This question needs no answering
if you are already in the industry yourself, but those who are not aware of the
reasons why translation services in Australia and elsewhere in the world are in
such hot demand may be wondering what is going on.
There are two essential reasons
why this is happening. One of them relates to the trend towards greater
immigration and emigration and the growing diversity within a single nation and
national market. The other relates to the onward march of globalisation. Love
it or hate it there seems to be little that can be done to stem the effects of
globalisation and its insatiable appetite for language translation services of
all types.
Diversity on the inside
There are many socio-economic
reasons why people get up and leave their country of birth and seek work and
home in another country. Part of it is due to the wide differences in standard
of living, sometime between two geographical neighbours such as Australia and
Indonesia or the U.S.A and Mexico. It is inevitable that there will be a push
for those in the poorer nation to want to migrate, legally or illegally into
the richer one. That happens on a global scale, even between relatively
affluent nations such as Britain and Australia or Canada and the U.S.
Then there are the many other
“push” factors that drive people to leave, or even flee their native homes.
War, religious intolerance and oppression can result in the movement, sometime
in massive numbers, from one unfortunate part of the world to one that is more
stable.
These two dynamic realities mean
that a single economic market within a single nation now has to cope with many
more people speaking different languages. Hence the need for better and more
translation services to mediate communication.
Diversity on the outside
Many companies that used to only
sell their goods within their own country are now expanding their business
overseas aided by the Internet and translation services worldwide. Their
products are being sold, sometimes from new bases in those new countries, but
also online and the only way to do this competitively is to be able to ensure
that the new markets understand what is on offer.
Globalisation doesn’t just mean
the economy. Closer ties between different countries are at many levels.
Greater communication and effective cooperation depends on understanding and
here again translation service providers, whether they are NAATI translators in Australia or document translation service businesses anywhere in the world are
at the centre of the trend towards a new and smaller world where people are forced
to communicate and get on to solve what have become truly global issues and
problems.
