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

Abstract

Immigrant children in the US often learn English before their adult caretakers, leading them to take on the role of day-to-day translators (“language brokers”). This study explores the familial socialization of immigrant, linguistic-minority families in the US by drawing on deductive-inductive thematic analysis of fourteen in-depth, semi-structured interviews with Asian-American and Latinx young adult language brokers reflecting on how this role shaped their childhoods and prepared them for their adulthoods. The bulk of interviewees experienced working-class childhoods. Despite this, respondents seemed to have experienced a family socialization model that reflected elements of both middle-class and working-class models. “Immigrant Linguistic Maturation” (ILM) consists of linguistic scaffolding in English and heritage languages, requisite verbal airtime, and engagement with authority figures while also leading children to hold adult knowledge, roles, and responsibilities. Racial and ethnic differences across brokers primarily lie in the actors involved in ILM socialization processes. Extended family, and especially grandparents, played a more active role in the ILM socialization of Asian-American brokers while in the case of Latinx brokers ILM socialization was primarily driven by parents, and in particular, mothers. The case of Asian American and Latinx language brokers calls attention to the importance of factors like immigrant background and linguistic marginalization in shaping familial socialization.