Kids in the Middle. How Children of Immigrants Negotiate Community Interactions for Their Families

Citation

Sara Bojarczuk (2015), "Kids in the Middle. How Children of Immigrants Negotiate Community Interactions for Their Families", International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 299-300. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMHSC-11-2014-0045

“Kids in the middle” examines how brokering performed by children of immigrants influence the crucial relations between children, their families and local community. By using the example of Latino Families in southern California, Katz analyses how complex yet vital set of interactions and elements of children’s reality allow migrant families to survive and function. The author shows the critical role that immigrant youth play in facilitating access to new media, health services and other services for their family that enable them to interact with their local environments.

The author employs multi-methodological approach that provides original, informative and in-depth insights into the realities of immigrant families in Crenshaw. She examines how children influence their families’ social incorporation into the host society by facilitating communication among schools staff, healthcare providers and social services. These are the most important local connections that immigrant families make with the native population. Additionally, Katz explores how children interact with new media and technology to foster communications with American popular culture.

Central to the book is the analysis of the role of children as brokers, their experiences and the challenges they face in engaging in multi-levelled interactions. The book brings to the fore the importance of trust onto those children and awareness of the role they play in mediating social relations. Despite being widely observed in the public sphere, interactions that children mediate with local institutions do not begin in the public setting, but they originate at home. Katz’s main argument is that brokering activities are shaped by domestic activities. The space within the family home plays an important role in understanding how children and their families interact with the community.

First, family systems perspective is employed to examine children’s engagement with their families and external environments, and the process through which the individual (child) negotiates tensions and assesses one’s place in the system. Children use their proficiency of English, use of media and familiarity with US popular culture to develop their own strategies and to make use of available resources to help their families to make informed decisions. Children’ role as brokers has its limits. To address employment or health issues affecting parents or grandparents is often beyond children’ capability. Through multi-directional “scaffolding” of activities family members learn from each other, combine their collective skills and knowledge to enhance decision making and family outcomes. Such activities, affected (and affected by) children constitute an important compound in negotiating family change and stability.

Children also help other adult migrants to negotiate access to services, strengthening general reciprocity and community building.

Further, Katz addresses the needs and multi-layered challenges arising from interactions with healthcare and social services. These interactions constitute a space for families to access resources and services that provide security and social mobility. The book shows that service providers are not sufficiently resourced and staff adequately trained to communicate with immigrant families. Without adequate language support, English speaking professionals cannot communicate with parents, but rely mainly on children’s as interpreters. Children who need to mediate on behalf of their families are under pressure. They may find themselves unable to perform this role due to language limitations (medical vocabulary) or feel uncomfortable due to their social positioning as children operating in adults’ situation. Parents’ need to rely on their children to navigate through complex systems (healthcare in particular) may not be an ideal solution, but probably the only one available. Thus, brokering becomes an expression of love and loyalty as well as a responsibility.

The complex role of children’ brokering in the connections negotiating with local school is examined. Although children’s educational attainment is perceived as a way of repaying their parents’ sacrifices, children’s brokering responsibilities as brokers often lead to poor educational performance because of the lack of time to study and lack of parental support in learning due to the language barriers. Furthermore, parents often depend on their children to provide education-related support for themselves and their younger siblings. Thus, at the individual level, within the family and at school children face constrains on their educational advancement that are directly related to their essential duty of acting as brokers for their family.

Katz concludes by providing a set of recommendations for how local institutions and service providers might support and assist immigrant children in completing their brokers’ responsibilities. The book, which is based on extensive fieldwork, provides innovative and important insights into children’s contribution to their family and community.