We recently interviewed Dr. Hyeyoung Kwon, Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, to discuss her new book, Language Brokers: Children of Immigrants Translating Inequality and Belonging for Their Families, including key takeaways, what motivated the study, and reflections on the research process.
An Interview with Dr. Hyeyoung Kwon
Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Dr. Kwon: I’m an Assistant Professor of Sociology and a faculty affiliate with the Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society and Asian American Studies at Indiana University. My research focuses on race, immigration, families, gender, and children and youth. For my research, I take a comparative and intersectional approach to explore the politics of inclusion and exclusion, examining how different racialized and gendered meanings of immigrants contribute to their access to resources and shape how immigrants navigate institutions to support their well-being. I use qualitative methods to explore these processes.
You recently published your first book, Language Brokers: Children of Immigrants Translating Inequality and Belonging for the Families. Congrats! Could you give a brief synopsis of the book?
Dr. Kwon: Sure! In a country without a strong social safety net, families often have to find their own solutions to structural challenges. While much research focuses on how adults—especially mothers—navigate these gaps, Language Brokers shifts the spotlight to bilingual children who take on the critical role of securing resources for their families.
Drawing on interviews with working-class Mexican and Korean American language brokers, as well as healthcare providers, and months of observation at a Southern California police station, this book reveals that these children are doing far more than translating words. Living at the intersection of multiple forms of inequality, they creatively use their “in-between” status to tackle systemic barriers and ensure their families’ basic social citizenship rights are upheld. Whether it’s interacting with teachers, social workers, landlords, doctors, or police officers, these young language brokers essentially ensure their families’ survival and well-being.
In today’s climate of racialized nativism, Language Brokers offers a critical look at American culture, exposing the contradictions between ideals of equality and the exclusion of immigrants. The book highlights that dichotomous and racialized understandings of “deserving” and “undeserving” immigrants, which are embedded in everyday interactions and institutional practices, inform how immigrant youth attempt to cultivate belonging for their families.
What motivated you to study this topic? What are the biggest misconceptions about children who translate for their parents?
Dr. Kwon: This project is both deeply sociological and personal. As an immigrant who migrated to the U.S. at age 14, I grew up using my bilingual skills to represent and speak for my immigrant parents and other family members. While I rarely questioned why I took on this role, there were moments when I felt the injustice and frustration of navigating different institutions. These experiences ultimately inspired me to study the lives of others with similar backgrounds. I was also frustrated by how language brokers and their families are often portrayed in the media. Mainstream narratives describe child translators as “incompetent” for this responsibility, arguing that language brokering forces them to grow up too fast and miss out on a “normal childhood.” There’s also the assumption that it disrupts the parent-child dynamic and causes role reversal. But these portrayals miss a critical part of the story. They fail to capture the perspectives of the children doing this work or address the systemic inequalities that make it necessary in the first place.
When I started grad school, I noticed a similar gap in sociological research on immigration. Most studies focus on how children of immigrants assimilate into mainstream culture, often overlooking their contributions to their families and society, as well as how they resist social inequalities daily. Because we tend to think of child labor as a thing of the past or see children of immigrants as passive recipients of “American culture,” the vital role they play in their families and our society is often ignored.
As I delved deeper, I found frameworks that helped me better understand and analyze the multiple inequalities that working-class families of color face in the U.S. Scholars like Patricia Hill Collins, W.E.B. Du Bois, and bell hooks had a profound influence on me, showing how intersecting inequalities shape the lives of language brokers and how the margins can serve as spaces of resistance. By integrating the theory of intersectionality with the sociology of childhood, symbolic interactionism, social citizenship, and the sociology of culture, I began to recognize how young people use their unique social position and cultural knowledge to navigate racialized and gendered translation interactions, ultimately fostering a sense of belonging for their families in a society that marginalizes them.
Your data includes both interviews and ethnographic observations. What were some of the joys and challenges you experienced during the research process?
Dr. Kwon: The most rewarding part of writing this book was interviewing young language brokers. Their insights genuinely challenged the way I think about young people. Even as a sociologist of children and youth, I had underestimated their agency. But through these conversations, I came to realize that children’s social age is shaped by their circumstances, not just by chronological age. After speaking with 80 language brokers, I was determined to highlight their resilience, compassion, and capability. Despite facing numerous structural barriers, these young people took it upon themselves to navigate complex bureaucratic systems, solve social problems, and advocate for their families’ basic social citizenship rights.
The most challenging part of data collection was gaining police officers' perspectives. Initially, I intended to interview both police officers and healthcare providers, as children often mentioned that translating was hardest in medical and criminal justice settings. However, my first police interview ended abruptly when the officer said, “You tricked me. I thought you were gonna ask me about kids, not race.” I nearly gave up, but then I came across an ad for a bilingual interpreter at a police station in a diverse, low-income community. Their urgent need for a Korean speaker allowed me to get in, and I spent months observing officers and interpreting for immigrants. Unlike formal interviews, my observations and casual conversations with officers provided me with a deeper understanding of how institutions prioritize efficiency over equity. While this book primarily focuses on language brokers’ experiences and perspectives, my time at the station also reinforced that young people aren’t just translating words—they’re brokering belonging and social citizenship in a system that routinely fails immigrant families.
What are the main takeaways you would like readers, including the general public, to understand about language brokers and immigrant families?
Dr. Kwon: One of the key points in Language Brokers is how the lack of a solid social safety net makes it so much harder for immigrant families to access basic social citizenship rights. That’s why the book ends with practical solutions for shifting the responsibilities from children onto institutions—by advocating for fundamental rights like affordable healthcare, livable wages, child support, safe housing, and paid sick leave for everyone.
The book also stresses the importance of integrating children’s lived experiences into school curricula, especially since many language brokers juggle both family and school responsibilities. Rather than assuming all kids have plenty of free time or that caregiving falls solely on mothers—assumptions based on a White, middle-class model of childhood—educators could recognize and nourish the real-world skills these young people develop. Their problem-solving abilities and contributions to their families and communities deserve to be valued and supported.
Importantly, this doesn’t mean children should stop supporting their families. Rather, language brokers reframe their marginal social position as a potential source of strength. Their unique perspectives don’t help only their families. They fuel resistance and empowerment that ripple through entire communities. In other words, we need to recognize children’s work as real work and acknowledge how their contributions help build more inclusive and equitable institutions.
Meet the Researcher
Hyeyoung Kwon is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and a faculty affiliate in Asian American Studies. Her expertise includes race, immigration, families, gender, children and youth, and qualitative research. Kwon uses a comparative and intersectional approach to theorize the politics of inclusion and exclusion, exploring how racialized and gendered meanings of immigrants legitimize unequal resource distribution and shape how immigrants navigate different institutions to safeguard their well-being. Her work has appeared in leading journals, including the American Journal of Sociology, Social Problems, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, and Childhood. Kwon’s scholarship has been recognized with multiple awards and honorable mentions from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction and the American Sociological Association Sections on International Migration, Children and Youth, Race, Gender and Class, and Race and Ethnic minorities. Her book Language Brokers: Children of Immigrants Translating Inequality and Belonging for Their Family was published by Stanford University Press in 2024.
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