The report, entitled "Recording Voices: Stories of Asian-Pacific American Youth as Language Brokers in NYC," issued this week by the New York Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF), surveyed Asian-American youth in New York City and detailed the negative side-effects of translation responsibilities on children of immigrants.
New York has always been a city of immigrants, and since immigrant parents often have limited English abilities, many second-generation Asian-Pacific youngsters have had the experience of translating for their parents.
In the children's own words:
"Ever since second grade, I've read all of my family's mail. When we have to pay rent, I write the checks."
"I'm basically responsible for all my mom's credit card bills, health insurance bills and drug prescriptions."
The report surveyed children and parents of various ethnic groups, including Chinese, Bengalese, Filipinos, Koreans, and Vietnamese. Sixty-one percent of foreign-born youth, and 49 percent of youth respondents as a whole, said that they translate for their parents "always or a lot." Forty-three percent of American-born respondents said they translate for their parents. Eighty-three percent of youth said they translate their school's letters and bulletins; 49 percent said they translate forms from doctors' offices.
In addition to helping their parents, children of immigrant households also help interpret or translate for other relatives, as well as for teachers or doctors. They most often translate letters from school (83.1 percent); they also help translate telephone conversations, instructions for new appliances, bank mail, telephone bills, doctors' mail, credit-card bills, insurance bills, immigration forms, job applications, and leases.
Children have complex feelings about having to act as family translators, the report says. On one hand, they do a service for their families, come to better understand their parents and care more for them, develop self-confidence, and gain a better grasp of foreign languages. However, some children also feel pressured, stressed, troubled, confused, and feel as if they are switching roles with their parents, assuming the role of protector or guardian. Children begin to wonder who the child is and who the adult is in their family dynamic.
CACF Executive Director Wayne Ho says that when children of Asian immigrants are forced to bear the responsibility of translating, their lack of training may lead to unexpected negative consequences. To improve this situation, he says, City departments whose operations touch on residents' daily lives should offer translation assistance to immigrants.
The CACF called for translation services in public places, effective monitoring of quality of translation services, widened community education to make sure immigrants are aware of their rights to request translation, a guarantee that all city government functionaries can provide translation services to residents, better training for translators, stronger connections between community organizations in Asian-American communities, and improved language education.
