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21:03 Feb 13, 2012
Spanish to English translations [Non-PRO] Social Sciences - Social Science, Sociology, Ethics, etc.
Spanish term or phrase:situación irregular
I am translating an article on the formal implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in Latin America. More than once the term "situación irregular" appears, but "irregular situation" seems too obvious and not very helpful for a US audience.
It's an academic article to be published in a journal in the States.
I understand from web searches that the term is often used to describe people who may be living illegally in a country without documentation, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. Some context is below:
Después de una década de aplicaciones formalistas de la CDN en América latina, los resultados indican que ningún Estado ha logrado garantizar a todos los niños y niñas el goce efectivo y sin discriminación de los derechos humanos a la supervivencia, al desarrollo, a la participación, y a la protección en situaciones especiales de vulneración de derechos. Tampoco ha ocurrido la esperada sustitución de creencias y prácticas del paradigma de la SITUACIÓN IRREGULAR por las del enfoque de derechos, sino la coexistencia de ambos.
in the sense of problematic, I´d suggest "anomalous or extraordinary situation,"
Automatic update in 00:
Answers
31 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +1
undocumented
Explanation: possibility...
Melissa Mann Brazil Local time: 02:32 Meets criteria Specializes in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 4
12 hrs confidence: peer agreement (net): +1
irregular legal status
Explanation: Irregular Migration in the UK: Definitions, Pathways and Scale | The ...
migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/.../irregular-migration-uk-definitions-...
by B Vollmer - Related articles
1 Dec 2011 – The law defines immigration status in a binary way as either legal or illegal, but in practice irregular immigration status can involve a wide ...
The 17th OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum www.osce.org/eea/36468
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
However, temporary migrant workers can have and often do have an irregular legal status, meaning those persons who may not comply with the entry, stay or/ ...
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 12 hrs (2012-02-14 09:16:29 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Outside the Protection of the Law The Situation of Irregular Migrants ...
repository.forcedmigration.org/pdf/?pid=fmo:4354
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
because migrants with irregular status are usually in no position to give voice to ... in the UK; Illegal in Germany; and From a Life Project to Civil Death: Irregular ...
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 12 hrs (2012-02-14 09:17:33 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
OR
just
irregular situation
Migrants in an irregular situation employed in domestic work ...
oppenheimer.mcgill.ca › Research › International Migrations Database
1 Jul 2011 – Some also provide valuable legal support to migrants in an irregular situation. There is a high risk of impunity, including for grave violations of ...
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 12 hrs (2012-02-14 09:18:36 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
“Addressing Irregular Migration Through a Human Rights Based ... www.ohchr.org/.../StatementBN_HRBA_Irregular_Migration.pdf
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
1 Dec 2011 – their legal status. The strategy recognises that migrants in an irregular situation are more likely to face discrimination, exclusion, exploitation ...
liz askew United Kingdom Local time: 06:32 Meets criteria Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 60
Explanation: Irregular situation in English means undocumented and it is the term used by UNICEF, but “situación irregular” in Spanish does not make reference to that. Your explanation and the context provided make it very clear.
The reason why I thought of “disparate” is because I was thinking of children who are in a situation that is different than your average child
-situación irregular versus situación regular, situación dispar
RAE
dispar: 1. adj. Desigual, diferente.
Here is a simple definition of disparate that I really like:
Disparate describes things that are different from each other, especially when the differences are dramatic http://www.yourdictionary.com/disparate
Here are some examples of the word in context:
•Framing the relationship between institutional and structural racism and disparate treatment raises awareness about how and why disproportionality occurs in public child welfare and the role the system can play to eliminate disparate practices within the agency. http://ppcwg.org/disparity-disproportionality-overview.html
Disparate education and child abuse
Issues of unequal education opportunities, forced child labor, and child abuse are closely related—they are the reactions to a breakdown of economic opportunities http://www.oneheartsource.org/about/disparate.html
Reference: Some authors translate it literally between quotation marks
Reference information: See ref., for example. This context does not refer to migrants ('undocumented'), but rather to minors in a vulnerable position due to abandonment or "material or moral danger", as defined, for ex., in Argentina (second ref). Guardianship or custody is a particular case in point, since children without guardians automatically come under state protection, which tends to lump them into institutions of a more punitive type.
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +1
