Representing foreign-born clients adds another dimension of understanding and adapting to different cultural norms. A distinct feature of practicing immigration law, especially as part of a refugee resettlement agency, is finding myself not speaking the same language as my clients or figuring out a common ground just to get started. Not only am I communicating with people of various and vastly different backgrounds, but I also must adapt to several different cultures. Many of the refugees and recent immigrants I serve are only beginning to understand their rights and responsibilities and get accustomed to our formalities.

Misperceived Habits

When I first started to practice immigration law, I noticed several people, particularly from Central America and Haiti, would arrive without appointments or would be frequently late to their appointments. Some of these people had just arrived in the United States a few weeks ago, while others had lived in Indiana for several years. I first saw these behaviors as a problem, but they would not change even after we held people to our standard of scheduling appointments. Instead, I had come to realize the habits of walk-ins and arriving late are not, as I perceived, a problem of impatience or rudeness. I asked individual clients about these tendencies and even researched about the most frequent countries of origin’s cultures. In Haiti and much of Latin America, it is acceptable to walk in anywhere without an appointment. It is also socially acceptable to arrive late to appointments, as people in these countries understand a scheduled time to refer to an estimate rather than an actual point. For example, meeting at “3:00 p.m.” allows flexibility to arrive at 3:20 p.m. without being late. As it turns out, people arriving without an appointment or late were not being rude. They were just following what is normal in the cultures in which they were molded.

Now You’re Speaking My Language

One issue I run into commonly when communicating with non-English speaking clients is how we should hold our conversations. I had previously been able to conduct our services in common languages among our clientele, thinking of needing to save the expense of hiring an interpreter. I formerly assumed if someone claims they can speak English or another common language between us, we can communicate. However, I felt the need to adapt and always ask for the preferred language of a potential client and to provide an interpreter if needed.

As I came to find out, just because someone says they can speak a language does not mean they truly understand it. I have a couple of examples of interactions that show the necessity of communicating in the language that is best for a client to understand. After my first few interactions with some recently arrived Haitian migrants, for example, I realized several wanted to speak to me in Spanish, a language shared among my staff and myself. Many began speaking in Spanish and claimed they can speak in this language, so I assumed we could. However, I quickly realized in my interactions during our legal consultations that their Spanish was a bit off. They were mixing in foreign words or were speaking in an unusual fashion. Was it best to continue in a language I knew?

While it seems easiest to converse in a common language, the goal should not be that a lawyer understands the conversation, but that a potential client does. I do not like any of my clients or prospective clients walking outside the door with any sense of confusion. I had also witnessed this issue before when I had a few people from Guatemala and Peru who insisted we speak in Spanish, but I discovered they were struggling in that language. Many times, people just nodded their head and said to continue, but they asked to repeat things several times or did not answer some questions. Not wanting them to feel discomfort, I asked for their primary language at home or with family members and asked if they wanted to have my words said in their home language. It was revealed their primary language was an indigenous language that was shamed in their countries. I found something similar among the recently arrived Haitian potential clients who spoke in Spanish. Many of the people I had spoken to had resided abroad in South America and were required to speak Spanish in public. Their native language, Creole, was seen as something inferior and they were pressured not to speak it.