ABSTRACT

This chapter explores a few approaches to the problem of how to interpret discourse, and then turns to a description of one concrete example of a person whose job it is to not only analyse and understand, but also to translate refugee discourse: the inter-cultural interpreter. It considers the how to assess the particular linguistic practices found in the Convention refugee process. The chapter offers some sense of how one might apply discourse analysis to Convention refugee hearings, partly to demonstrate why such an exercise is, in the end, rather futile. "Justifying", therefore, is inscribed within the order of the legal process of setting out reasons for the claim. Interpreters working in inter-cultural legal settings, such as Convention refugee hearings, undertake a vast array of tasks which culminate in the translation of spoken testimony into one of the languages acceptable to the authorities in the host country.