Markets of multilingual work: a chronological analysis of financial remuneration for community translation and interpreting

Abstract

Multilingualism is increasingly seen as a skill, yet little is known about the actual trade of financial remuneration for language in jobs requiring language skills. This article examines the market value of community translation and interpreting, a multilingual service provided to members of linguistic minority communities. Focusing on Australia, it integrates sociological and economic approaches to investigate under what circumstances language represents a source of financial gain for multilingual service workers from minority backgrounds. Qualitative document analysis, which covers the period between 1973 and 2025, illustrates how multilingual work has shifted from a public service to a private market, leading to a deterioration in working conditions for multilingual service workers. The findings reveal a significant gap between government and private sectors in the market value of multilingual work. The gap has been widened by inadequate acknowledgement of language as a professional skill and the exploitation of multilingual migrant workers in the private market. The article highlights the vulnerability of minority-background multilingual service workers – and the skills that come with language work – to unregulated market forces. It calls for government control of language markets to ensure the sustainability of multilingual services that are essential for social inclusion.