Abstract
This article presents an analysis of the job market of interpreters and translators of Brazilian sign language and Brazilian Portuguese language. The aim is to describe this market from perspectives, such as: contexts of work, working hours, remuneration, voluntary work, valuation and description of the activities developed. This is qualitative and descriptive research. The participants are eighteen interpreters and translators who work in a city in the countryside of Minas Gerais state. The data was collected by questionnaire and focus group. In the data analysis, two categories were used: professional identity and professionalization. The results indicate that professionals work in different contexts, predominantly in educational interpretation; they also claim long working hours, perform functions that go beyond the activities of interpretation and translation, and experience moments of search for social vaporization of the profession and rupture of the assistentialist view. We conclude that there is a need to develop valuation policies and social awareness of the Libras-Portuguese interpreter and translator profession.
Keywords
Interpreters; Translators; Libras; job market; Professionalization