Children of migrant Deaf adults

Graduation (Image credit: Emily Pacheco)

During my Master of Research (MRes) studies, whenever I met someone new, they would often enquire about what I was doing for my thesis.

When I told them, I was doing research with hearing children of Deaf migrants, people would respond and say, “Wow, that is very specific, do you know anyone personally that applies to?”.

I would then proudly explain that I have Deaf parents whose families migrated to the U.S. and that I do know many wonderful people who also grew up using signed and spoken languages and experienced ‘interpreting’ for their parents. I always enjoy it when my thesis intrigues people, and oftentimes they express they had never thought about migrant Deaf-hearing families and all the languages that could be used in interactions with them.

Because of my identity as a Coda (child of Deaf adults), occasionally a viral clip will be sent to me, or I will stumble across ones like these that captures a hearing child ‘interpreting’ for their Deaf parent:

• “Daddy’s Little Interpreter”
• “Fantastic’ 4-year-old uses sign language to interpret movie for deaf parents, wins hearts online”

The children in the viral clips above are acting as sign language brokers, and this practice is one part of what my thesis investigated.

In my thesis, I created and used the term Comda (child of migrant Deaf adults) to focus on the brokering and heritage language maintenance experiences of participants in their migrant Deaf-hearing families.

By creating the term Comda in my MRes research, this population was explicitly researched for the first time. My study found that Comdas broker frequently inside and outside the home. In the family, multilingual practices led to Comdas feeling conflicted with both emotions of linguistic pride and linguistic burden. Linguistic pride stemmed from praise given by family members to Comdas who maintain sign language use in their multilingual repertoires. Some also felt pride in keeping the connections to their Deaf and cultural heritages through their multilingualism.

However, at times, they experienced their multilingualism as a double-edged sword. While it brought pride, it also constituted a linguistic burden in the family when Comdas felt their hearing family members were not putting in the expected effort, as they had, to communicate with Deaf family members.

In institutional settings outside of the home, Comdas broker in low and high-stakes contexts. Comdas enjoyed brokering in low-stakes contexts (telephone conversations, restaurants, and shops) but felt pressure in high-stakes contexts (legal or medical environments). In addition to brokering in these contexts, Comdas’ multilingual experiences also led them to broker for other Deaf migrants in their communities.

Through uncovering the brokering experiences summarised above, I found Comdas valued them and felt brokering supported their multilingualism. By highlighting this positive impact, the skills Comdas can develop through brokering in their families in low-stakes institutional contexts can in turn support their future interactions with multilingual Deaf communities.

Additionally, my study found that the family language policies of migrant Deaf-hearing families are nuanced, as evidenced by the multilingual repertoires present in Comdas’ lives. Their multilingualism presented mixing of a spoken and signed language or two signed languages, which was commonly done by their parents and themselves. This language mixing practice was normal in their upbringings, and Comdas had to learn to separate these languages in formal institutions. The language acquisition of Comdas was not clear cut as to which languages came first in their upbringings. Comdas reflected a holistic and interconnected use of signed and spoken languages which was learned through brokering for their migrant Deaf parents.

Through my analysis and uncovering Comdas’ unique linguistic experiences, we can further understand the languaging skills they develop and how Comdas overcome audism by possessing a multilingual mindset (Lising, 2024). This resilience supports the intersection of brokering and heritage language maintenance.

The full thesis can be downloaded here: Sign Language Brokering and Heritage Language Maintenance Among Hearing Children of Deaf Migrant Parents

References

Lising, L. (2024). Multilingual mindset: A necessary concept for fostering inclusive multilingualism in migrant societies. AILA Review, 37(1), 35–53. https://doi.org/10.1075/aila.23023.lis