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Coalition for Asian American
Children and Families
Presents
Time: 10AM to 12PM
Place: 25 West 43rd
Street, 18th Floor
between 5th & 6th
Avenues, Manhattan
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Online Notes
Recording
Voices: Stories
of Asian Pacific
American
Youth as
Language Brokers
in New York City
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A community
briefing to
release the
Coalition for
Asian American
Children and
Families’ newest
report on the
impacts of
language
brokering on
families and to
discuss the
implications on
policy and
practice.
Language
brokering is the
use of bilingual
youths as
translators and
interpreters in
daily situations
without any
special
training. The
increase use of
language brokers
in our community
impacts health,
education, and
human service
settings.
New York City’s
Asian Pacific
American
community has
doubled every
decade for the
last 30 years,
becoming the
most rapidly
expanding group
of the city and
accounting for
11 percent of
the city’s
population. Of
the
approximately
873,000 Asian
Pacific
Americans in New
York City, 78
percent are
foreign-born, 28
percent speak
little or no
English, and 53%
are born into
poverty.
Recording
Voices: Stories
of Asian Pacific
American Youth
as Language
Brokers in New
York City
provides a
clearer picture
of the impact of
language
brokering on the
Asian Pacific
American
community.
Speakers
Kleber Palma
Director, Translation and Interpretation Unit
New York City Department of Education
Stefanie Trice
Senior Director, Office of LEP / Culturally and Linguistically
Appropriate
Services (CLAS) NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC)
KEY FINDINGS:
Recording Voices
found that
Asian Pacific
American
families often
rely on children
and youth to be
translators and
interpreters
when accessing
public services.
While
other research
shows that there
are positive
impacts of being
a language
broker, youth
identified
negative impacts
including the 1)
increased burden
when providing
language
assistance; 2)
heightened
anxiety, stress,
and fear of
miscommunication;
3) conflict with
the family unit;
and 4)
role-reversal
between parents
and youth.
Youth who were
surveyed for the
policy brief
indicated that:
Ø
49% of youth translate
for their parents "always/a lot."
Ø
61% of foreign-born youth
translate "always/a lot", compared to 43% of native-born youth.
Ø
83% of youth translate
notes and letters from school.
Ø
49% of youth translate
forms from the doctor's office.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Of all racial groups in New York City, Asian
Pacific Americans have the highest rate of linguistic isolation (28%), meaning
that no one over the age of 14 in a household speaks English well. To support
Asian Pacific American language brokers and to promote equal access to essential
services, CACF makes the following recommendations:
Ø
Resources:
Increase funding for language assistance services
in public settings to improve access for Asian Pacific American, immigrant, and
linguistically diverse communities.
Ø
Monitoring:
Implement a monitoring system to ensure that
prompt and efficient language assistance services are being offered in all
public health, education, and human service systems.
Ø
Community Education:
Educate the Asian Pacific American
community on their rights to language assistance services.
Ø
Training:
Ensure that all individuals who have contact with
Asian Pacific American families are knowledgeable about the availability of
language assistance services and the procedures for accessing these services.
Ø
Collaboration:
Build partnerships with Asian Pacific American
led and serving community based organizations to promote language access.
Ø
Capacity Building:
Increase capacity of Asian led and
serving community based organizations to serve limited English proficient
individuals.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
If you are interested in learning more about
language brokers, you may want to see Childhood in Translation, a
documentary project about how immigrant families are affected by language
barriers and about how youth are often placed in the position of being
linguistic and cultural brokers for their families. The project includes
several short documentaries, and more information on the project and how to get
the DVD is available at
http://sojournfilmworks.com/projects/childhood/childhood.html and
http://migrationpolicy.org/languageportal.
Organizer:
Coalition for Asian American
Children and Families
Sponsored by
Asian
American / Asian
Research
Institute, CUNY
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