Translating healthcare in migrant contexts: power dynamics, machine translation and language barriers in the dissemination of vaccine information. A case study of the ULSS of Padua

In recent years, migration has become a defining aspect of Italy’s demographic and cultural landscape, significantly influencing and shaping social and institutional dynamics. One of the most critical areas affected by this shift is the healthcare sector, where effective institutional communication plays a vital role in ensuring equitable access to medical services. This thesis explores the intersection of migration, institutional communication, and translation in Italy, with a particular emphasis on how the U.L.S.S. of the city of Padua conveys – through translation – medical information to migrant populations. Furthermore, the study investigates the emerging role of Machine Translation in overcoming language barriers, analysing current applications, trends, and limitations in translating health-related institutional messages, evaluating, in particular, the use of MT on the U.L.S.S. of Padua website as a case study. In addition, the revision will specifically focus on the vaccination section of the website, using Mossop’s revision parameters. Finally, contributing to the ongoing discourse on multilingual access in public healthcare, the current work proposes practical strategies for improving the translation of institutional content in multicultural medical settings. Therefore, special attention is given to identifying and translating portions of the website (vaccination section) that remain untranslated, in order to suggest more inclusive and effective communication approaches for migrant communities.