E65 - Adam Williamson on interpretation in the UK asylum system

UNESCO RIELA: The sounds of integration

This is the first of a two part episode in which Dr Dan Fisher talks with Sawsan Abdelghany and Adam Williamson on their work on ESOL interpretation in asylum appeals. In this part, Sawsan and Dan are interviewing Adam. Adam Williamson is a freelance translator and interpreter based in Paris, where he works with English, Spanish and French. He began his interpreting career in the asylum system in Glasgow, where he encountered a variety of challenging circumstances and ethically compromising situations for which he felt his interpreter training had not fully prepared him. These experiences led him to complete an MPhil by research at the University of Glasgow, under the supervision of the UNESCO RILA team. Chiefly drawing on participant observation and interviews, his study looks at the mismatch between the expectations of interpreters in the asylum context and the reality on the ground. The research also includes a series of recommendations which will feed into the third iteration of the Scottish Government’s New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy. For the full transcript, please go to https://bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration