Communication brokering in immigrant families: Avenues for new research

Abstract

This chapter aims to fill a gap in the literature on family communication by examining communication brokering, defined as third-party involvement in mediating communication between other participants (Ng, He, & Loong, 2004). Moving beyond the general trend of examining how immigrant children and youth mediate their parents' communication with the receiving society, the aim here is to widen the idea of communication brokering to address patterns of mediation inside immigrant families. Based on an analysis of unanticipated results from four separate qualitative studies of immigrant parenting and intergenerational relationships in Toronto, Canada, this chapter brings attention to three areas of familial communication brokering, suggesting that (1) the separation from extended family results in the development of new communication brokering patterns in immigrant families, (2) changes in customary age-and gender-based power relations may not necessarily result in shifts in traditional communication brokering patterns postmigration, and (3) a disruption of the traditional male breadwinner role may result in withdrawal of immigrant men from direct communication, lending support to the "deficit model" of immigrant fatherhood.