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The Translation Profession in Australia: Viability or Survivability?

Ali Darwish
December 2005

Abstract

Australia has recently seen an upsurge in translation and interpreting activity on the back of successive waves of refugees and illegal immigrants from war-torn countries in the Middle East, Horn of Africa, Afghanistan, and South East Asia. Ensuing demands have resulted in a flourishing translation market and have turned translation into a lucrative business for many translation service providers, old and new. However, in an unregulated industry that is subject to seasonal fluctuation, most translation and interpreting work has been traditionally carried out by freelancers or “contractors” on behalf of these providers. In a fledgling profession still in the process of defining itself, sustainability and professional recognition become inseparably intertwined and the question of viability becomes a real one in an unstable market.

Translation Watch Quarterly, Volume 1, Inaugural Issue, December 2005. pp 82-99.