Children of immigrants as “brokers” in an era of exclusion

Abstract

Today, immigrants and their families live in an era of exclusion. Threats of a southern border wall, increased detentions and deportations, false narratives of Mexicans as "rapists," attempts to eliminate Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and the implementation of penalties for immigrants who use social services are just some examples of the hostile climate immigrant families face. A growing body of literature suggests that children of immigrants help their parents in their transition to the US society as language, cultural, and legal brokers, which generally refers to when youth translate for and/or share resources with their immigrant kin. In this paper, I review the research on contemporary children of immigrants as "brokers" and how the punitive social context influences the way brokering takes place in immigrant families. I conclude with suggestions for future research in the study of brokering in immigrant families. K E Y W O R D S brokering, children of immigrants, immigrant families 1 | INTRODUCTION Sociologists have widely explored immigrants' adaptation to the US. Within this work, scholars highlight barriers that immigrants can face in their transition to US society. Such challenges often include learning the English language, accessing housing, applying for work, and acculturating to new cultural norms. A growing body of scholarship suggests that children of immigrants can assist their parents with these barriers (

Leveraging protections, navigating punishments: How adult children of undocumented immigrants mediate illegality in Latinx families

“…These negative consequences have prompted scholars to investigate how youth and their undocumented parents work together to navigate their legal vulnerability. Prior research establishes that youth can support their undocumented parents by taking on financial responsibilities, sharing legal resources, discerning when it is safe to share their parents' legal status with others, partaking in political mobilization, sponsoring parents for lawful permanent residency, avoiding interactions with police or Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, and stepping in when parents are deported (Abrego, 2019; Delgado, 2020a; Delgado, 2020b; García Valdivia, 2020; Getrich, 2019; Negrón‐Gonzales, 2014; Valdivia, 2021). However, we know less about how the immigration status of these youth shapes the support they can provide to their undocumented parents.…”

Family formation under the law: How immigration laws construct contemporary Latino/a immigrant families in the U.S.

“…Despite the shared undocumented status, the divergent experiences of illegality among youth and their parents can contribute to both solidary and tension among undocumented Latino/a families (Abrego, 2011(Abrego, , 2018. For instance, undocumented youth frequently use their language and navigational skills to help secure services or resources for their families as "brokers" (Delgado, 2020a). Undocumented youth may also share relevant policy updates with their undocumented parents from time to time (Delgado, 2020b).…”

The Immigrant Linguistic Maturation of Asian-American and Latinx Language Brokers

“…Child translators experienced both closeness to their parents and resented the "burden of knowledge" placed on them (Morales and Hanson 2005;Morales et al 2011). An example of this burden of knowledge is the overarching narrative of language brokers acting as "shields" and using their translation work to protect their non-English speaking family members from the "…humiliation, infantilization and mistreatment" (Orellana et al 2003: 22) immigrants often encounter in the world outside of the family (Delgado 2020;Morales and Hanson 2005). While these findings suggest that language brokering practice is mostly driven by the language brokers themselves, some have found that it is a joint endeavor between the broker children and their immigrant parents.…”