Policy Briefs: Immigrant Families and Workers

This brief summarizes the findings of the report, "The Health and Well-Being of Young Children of Immigrants", which focuses on the 5.1 million children of immigrants under age 6 in the United States. Young children of immigrants with two parents are three times as likely to be poor as children of natives, and so marriage is not an antidote to poverty for these children. Despite higher economic hardship, young children of immigrants are less likely than native counterparts to receive TANF, food stamps, or housing assistance. They are also less likely to be in center-based child care, potentially limiting their preparation for schooling.

Immigrants make up one in nine U.S. residents, one in seven U.S. workers, and one in five low-wage workers. Immigrants are overrepresented among both low-wage and less educated U.S. workers. Since so many immigrants work and so many hold low-wage jobs, they could potentially benefit from post- as well as pre-employment services. Unfortunately, most publicly funded training programs assume that participants have 9th grade levels of literacy, numeracy, and basic English skills. This brief recommends revamping the Workforce Investment Act and tailoring job-training programs to serve limited English proficient populations, build language assessment capacity, and combine job training with English language, basic education, and literacy instruction.

This brief, based on data from the Current Population Survey, examines changes in the number of naturalized citizens and rates of naturalization. It also explores the number and characteristics of immigrants in the U.S. who are now or will soon be eligible to naturalize, comparing them to recently naturalized immigrants. In addition to national estimates, the brief provides estimates of the recently naturalized and eligible populations for the 50 states and District of Columbia. [View the corresponding press release]

The U.S. immigrant population grew rapidly during the 1990s, with growth rates especially high across a wide band of states in the Southeast, Midwest, and Rocky Mountain regions--many of which have not received significant numbers of new immigrants for over a century. At the same time, the overall share of the immigrant population living in the six "major destination" states declined significantly.

Despite their strong attachment to the labor force, large numbers of immigrants and their families in New York and Los Angeles have low incomes, lack health insurance, and are food insecure. The most powerful predictor of poverty and hardship is their limited English skills. Legal immigrants arriving after welfare reform's enactment in 1996--who have the most restricted access to public benefits--are poorer than immigrants arriving before the law's enactment.