Between State-Orchestrated Exclusion and Local Projects of Inclusion: A Medical Interpreting Vocational Training Course for Eritrean Asylum Seekers in Israel

Abstract

Following Mezirow’s conception of adult education as transformative, Ragazzi’s call for flexibly evaluating vocational training outcomes and Bourdieu’s “cultural capital†as an empowering tool for change, this paper analyzes the outcome of the first medical interpreting vocational training course for Eritrean asylum seekers in Israel. The course was initiated in 2013 in response to difficulties expressed by Israeli medical personnel and Eritrean asylum seekers alike in providing health services to the latter. The analysis revealed the course to bea positive learning endeavor that led graduates to better jobs, as well as an empowering experience that fostered a sense of capability, enabled graduates to take better care of themselves and their dear ones, and increased their understanding of their rights as asylum seekers. However, this local project of inclusion created a micro cosmos within an external hostile context of state-orchestrated exclusion, providing strength, yet also arousing considerable frustration.

Keywords: Asylum seekers, Integration, Medical interpreting, Vocational training.