Research & Service

Of the 17.2 million children in the U.S. with a foreign-born parent, 4.2 million live in poverty. These children are significantly more likely to live with parents who are married and employed than their counterparts whose parents are native born and they are less likely to receive food stamps, even if they qualify for them. These characteristics of immigrant families, are among those explored in two new publications from the National Center for Children in Poverty, a research center at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.

"Our findings suggest that child poverty in immigrant families is not necessarily linked to joblessness; rather, it more closely reflects the dark side of low-wage work and the related barriers to valuable work supports," says  Vanessa Wight, PhD, lead author of the NCCP brief, Poor Children by Parents' Nativity: What Do We Know? "This poses a significant policy challenge, as poverty and other material hardships can have deleterious effects on a child's long-term health and wellbeing."

Among the findings about poor children of immigrant parents:

• They are more likely than their native-born counterparts to live in households where at least one parent works full time, year round.
• They are less likely to receive food stamps (SNAP) than poor children of native-born parents (fewer than one-half receive the benefit, compared to two-thirds of the poor children in native-born households).
• The percentage of children living with immigrant families is on the rise – increasing from 16.1 million in 2006 to 17.2 million in 2009.
• Most of the children in immigrant families have at least one parent who has resided in the U.S. for 10 or more years.
• While a little over one quarter of native-born poor children have married parents, twice as many poor immigrant children have married parents.

According to NCCP's related paper, SNAP Take-up Among Immigrant Families with Children, many working immigrant families are still struggling within the system to access benefits they are legally entitled to. The report details a variety of possible reasons SNAP (or food stamp) participation is low among qualified immigrant families, including a lack of information about eligibility, complications involved with verifying qualifications for the benefit, and the overall stigma attached – especially pronounced feelings of not wanting to be a burden on society.

The paper notes that two important policy reforms for state program administrators could help improve the participation rate of immigrant families in the SNAP benefit:

• Increase outreach efforts to inform immigrant communities about the SNAP program. Many eligible immigrant families believe they do not qualify for this important benefit, but state efforts to reach the nearly two million eligible but non-participating children in immigrant families are modest or non-existent.
• Make it easier for working parents to participate in the program by easing burdensome administrative requirements. For example, program certification periods should be lengthened, and resource and income limits liberalized.

The new NCCP publications are available online.

May 9, 2011