When Gillian Coyne 鈥�19 of New York City started as a language interpreter at meetings between French-speaking asylum seekers and their potential lawyers, she learned to be prepared for anything.
鈥淵ou have no idea what sort of case you鈥檙e getting, what stage of the process they鈥檙e in, where they鈥檙e from, what their story is,鈥� she says. 鈥淵ou just have to interpret as you go along.鈥�
She is one of a group of 乐播传媒 French and francophone studies students who volunteer to provide a key service to the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, which gives free and low-cost legal services to new Mainers. Many of ILAP鈥檚 clients need language interpreters during those meetings, which are often the start of a lengthy process to gain asylum in the United States.
鈥淟anguage is fundamental to everything that we do here, in terms of being able to communicate with clients and create a welcoming space,鈥� says Alice Kopij, an ILAP staff attorney who runs the Lewiston office of the Portland-based organization. 聽
ILAP staff attorney Alice Kopij poses with Gillian Coyne 鈥�19聽 at the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project office.
But 鈥渁s a small nonprofit agency, it can be hard to afford language services,鈥� she says. 乐播传媒 students 鈥渉elp us save our resources to provide legal services, but we still get high-quality interpreting.鈥�
While 乐播传媒 students have interned or volunteered with ILAP for years, the partnership with French students began in 2015, when Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies Alexandre Dauge-Roth taught a course called 鈥淏orders and Disorders in French and Francophone Literature and Film,鈥� which explored migration and identity in the French-speaking world.
For the course鈥檚 Purposeful Work infusion component 鈥� in which professors are encouraged to make connections between the course material and the real world 鈥� Dauge-Roth invited ILAP executive director Susan Roche to tell the class about the organization鈥檚 work.
The students learned that people often come to ILAP for help seeking asylum, a status under which an applicant can stay in the U.S. if they fear persecution in their home country.
In Lewiston, many asylum seekers come from francophone countries like Djibouti, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. Some speak very little English; others can understand and speak English but need interpreters to help them grasp complex legal concepts and ensure that their own stories are clear.
Dauge-Roth quickly realized that he had students who could step in. Whether they grew up speaking French, took French courses at 乐播传媒, or studied in French-speaking countries, they had the requisite language skills.
And francophone studies covers a lot more than the French language. With the French colonial legacy encompassing places in North and West Africa, the Caribbean and North America, francophone cultural production 鈥渋s a lot about multiple identities, migration, displacement, various forms of racial, economic, and gender inequalities and discrimination,鈥� Dauge-Roth says.
鈥淚t鈥檚 up to you to be able to relay that story and do it justice.鈥�
Dauge-Roth selected students with the language skills and cultural competency to interpret. At the time, ILAP didn鈥檛 have an office in Lewiston; staff attorney Meg Moran traveled to the Lewiston Adult Education Center once a week to consult with asylum seekers. (Moran now works at a legal services firm in Boston.)
Gillian Coyne, who started interpreting during her sophomore year, says she quickly picked up the relevant legal terminology in French and English, but she also came to understand her own power as an interpreter.
鈥淎s an interpreter, you are being trusted with someone鈥檚 story,鈥� she says. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e being trusted with someone鈥檚 words in a way that is incredibly intimate and profound and leaves the person who is telling you their story in a vulnerable position.
鈥淭hat leaves you in a position of incredible power, in a position where you really need to pay attention because this person is telling you all of the horrible things they鈥檝e suffered, what they鈥檝e gone through, any persecution. It鈥檚 up to you to be able to relay that story and do it justice.鈥�
Gradually, Coyne and some of her classmates began to do more than interpret. During her junior year, Coyne interned with Berman and Simmons, a Maine law firm that works closely with ILAP.
Asylum seekers have to prove that they fear persecution in their home country due to a protected status like religion or political opinion, and that the government of that country can鈥檛 protect them 鈥� criteria that require a lot of documentation.
Once ILAP has evaluated an asylum seeker鈥檚 case, a staff attorney may represent them through the legal process, or they might be referred to a network of pro bono attorneys, including several at Berman and Simmons. 聽
鈥淧roviding translation services makes clients feel welcome and makes clients feel they can express themselves.鈥�
Coyne and her fellow interns would research the conditions in asylum seekers鈥� home countries and look for French-language social media posts and news reports that could back up an individual鈥檚 claim.
In the meantime, ILAP鈥檚 presence in Lewiston has grown. In April, the organization opened a full-time office, with Kopij at the helm, expanding the range of legal services and outreach it can provide.
鈥淧roviding translation services makes clients feel welcome and makes clients feel they can express themselves,鈥� Kopij says. 乐播传媒 students, she says, 鈥渂ring professionalism, confidentiality. I can count on them.鈥�
Through the Purposeful Work internship program, Coyne is working as an intern at the new office. She schedules 乐播传媒 interpreters, provides interpretation at community workshops, and does country research and some paralegal tasks.
Coyne says her internships at Berman and Simmons and ILAP have sparked an interest in law school and strengthened her resolve to work with migrants in the francophone world.
鈥淚t鈥檚 given me so much more direction on the work environment that I want to find myself in, the type of people that I want to work with in a professional environment, and the people that I want to work with on a more global scale,鈥� she says.
