»Nočem biti odvisna«: Ali javne prevajalske in tolmaške storitve res negativno vplivajo na aktivno vključenost migrantov v državo gostiteljico?

By challenging some of the existing political claims regarding translation and interpreting provision to migrants, the article argues for new approaches in language policies related to translation and interpreting services. The research attempts to respond to the claims that translation and interpreting impedes integration of recent immigrants by conducting a quantitative and qualitative research among a group of asylum seekers settled in a detention centre in Ljubljana, Slovenia. First, we gathered data on the structure and language profiles of all the residents in the detention centre in August 2014 (56 residents from 19 different countries); then a representative group of 18 asylum seekers in terms of their first language was selected and put into 2 groups based on their length of stay in Slovenia at the time of their interview (shorter vs. longer periods). A questionnaire was used to gather quantitative data on the language profiles, while the qualitative data was obtained through semi-structured interviews in 2014 and two repeat interviews in 2015. A narrative analysis of the transcriptions of all recorded interviews was made, focusing on different languages and communication solutions in different stages of a migrant’s life in the host country. The results show that basic trade-offs are possible: translation and interpreting are complementary steps to independence, which assist rather than impede acquisition of the dominant, i.e. national language, of the host country