Many contemporary novels belonging to migration literature provide an insight into the language spoken by immigrants, which can cause problems in translation. In Rue des Italiens by Girolamo Santocono (1986) and Les amandes amères by Laurence Cossé (2011), this “interlanguage” is represented in distinct ways both in the French original and the Italian translation. An analysis conducted from different perspectives (translation studies, sociolinguistics, and language acquisition research) has proved useful for a better understanding of these works and their linguistic, translational, and (inter)cultural issues. This knowledge makes it possible to understand the linguistic mechanisms represented and their function in the context of the original aesthetic projects, both of which underpinned by a desire to give a voice to speakers who are marginalised by their social background and geographico-cultural origin. The Italian translations of these two novels achieve an effect of distance in diverse ways that characterizes immigrant speakers. Rue des Italiens (2006) retains the impression of a hybrid language, without being systematic and without concern for the target audience. Mandorle amare (2012) seeks a more global equivalence, which sounds more credible and effective to Italian-speaking readers. It seems to us that language acquisition research can foster awareness on the part of translators, providing them with interpretation tools and more adequate means of treating interlanguage as represented in a literary work, avoiding arbitrariness, improvisation and caricature.