The quality of mediation services for migrants in the Czech Republic has been discussed for a long time and the undisputed fact is that these services are largely provided in an unprofessional way. Klub Hanoi has long been promoting the professionalization of its provision; already in 2007, we were the first organization that created a pilot training module for Czech-Vietnamese intercultural assistants whose mission is to bring members of Czech and Vietnamese culture to effective communication at a professional level. The second pilot module was implemented in 2011. In each course, a group of trained bilingual Czech-Vietnamese intercultural assistants has been formed and the services of these intercultural assistants are widely used by Klub Hanoi as well as other entities.
To date, we have been able to secure funds for this activity from two projects (supported by the EIF and the OSF Prague Foundation) and we provide services of trained interpreters, assistants, and mediators to state administration, non-profit organizations, and the public (the services of our assistants are used for example by Inbáze Berkat, the Department for Asylum and Migration Policy of the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic, IOM, CARITAS Czech Republic, several attorneys, etc.). With regard to the new Mediation Act which has recently entered into force and based on our experience and work with the above-mentioned assistants, we have decided to promote professional intercultural assistance throughout the country. At present, we are developing a project to develop a methodology of intercultural assistance in the Czech Republic not only for Vietnamese migrants but for migrants from all language groups present in the country.
Within the framework of the project Promotion of Intercultural Assistance supported by the EURES programme, we initiated a meeting at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic with the aim to gradually establish accreditation for the training of mediators of intercultural communication. The working group then drew up the first preliminary draft of the training content. In cooperation with other organizations, we will now seek to ensure that the role of these intermediaries is accredited and that the users have at least a minimum guarantee of the quality of services they receive.
The following paragraphs present the individual mediating roles as introduced by Klub Hanoi.
Community interpreters, intercultural assistants, and intercultural mediators
Providing professional services in the field of intercultural assistance is more than a traditional interpretation that you can see at the faculties or in court. Experts in intercultural assistance are first of all able to analyse the problem from an intercultural point of view. They can distinguish which factors (cultural, social, economic, etc.) are involved in creating the problem and look for appropriate solutions. We can identify three main roles in the field of intercultural intermediation: community interpreting, intercultural assistance, and intercultural mediation.
- Community (social) interpreters are interpreters working in the field of integration of foreigners and dealing with intercultural issues. They must have excellent Czech and the second language vocabulary on ordinary communication level and knowledge of basic legal terminology. As social interpreters, they must have the communication and interpreting skills and at the same time knowledge of Czech culture and the culture and the position of the migrant concerned in order to understand the different words used in their socio-cultural meaning and to take account of these differences in interpreting. This is the only way to communicate messages between people from two different cultures in a quality and efficient way. We can illustrate this on one of the thousands of examples: When a customs officer in the Czech border region asks a Vietnamese migrant from a village with minimal education:“are you employed?”, the migrant asked will very likely understand the question as follows:“do you work for someone and receive money for the work?”.The Vietnamese migrant would answer: “yes”. However, the customs officer was actually interested in whether the migrant had a written employment contract and so the positive answer may be the beginning of an unwanted misunderstanding stemming not from the mere ignorance of the language but from the ignorance of the socio-cultural context.
- Intercultural assistants help with the interaction of two entities from different cultures. They must have a basic awareness of the socio-economic situation of the migrant and must be familiar with the relevant legislation of the host country. They often work under the guidance of another expert or within an organization that trains them in their specific field. They can assist a lawyer at a counselling centre, an official at the authority, etc. The intercultural assistance is seen as a separate professional intervention between a lawyer and a client.
- Intercultural (socio-cultural) mediators are both interpreters and expert intermediaries in dispute resolution, negotiation, and mediation involving two entities from different cultures. They can manage disputes between tenants and the building management or negotiate in local community disputes, etc.
From a methodological point of view, the intercultural mediators follow this procedure:
- verification of the information provided (by means of interpreting and translations)
- field analysis, language analysis
- analysis of past contacts and meetings (whether there was any communication and whether an interpreter was present)
- identification of necessary types of intervention
- provision of basic intercultural information
- analysis of an actual existence of intercultural barriers
- facilitating a joint meeting with an interpreter and if necessary with the participation of a mediator or another expert
- ensuring clarification of the views of both parties with an interpreter and advice from the intercultural field
- ensuring sustainable intervention, or more precisely key persons who are able to resolve disputes themselves from now on (people who can assist with interpreting, resolving issues, providing contacts, etc.)
- evaluation of both parties (also with an interpreter)
We welcome your comments and suggestions related to mediation activities or training of intermediaries. You can also download free flyers available in six languages that have been prepared as part of the project: Czech, Vietnamese, Mongolian, Chinese, Ukrainian, Russian. The leaflets are available for distribution.
The project is supported by the international jobs network EURES.