Translation, interpreting and the British humanitarian response to asylum seeker and refugee arrivals since the 1940s

该项目探讨了自20世纪40年代以来，在英格兰选定的寻求庇护者和难民群体的早期接收和重新安置阶段，翻译和口译的战略重要性，特别是非国家行为者。它旨在调查如何有限的语言能力已被容纳在服务的整体问题，在日益“技术化”的人道主义活动和移民和语言多样性的态度在此期间的变化的背景下。具体而言，它将1）调查自1940年代以来政府与选定的慈善机构在支持语言和文化多样性的难民和寻求庇护者群体方面的关系; 2）追踪土著和社区群体提供语言的发展情况; 3）探讨政府和民间社会话语中对语言多样性的态度转变，（4）通过两个城市的个案研究，引出个人和组织对语言规定的经验。该项目追溯了英国公共服务翻译和口译的演变，并围绕文化研究理论家所称的“衔接”过程（Slack 1996）。这被理解为一个国家向其他国家伸出援手以鼓励特定类型的社会参与作为回报的方式。随着难民和庇护运动的加速和"超级多样化“（Vertovec 2007），以及社区的定居，表达的过程也在演变，使人们注意到笔译和口译在其中所发挥的作用。人道主义行动，非国家行为者和衔接之间的相互联系在这个项目中突出的方式，补充翻译研究，城市多语言和非国家人道主义的新兴领域的研究。该项目的多学科小组将在为期两年的项目中进行一系列案例研究，并对政策、议会和媒体话语进行基于语料库的分析。它促进了一种基于最近对城市多语制的研究的认识论方法，其中语言规定以当地实践社区为基础，以交流活动为中心，以积累的知识和经验为基础进行评估（Gaiser和Matras 2017）。第一组案例研究旨在突出自1940年代以来选定的志愿部门组织在接待和重新安置陷入重大难民事件的个人方面处理语言和文化多样性的方式。在国家档案馆进行的档案研究将有助于深入了解支持组织方法的原则，并辅之以在选定的地方历史档案馆进行的研究，以探索接待中心和营地的实地做法。（莱斯特和利物浦）将揭示语言规定在市政一级出现的方式，以及社区协会网络，这些网络有机地发展起来，以补充“自上而下”的规定和/或发展独立的支助来源。莱斯特之所以被选中，是因为它在20世纪70年代初接纳来自乌干达的新移民方面发挥了作用，利物浦之所以被选中，是因为它在20世纪70年代和80年代与越南难民有联系。在这两种情况下，社区的语言异质性对这个项目特别重要，因为它将集中注意地方一级满足需要的灵活程度，这个为期两年的项目将产生一系列有益于一系列学科的传统学术成果，包括专题讨论会、网站资源、口述历史证词和期刊文章。该项目还将通过与难民社区团体，慈善机构和补充学校共同组织的研讨会和活动，与非学术受益者接触。

This project explores the strategic importance of translation and interpreting in the early reception and resettlement phases of selected groups of asylum seekers and refugees in England since the 1940s, with specific reference to non-state actors. It seeks to investigate the overall question of how limited language proficiency has been accommodated in services, against the backdrop of increasingly 'technologised' humanitarian activity and changes in attitude to migration and linguistic diversity over the period. Specifically it will 1) investigate the relationship between the government and selected charities in supporting linguistically and culturally diverse groups of refugees and asylum seekers since the 1940s; 2) trace the development of language provisions by indigenous and community-based groups; 3) explore attitudinal shifts to linguistic diversity in government and civil society discourse, and 4) elicit personal and organisational experiences of language provisions in two city-based case studies.The project traces the evolution of public service translation and interpreting in Britain and is anchored around the processes of what theorists of cultural studies term 'articulation' (Slack 1996). This is understood as the ways in which a state reaches out to others to encourage particular types of social engagement in return. As refugee and asylum movements have accelerated and become 'superdiverse' (Vertovec 2007), and communities have settled, processes of articulation have also evolved, warranting attention to the role played by translation and interpreting therein. Interconnections between humanitarian action, non-state actors and articulation are foregrounded in this project in ways that complement research in translation studies, urban multilingualism and the emerging field of non-state humanitarianism. The project's multidisciplinary team will conduct a set of case studies over the two-year project, and a corpus-based analysis of policy, parliamentary and media discourses. It promotes an epistemological approach based on recent research on urban multilingualism in which language provisions are evaluated in ways that are anchored around local communities of practice and accumulated knowledge and experience, with the communicative event at the centre (Gaiser and Matras 2017). The first set of case studies is designed to bring to prominence the ways in which selected voluntary sector organisations handled linguistic and cultural diversity in relation to the reception and resettlement of individuals caught up in major refugee events since the 1940s. Archival research at the national archives will yield insight into the principles that underpinned organizational approaches, complemented by research at selected local historical archives to explore practices on the ground in reception centres and camps.A second set of city-based case studies (Leicester and Liverpool) will shed light on the ways in which language provisions emerged at the municipal level, and the networks of community associations that grew organically to complement 'top down' provisions and/or develop independent sources of support. Leicester has been selected due to the role it played in accommodating new arrivals from Uganda in the early 1970s and Liverpool for its connection to Vietnamese refugees in the 1970s and 1980s. The linguistic heterogeneity of the communities in both cases is of particular interest to this project since it will focus attention on the level of flexibility at the local level to respond to need.The two-year project will lead to a series of traditional academic outputs of benefit to a range of academic disciplines and include a symposium, website resources, oral history testimonies and journal articles. The project will also engage with non-academic beneficiaries through workshops and events that are co-organised with refugee community groups, charities, and supplementary schools.