Week 4
One of the other GAIN interns and I are interviewing another client. Unlike in the previous interview, no one in the office is available to help translate, at least for the first 45 minutes, so we need to use a translation service over the phone. I’ve heard things about the phone translators, but I try to stay positive.
We get through introductions and explain what we’re doing with both the translator on speakerphone and the client himself, and then we jump into the details of his case. The other GAIN intern and I know a little about what happened to this asylum seeker from the I-589 in his file. The most important thing, the reason why he is claiming asylum here, is only loosely sketched out. He experienced persecution in his home country because he is gay. In order to establish the “nexus” element for his asylum claim - basically, demonstrating that being gay is at least part of the reason why people hurt him - we need to get details.
Between having the translator on speakerphone and the pauses as the translator decides how to phrase things, the interview is stilted from the start. As the questions become more personal, the conversation gets more awkward. Even simple, polite fillers are filtered through the speakerphone, adding distance between us and the person we are trying to help.
He starts to tell us about having slurs shouted at him in the street, when we hear, “Your call has been disconnected.” Hold music starts to play from the phone, and the other intern and I look at each other. “Does the music mean he’s coming back?” I ask. In answer, the music cuts off and the call ends.
We call back, hoping that maybe there was just a connection problem. The cell service can be a little spotty inside. The operator says that we can’t get the same translator back, but he does connect us to a new one. We introduce ourselves again, explain that we are working for a law office and that we’re interviewing a client, and try to jump back in to where we left off. We manage a few more questions using the new interpreter, but the client is only willing to share information about some incidents from when he was in high school. Then we hear, “Your call has been disconnected.”
While we wait for the next interpreter to come on the line, I feel like I should be able to explain what is going on and that the interpreters aren’t hanging up because they don’t want to hear about abuse - but I can’t even know that for certain, and I start to worry that the translators’ discomfort with the subject might make this conversation impossible.
Finally Estela is free to come translate for us. The difference between using the phone translator service and having a person in the room is stark. He opens up to her warmth quickly, sharing two decades’ worth of stories that he didn't even hint at when we were using the phone translator.
The next day, as I work on turning the notes from the interview into a cohesive story, I ask one of the GAIN attorneys if there are examples of statements from other survivors I can use for guidance. She finds a file and sends it to me, and then asks me a question. “Did you ask if he was in therapy or counseling?” I hadn’t. She asks me for his contact information and says that she will try to connect him with a charity that provides free psychological services.
It is so obviously the right response to learning that someone was abused that I am embarrassed that I didn’t think of it. I had been so deep in “lawyer” mode that I had forgotten to treat him like a person first. In trying to think of ways to frame his story to solve his potential legal issues, I neglected some of the more pressing issues in front of me. If I can take anything away from this week, it is the importance of making clients feel like you care and actually considering all of the clients' needs, not just their legal problem.