shrinking the Language Accessibility Gap,” 83; Osae-Larbi, “Bridging the Language Barrier Gap.”
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Koen Kerremans
Koen Kerremans is assistant professor at the department of Linguistics and Literary Studies of Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He teaches courses on terminology, technical translation and translation technologies in the master programmes of translation and interpreting. His research interests pertain to terminology, specialised communication and translation technologies.
Laurent-Philippe De Ryck
Laurent-Philippe De Ryck holds a master’s degree in Comparative and International Politics from the University of Leuven. At the Sociaal Vertaalbureau of Brussel Onthaal vzw, a non-profit organisation offering community interpreting and translation services in Brussels, he was responsible for the collection of research data in the project “Bridging the Communication Gap in Multilingual Service Encounters: A Brussels Case Study.” He was also member of the project’s Steering Committee.
Vanessa De Tobel
Vanessa De Tobel is assistant-coordinator and quality assurance officer at the Sociaal Vertaalbureau of Brussel Onthaal vzw, a non-profit organisation offering community interpreting and translation services in Brussels. She holds a master’s degree in interpreting (Spanish-English-Dutch) from the Erasmus University College Brussels and obtained community interpreting and translation certificates for French, English, Spanish and Dutch. Occasionally, she still provides interpreting services.
Rudi Janssens
Rudi Janssens is a senior researcher at BRIO-POLI VUB. He is responsible for the Language Barometer Research Project in Brussels and is a member of the MIME consortium on Mobility and Inclusion in a Multilingual Europe where he is focussing on the bottom-up effects of migration and mobility on the local society.
Pascal Rillof
Pascal Rillof coordinated the Civil Society Fellowship project “Bridging the Communication Gap in Multilingual Service Encounters—The Brussels Case Study.” He is the president of the European Network for Public Service Interpreting and Translation and is also in charge of the Public Service Interpreter and Translator Training and Certification Centre of the Flemish Integration Agency. Finally, he is involved in research on communication and policy in multilingual service settings.
Marianne Scheppers
Marianne Scheppers graduated as a social worker and started her professional career at Brussel Onthaal—Open Deur vzw in 1985, an organisation providing reception, information provision and referral services to migrants in Brussels. A few years later, the organisation started offering community interpreting and translation services, which led to the creation of the independent centre called the ‘Sociaal Vertaalbureau’, currently coordinated by Marianne Scheppers.