What is the Explanation for the Rapid Expansion of the Translation Industry?

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.