Child Language Brokering in Healthcare: Exploring the Intersection of Power and Age in Mediation Practices

Abstract

This paper aims to explore young people’s perspectives of a real-life scenario of child language brokering in a healthcare setting (the doctor’s office), when the topic of discussion is sensitive and potentially conflictual. Child Language brokers are migrant young people who translate and interpret for family members, peers and the local community. Often the spaces in which children broker (e.g., healthcare, banks), referred to here as a ‘contact zone’, are dominated by adults in positions of authority and unequal power differentials. The language broker and those for whom they are brokering may be in a less powerful position because of their migration status and/or age status. Existing research has focused mainly from the view of adults and young people’s perspectives on the practice are underexplored. We draw the existing literature to explore how brokers understand the wider societal context and the strategies they employ to manage conflict. Findings are presented from 29 individual qualitative vignette-based interviews with language brokers (aged 13–16) in the United Kingdom which were qualitatively analysed. Findings show how these children play a vital role in protecting those for whom they broker, often navigating sophisticated social interactions and tactics (such as delay and selective modification). Equally, they carry a weight of responsibility trying to manage complicated, perhaps morally questionable, situations. By asking brokers to reflect on a real-life healthcare scenario, we are advancing understanding of migrant youth brokers and the families they support in their day to day lives.