Translating Welfare: Language Brokering & Public Benefit Navigational Capital

• In Event: 30665 - Children, Youth & Work

Abstract

Youth in immigrant households play a pivotal role in facilitating access to institutions for their parents and family members by acting as informal translators, a function referred to as language brokering. In their role as language brokers, youth help their family members with limited English by translating conversations, information, and documents in a variety of settings including welfare offices, schools, stores, and in the home. While researchers have studied the process of language brokering, its effects on the family, and youth outcomes; little research has considered how the role of language brokering may impact a language broker’s ability to navigate and access institutions as individuals. This study seeks to understand the relationship between language brokering and individual navigational capital (Yosso 2006) by examining characteristics associated with receiving state public benefits among youth ages 18-34 in a predominately Latinx city in California. Using original data from UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center, I conduct a logistic regression analysis to predict the likelihood of receiving public benefits such as state health insurance, food stamps, and housing assistance. Results indicate that, net of controls, youth who engage in language brokering serves as a significant indicator for facilitating individual access to public benefits. This research complicates the nature of language brokering by examining how language brokers may extend their brokering skills as a form of capital to demystify bureaucratic processes and institutions to access public benefits as a resource for themselves.

Author

• Victoria Maria Ciudad-Real, University of California-Irvine