Conflicting Expectations of Interpreters' Roles in the Interaction between Guardians and Unaccompanied Minors

Public service interpreters assume a key role in rendering accessible social services to newcomer clients. They could even be considered inherent to social work settings that are multilingual in nature, such as the interactional context of unaccompanied minors and their legal guardians. However, despite the intrinsic linguistic diversity and the unique position of interpreters in this setting, guardian-minor encounters remain unexplored in research. The current study therefore aims to provide insight into the multilingual needs and challenges in these encounters, focussing particularly on the roles interpreters play in this setting and how they are perceived to affect the interaction. To this end, the study draws on twelve semi-structured interviews with guardians of unaccompanied minors, collected as part of a research project examining the impact of multilingual strategies on the communication and relationship between guardians and minors in Belgium. Through thematic analysis, the study explores guardians' insecurities, revealing confusion about the professional status of interpreters, concerns about interpretation quality and conflicting expectations of what interpreters should (not) do. The study provides recommendations with a view to improving both the confidence of guardians and the efficiency of guardian-minor interactions, and highlights the relevance of the findings for various other social work settings. This article aims to provide insight into the needs and challenges that may arise in the multilingual encounters between unaccompanied minors and their legal guardians. It focusses particularly on the roles interpreters take on in this setting and how they are perceived to affect the interaction. Through interviews with twelve guardians, the study reveals a number of insecurities amongst guardians, related to working with interpreters. First, there seems to be confusion about interpreters' professionalism and the quality of the work they deliver. Due to a lack of transparency about interpreters' training and competencies, guardians may encounter unprofessional practices and have trouble finding a competent and trusted interpreter. Secondly, guardians give voice to conflicting expectations of what interpreters should (not) do. On the one hand, interpreters are expected to act as neutral translation machines. On the other hand, they are described to assume different active roles in the interaction which go beyond mere language facilitating. Guardians indicate appreciating interpreters' varying degrees of involvement to different extents. The study argues that increased awareness about interpreters' and guardians' roles can stimulate cooperation and optimise communication.