Syftet med studien är att undersöka vad människor verksamma inom äldreomsorg, chefer, kulturutövare, personal och politiker, gör med kultur, och vad kultur gör med dem och med organisationerna de verkar i. Studien har genomförts i samarbete mellan Region Hallands Kulturförvaltning, Hallands bildningsförbund och Högskolan i Halmstad och har finansierats av Kulturrådet och Region Halland. Studien har genomförts i Hallands sex kommuner. Den metod som använts är etnografisk och består av intervjuer med politiker och personal på olika nivåer inom äldreomsorgen samt observationer och skriftligt material. Kultur syftar på människors estetiska yttringar, både skapandet och åtnjutandet av exempelvis konst, litteratur, teater, dans och musik. Äldreomsorg syftar på de insatser och verksamheter som finns i kommunerna. Dessa har delats in i förebyggande verksamheter som är öppna för alla äldre (som uppnått pensionsålder) och omvårdande verk-samhet som omfattar de äldre som har fått sina vård- och omsorgsbehov biståndsbedömda i form av hemtjänst eller på ett särskilt vårdboende.

The right to interpretation service in Sweden is currently regulated under the Code of Judicial Procedure, the Administrative Procedures Act, and the State Officials Act.Interpreter service in courts is a right according to the Code of Judicial Procedure. The State Officials Act regulates administrative authorities and states that a public authority should use an interpreter ‘when needed’. This formulation does not imply a right as in the Code of Judicial Procedure as “when needed” gives the right to decide whether an interpreter is called in or not, to the public service provider.

In this paper our starting point is the fieldwork done within a research project called Behind closed doors – The significance of community interpreting for guaranteeing legal security and for integration; with special focus on the reception of unaccompanied children and the processing of their asylum cases. As the title of this project suggests it is the act of community interpreting that is our main research object but with the special purpose to study community interpreting within the field of reception and processing of asylum cases of separated children.

The interpreter is involved in many different areas and meetings - with the Migration Board, the health system, at school, in dialogue with social workers, the legal guardian etc. We will describe and analyze the everyday handlings, routines and norms within the reception of separated children and the processing of their asylum cases through the eye of the interpreter. We will also problematize the impact of community interpreting from the perspective of separated children, as individuals depending on interpretation to be able to communicate and to obtain rights (legal and human, specified in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child).

This article analyzes the migration experiences of thirteen separated minors who arrived in Sweden between 1943 and 2008. Using the framework of "dislocation" and the "liberated self," this chapter shows that the experiences of separated minors are shaped in the intersection between contexts and conditions of transnational migration and the Swedish reception system. Their efforts to continue living based on the past and building a new life during a period of transition between different countries and between childhood and adulthood can be described as "a life on hold." The paradox that migration serves simultaneously to empower and render children powerless is discussed.

Interpreter training in Sweden started in the late 60-ties by local immigrant services bureaus. It developed over time. The principal responsibility for interpreter and translator training, financed by the state, lies within the mandate of the Institute for Interpretation and Translation Studies (TÖI), at Stockholm University. The Institute also has the overall responsibility to develop uniform education and certification of interpreters and translators in Sweden. Basic training is delivered by four folk high schools and three adult educational associations. Since 2006 the state financed basic training is either provided as distance tuition over two years or evening classes over one year. The curriculum contains courses in the following fields: social services, medical care, the labor market, workplace and legal matters. Each course has lectures about the field, such as legal regulations, organization and structures. Each course also deals with language and interpreting training, techniques and ethics. State supervised basic training has taken place in more than 100 languages. The paper will analyze the result so far of the system that was initiated in 2006. We will describe the curriculum for the basic training: values, ethics, praxis, form, content and examination. After that we will analyze three different problem areas: 1. Issues like genus, sexual orientation, racism and other issues about fundamental values which sometimes are mainstreamed but often enough not. 2. Challenges related to the selection of languages for training. It is sometimes difficult to keep up with the very quick changes of interpreting needs that are caused by global events out of Swedish control. As we will see the agencies find all sorts of ways to meet the needs in cases where no trained community interpreters are available. 3. The theoretical and methodological framework of teaching community interpreting; the didactics of community interpreting.

Children and minors are increasingly becoming a recognized part of international migration. This circumstance raises many questions about the reception of migrating minors in different national contexts. This paper focuses on separated minors in Sweden.

The paper is based on the following research project: Behind closed doors – the significance of interpreting to legal rights and integration with a focus on the reception of separated children and young people. The fieldwork contains several observations and around 60 in-depth or autobiographical interviews with social workers, separated children, interpreters, staff at residences, guardians, nurses, teachers, and staff at the Migration Board. Since October 2009, we also work with a reference group including three adults who came as separated children.

In this paper, we analyze the following questions: What happens with the personal life story under the asylum process and within the reception of the new country? In what way can the children’s and youth’s personal biographical stories come forward? Is the child or youth seen and heard? If so, by whom, when and why?

Our purpose is to discuss the concept of separated children and describe the contemporary situation of the reception in Sweden. By using fragments from three young individual’s life-stories, we will analyze the circumstances of being a part of asylum process and reception with a special focus on recognition and identity.

“It was a family in a situation where social authorities had taken their children into care. I was interpreting for them four or five times. It was a clear case of cultural clashes. In their country of origin there are no social authorities and the parents did not at all understand how serious the situation was. The man was a heavy drinker and the woman was offered a choice, to stay with her husband and lose her children or to leave her husband and keep the children. It was immensely difficult to interpret. And it is very important to keep in mind that I am interpreting for both the couple and the public officer.”

In many cases it is very difficult to meet the expectations from the persons you are interpreting for. The couple in the example did not have an understanding of the Swedish public officer’s way of thinking and vice versa. The expectations projected on the community interpreter were also totally different. The interpreter moves from different perceptions of “normality” and is expected to facilitate communication between these understandings of the situation at hand. In our paper we will analyze different sociocultural expectations and realities the interpreter has to handle and what it means to understand the significance of perceived normality when performing an interpretation. The analysis is based on 50 interviews with community interpreters and a two year long fieldwork among interpreters in Sweden. Theoretically we will discuss the role of the community interpreter (one job or many?) and the issue of representation by using the academic discussion about self- reflection.

The right to interpretation service in Sweden is regulated under the Code of Judicial Procedure, the Administrative Procedures Act, and the State Officials Act. There aredifferent tools for fulfilling the responsibilities of the state, such as state funded educationand provision of authorization. In one crucial area, however, the State has no tools forcontrol and regulation of quality, namely within the labor market were communityinterpreters operate. The majority of interpreters are not employed, only registered withone or more agency. All appointments are made through an agency.Public service providers are obliged to respect the Public Procurement Act. Thus there is acompetition for contracts with agencies and not with interpreters. According to criticalvoices, this has undermined the possibilities for interpreters to have influence on theirlabor legislative situation. As there is no state supervision, except for the authorizedinterpreters, and no supervision of agencies it is impossible to make an accurateestimation of quality. We know, however, that there is divergence between agencies carefor interpreters. Some agencies pay for education, authorization, coaching andprofessional support while other agencies do nothing of the sort.Our empirical material is based on more than 100 interviews with community interpreters,educators, agencies, users etc., and fieldwork within all areas of community interpreting.Our paper deals with such rights of community interpreters as education, proper paymentand security. It deals with the question of professionalism, how the existing structuralframe undermines the ambition of interpreters to continue developing their professionalskills. It is a right for both the public service officer and the immigrant who cannot speak Swedish to have access to a skilled interpreter. The paper will consequently deal with theresponsibilities of the state in relation to above mentioned issues.

We are involved in two interlinked projects, “The community interpreter – a cultural broker”and “Behind closed doors – The significance of community interpreting for guaranteeing legal security and for integration; with special focus on the reception of unaccompanied children and the processing of their asylum cases” The main purpose is to analyze the position of community interpreters as cultural brokers since they are involved in interpreted meetings and communication between professionals and clients/patients. Through the eye of the community interpreter we will especially describe and analyze the reception of separated children and the handling of their asylum case. We combine a series of methods in our work. A short description of the methods: We have done more than 160 in depth and open interviews with actors from the whole of the interpreting field: Community interpreters, agencies, public service officers, refugees, clients, patients, educators... During two years we have continuously done observations in the publicly run homes where separated children are received, in agencies, at courts, in health care centers, and we have participated in a two year long basic training for interpreters as well as in coursed for further education. Furthermore we have established,and are working closely with, five different thematic groups of experienced people, interpreters, individuals who arrived in Sweden as separated children, educators, public officials and agencies. We hold seminars where our findings are continuously discussed. Our research is anchored in formal cooperation between the University in Lund, two educators (one folk high school and one educational association) and one agency. In our paper we will describe and analyze the use of these methods and evaluate the benefits and costs of the way of gaining knowledge that we have developed.

The aim of this article is to analyze the community interpreter training program in Sweden and, based on the results of two research projects, describe structural conditions and shortcomings. The authors discuss Sweden’s laws and regulations, the changing demand for interpreting service in society, the open access ideology within adult education associations, and the limitation of economic resources for fulfilling the demand for trained interpreters. Interpreter training in Sweden is built on public-service needs in the areas of social insurance, the labor market, health care, and court interpreting. It is focused on factual knowledge and terminology and devotes little time for developing aspects of ethical rules, the role of the interpreter, and technical issues. In order to make progress possible it is important to use existing research and theory to develop didactics for community interpreting training. © The authors and CIT

The aim of this article is to describe and analyse the working conditions of interpreters and interpreting services in Sweden. An understanding of interpreters' working conditions is a key to such factors as the management of resources, the reading and implementation of legislation, the organisation of interpreting services and the performance of interpreters in different situations. An understanding of interpreters' working conditions is also important in understanding how multiculturalism and multilingualism are viewed on a national scale in Sweden. This review of the working conditions of interpreters is based on material from two joint research projects, which appear to indicate that interpreters as a group have much to say and often reflect on their work and working conditions. The interpreters participating in this study often demonstrated a strong commitment to professionalism. At the same time, however, many of the reflections recorded for this study were about things that undermine professionalism: bad working conditions, low pay, the feeling of being "as replaceable as potatoes", and the feeling that the social status of interpreters is low. In analysing the consequences of working conditions we have found a tension between professionalism and deprofessionalisation. This tension has consequences for the rule of law and integration.

In this article we describe the reception of asylum-seeking separated minors; organisation, rules and routines in daily life. We examine the philosophy behind the reception of separated young people by analysing situations at a group residence. The article is based on aspects of current fieldwork as part of a research project entitled: Behind closed doors – the significance of interpreting to legal rights and integration with a focus on the reception of separated children and young people. The philosophy behind the reception of separated minors is based on ethics of rights, i.e. respect for the individual’s rights and equal value. These ethics do, however, not deal with questions of the individual in particular. We would like to see a theoretical development of the parts of the reception process that involve confirming the young person as an individual – a reception process with what we would like to call ethics of grace.