Child Language Brokering in Medical Contexts: Childhood, Responsibility and Immigrant Survival

Abstract

This thesis investigates the practice of child language brokering (CLB) within medical settings, exploring the tension between its practical necessity and the ethical risks it poses to immigrant families and healthcare systems. While Western paradigms often frame childhood as a period of passive dependence, this research utilizes an anthropological lens to position CLB as a sophisticated form of caregiving and "systemic labor" that children perform to bridge institutional gaps in language access. The research is grounded in ethnographic interviews with nine individuals, including physicians, parents, and former child language brokers. For the children involved, the experience is characterized by a duality of outcomes: while it can foster a robust sense of self-efficacy and agency, it also imposes significant cognitive and emotional burdens, particularly when navigating "adult-like" topics such as terminal diagnoses or reproductive health. Ultimately, this thesis argues that CLB should be understood not as a moral failing of individual families, but as a pragmatic community adaptation to structural exclusion. The study concludes by advocating for a model of care that expands professional interpretation services while acknowledging and supporting the unique contributions of young bilingual mediators.