Lost in translation: the impacts of the language brokering process on the sociolinguistic identities of Arabic-speaking immigrants and refugees

This project contributes to the sociolinguistic literature surrounding language brokering by examining the following research questions: how do Arabic and English-speaking immigrants and refugees construct their sociolinguistic and cultural identities? How have their experiences with language brokering influenced the formation of these identities? And what role has language brokering played in their language attitudes and experiences as immigrants and refugees? To respond to these questions, five participants—all bilingual Arabic and English-speaking immigrants and refugees—were invited to share their stories, experiences, and language attitudes via demographic surveys and interviews. The results indicate that the language brokering process can further complicate an already-complex acculturation environment for newly arrived or recently resettled families. All five participants, having language brokered at least once for their families in the past, described nuanced, synchronous developments of their social and cultural identities as Arabs and Arab- Americans. For some participants, who already structured much of their identities around the languages they spoke, serving as a language broker effectively strengthened and validated these identities. For others, the process and its challenges prompted a great deal of self-contemplation as they endeavored to preserve their heritage cultures while coming of age in a new one. To the participants of this study, language brokering reflected a sense of pride, a family bond, a burden, a natural reflex, a way of giving back, and an extension of the Arabic language and Arab culture from one communicative context to another