Formación integral de traductores e intérpretes en el contexto de la migración irregular a las Islas Canarias. Iniciativas de la Facultad de Traducción e Interpretación de la ULPGC

Abstract

The Canary Islands have traditionally been known for their beautiful beaches and tourist resorts. However, in recent years, African migrant reception in this territory has become a human rights issue which requires attention from all those involved in providing infrastructure, medical assistance, integration opportunities, etc. The cornerstone of any of these actions is communication, which also presents a challenge in this context. Migration has added a new dimension to the need for interpreting services. They are still required in the business and tourist sectors, but assisting migrants on shore, in the camps and centres where they are accommodated, in interviews with border agents and health professionals, to name some of the settings in which they are involved as soon as they arrive in Spanish territory, is a new context where both language and cultural barriers are present. In this article we explore the role that the University, and in particular the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting, can play in a multicultural society, where citizens live alongside migrants from African nations, who have usually gone through very diffi cult situations in their countries of origin and have risked their lives to reach Europe. Raising awareness of this new reality among our students and society at large should be among our priorities as educators. In addition, the introduction of specific humanitarian interpreting content in university classrooms and ad hoc interpreter education initiatives are particularly relevant, since migrants themselves, speakers of minority languages in Spain are often called upon to facilitate communication in this context of crisis