Cultural mediators in Italy: a new breed of linguists

While most countries have developed accredited, certified interpreting services to facilitate communication between migrant populations and public service providers, in Italy service providers turned to the associations created to assist the migrant populations. Rather than just interpreting, the people sent by the associations also wished to act on the migrants’ behalf as cultural mediators. The guidelines put forward for the professional profile and training of this figure include an unrealistic array of tasks, including interpreting, for which no specific training is provided. The need to involve universities in the training of cultural mediators is most apparent as regards their role as interpreters. Universities have been monitoring this new breed of linguists through research work. This study of mediated healthcare encounters shows how cultural mediators tend to assume conversational dominance and/or proxy roles, with interaction often becoming dyadic, to the exclusion of the patient.