Arab Americans’ Brokering in a Context of Tension and Stereotypes

Child language brokering as a family care practice: Reframing the ‘parentified child’ debate

“…Evidence suggests that in public spaces, language brokers are aware of the burdens and responsibilities they carry, but these are not necessarily directed towards parents. They could equally be associated with the racialised slurs or micro-aggressions they experienced from others in the public sphere, which in turn shaped the communication with their parents (Nash, 2017). These kinds of tensions and challenges are rarely taken into account in research on the parentified child within language brokering literature, though it is raised within the field more generally (Guan et al, 2016).…”

“…Equally, it is important to recognise that care responsibilities and relationships such as those experienced by child language brokers can be challenging and difficult to navigate (Nash, 2017; Reynolds & Orellana, 2009). Caring for others and being cared for by others involves emotional labour and entanglements (Milligan & Wiles, 2010; Tronto, 1993) that may be associated with strains, stressors, and conflicts; pride, accomplishment and self‐worth.…”

“…In addition to these important debates, this paper argues that these issues need to be considered against context‐specific concerns when, for example, language brokering takes place in a hostile socio‐political landscape, where young people and their families might be subject to racialised micro‐aggressions (Nash, 2017; Reynolds & Orellana, 2009) or be living in difficult circumstances (Kwon, 2014). In these situations, the language broker may be mediating between their family members and an adult ‘other’ who is in a position of authority or power (Ceccoli, 2020; García‐Sánchez, 2018).…”

The Contact Zone and Dialogical Positionalities in “Non-Normative” Childhoods: How Children Who Language Broker Manage Conflict

“…Scholars have argued that brokering in public spaces heightens stigmas, stereotypes, and racialized practices, which the language brokers navigate when they are translating (Nash, 2017; Reynolds & Orellana, 2009). Such encounters foreground for the young person their sense of “otherness” of the “other,” because of both their “immigrant” status and their “child” status.…”

“…In this article, we use the concept of "contact zones," framed by a dialogical approach as conceptual and analytic tools (Hermans, 2001a(Hermans, , 2003Pratt, 1991), for examining the different positionalities young people say they take as they navigate or manage difficult or conflictual situations, through the presentation of qualitative vignette interviews in the United Kingdom. Young people who language broker sometimes find themselves in a position of having to navigate and manage difficult or conflictual conversations between their family members and another adult, who is usually in a position of authority (Nash, 2017). Language brokering involves translating and interpreting for family members, members of the local community, and peers, following migration.…”