African immigrants say NYC language laws leave them behind
This story originally aired on Uptown Radio (March 30, 2018).
HOST INTRO:
HOST: New York City has some of the most comprehensive laws in the country when it comes to language translation for residents who are not fluent in English. The passage of Local Law 30 last year guaranteed New Yorkers the right to an interpreter when dealing with any government agency. But as Dan Rabb learned, many of the newest New Yorkers, especially those from African countries, are finding that these guarantees are not being met.
SOUND: Ambient from community meeting.
RABB 1: It may be a grey march evening outside the Dempsey Community Center on 127th street in Harlem, but inside the bleak cinder-block walls , one room brims with energy and the smell of spicy jollof rice, a West African favorite.
MEETING LEADER 1: Say your name, where you’re from, and how you greet someone in your language.
SOUND: People saying their language and the greeting.
RABB2: Tonight is the monthly meeting of African Communities Together, an immigration advocacy group. Members organized tonight’s meeting to address what many say is their greatest challenge — a lack of adequate translation services by city agencies.
KASA 1: If you speak Wolof, and you go to Harlem Hospital, and you say I need somebody to translate for me in Wolof, they are supposed to find you a person.
RABB 3: Amaha Kasa is the group’s founder. He was one of the major proponents of Local Law 30.
KASA 2: If you speak Madigo, and you have a parent teacher conference, they are supposed to find you someone.
RABB 4: But Kasa says just because government agencies are supposed to provide a translator, it doesn’t mean that they always do.
OLEME 1: I asked for one and they gave me Igbo, but Igbo’s not my language.
RABB 5: Ngozi Oleme is from Nigeria. Her kids attend PS 42 in the Bronx, and at a recent parent teacher conference, the school brought in a Nigerian translator. Oleme speaks Okwane. But the translator spoke Igbo. The school considered Okwane and Igbo dialects. But Oleme says they’re different languages, and she couldn’t understand her translator. She got so frustrated that she walked out of the meeting.
OLEME 2: When I’m saying something, the person is saying something different. He’s not understanding me, and I’m not getting it right. Since then, I’ve never asked for translation no more, because every time you ask the don’t give you what you ask for.
RABB 6: More than 73 thousand New Yorkers speak African languages at home, and nearly 70% of these residents have limited proficiency in English. Chauncy Young works with immigrant parents in the Bronx.
YOUNG 1: You see less African families participating in school-based events because there’s not language provided.
RABB 7: He says many New York City schools assume African parent all speak colonial languages like French. But, he says, typically only men, and only men from wealthier families, who are fluent in French or English.
YOUNG 2: The mothers of the African community are less proficient English speakers, and yet mothers are more engaged with the school than fathers.
RABB 8: Young says it’s the moms who tend to make healthcare decisions in African households. So a lack of qualified translators can mean problems at the clinic or doctor’s office for families too. The City only employs full-time translators for the most common African languages, like Wolof and Fulani. Activists like Malian born Naby Niambele say the city is not meeting the requirements of the law.
NIAMBELE 1: This is part of the borough’s job. This is part of the district’s job. This is part of the assembly person’s job. If you’re not doing this, you’re failing. And they’ve been failing us for a long time.
RABB 9: Chauncy Young and activists like Amaha Kasa give the city more credit, They say the quality of language services varies between different schools and city offices, and that’s to be expected less than a year after the law’s rollout. But they are also looking for ways to fill in the gaps. African Communities Together is building a language services coop, which it says will employ 11 full time translators.
Dan Rabb, Columbia Radio News
