Brokering Invisible Borders: Understanding Gatekeeping Interactions between International Graduate Students and Local Immigrant Populations

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 11:45 am - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: (Re)Imagining Language, Identity, and Belonging Across Transnational Contexts

Abstract

This research investigated small stories (Georgakopoulou, 2015) that emerged from University-Community partnerships, specifically those in which international university students played a role in “gatekeeping” interactions (Erickson & Schultz, 1982; Tranekjær, 2015). In these encounters, international students used multiple languages and communicative strategies, acting as “language and culture brokers” (Orellana, 2009) to facilitate community members’ access to services and educational opportunities. The success or failure of these gatekeeping interactions, which are often woven with multilingual complexities, can affect whether immigrants receive services from community-based organizations. The data presented builds a portrait of the interactions of international graduate students at immigrant-serving organizations and documents a link between these interactions and the support services offered, with implications for facilitating mutually beneficial university-community engagement.

Authors

• Betsy R. Rymes, University of Pennsylvania

• Sydney Negus, University of Pennsylvania