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Home » Misc » How many child immigrants are in the us

How many child immigrants are in the us


The State of America's Children 2021

The State of America’s Children 2021 – Immigrant ChildrenBen Dawson2021-03-28T18:49:05-05:00

Immigrant Children

1 in 4
CHILDREN IN THE U.S.— APPROXIMATELY 18 MILLION—ARE CHILDREN OF IMMIGRANTS.

Immigrants are a part of our families, workplaces, and houses of worship. They are friends and neighbors woven into the fabric of our communities. Critically, they are parents tucking children into bed each night.1 More than 1 in 4 (26 percent), or approximately 18 million, U.S. children lived with at least one immigrant parent in 2018.2 For America to flourish and prosper, we must commit to policies that promote all children’s well-being and center children of immigrants in these policies.

In direct opposition to children’s well-being, the Trump administration’s four-year legacy of dangerous, reckless policy choices has created a climate of confusion, fear, and impossible choices. The administration continuously attacked family unity, a foundational principle of child welfare protected by the U.S. Constitution.3

  • Family separation is dangerous to children’s health, development, and well-being.4 Yet during the enforcement of the administration’s Zero Tolerance policy between April and June 2018, the government took 4,500 children from their parents.5 Although a court order forced the administration to end the policy in June 2018, 1,100 more children were taken from their parents between June 2018 and November 2019.6 As of October 2020, the parents of 545 children taken from their families cannot be found.7
  • Family separation is still happening. Today, there are fresh threats of separations due to the Remain in Mexico program, which has trapped nearly 60,000 people in terrible conditions at the U.S. border as they are forced to wait for their immigration proceedings in Mexico.8 Parents are faced with the impossible choice between an indefinite wait in dangerous tent camps and sending their children alone across the border. 9
  • Parents detained together with their children in the U.S. have also faced family separation. In May 2020, families told their lawyers that ICE officers asked them to make the unconscionable choice of either separating from their children or staying in indefinite detention during a global pandemic.10

Family separation as well as the battle over the border wall and who will pay for it have been highly visible horrors, but the Trump administration’s less visible shifts in regulatory and executive action also erected barriers to critical, life-saving benefits and services, affecting the lives of millions in the U.S.11 What does that “invisible wall” look like?

A hungry child.

  • Fear and confusion—known as the chilling effect—over intentionally complex Trump administration “public charge” regulations are causing families to disenroll or forgo health care, nutrition, public service, and other economic support programs.12 For example, between 2016-2019, Texas experienced a precipitous drop in enrollment in benefit programs,13 including a 13. 5 percent drop in SNAP enrollment between December 2017 and April 2019.14 A qualitative study of 32 geographically diverse organizations in Texas by CDF-Texas found that anti-immigrant policies such as public charge caused many mixed-status families to fear enrolling even their citizen children.15
  • A nationally representative survey found that 11.4 percent of adults in immigrant families with children reported they or a family member avoided a nutrition program (SNAP or WIC) in 2019.16

A child without access to health care.

  • More than 1 in 4 immigrant children did not have health coverage in 2019 (25.5 percent compared to 5.1 percent of native-born citizen children).17
  • As of January 2020, 35 states and the District of Columbia provided health coverage to lawfully residing immigrant children without a five-year wait,18 and as of July 2019, six states and the District of Columbia use state-only funds to provide Medicaid coverage to income-eligible children regardless of immigration status. 19

A scared child.

  • Children’s feelings of personal safety are linked to the perceived safety of those who care for them.20 Chronic uncertainty and distress about the threat of enforcement activity destroy children’s sense of safety and their mental health.21 The Trump administration’s aggressive enforcement choices, including continuous threats to DACA, heightened fears of deportation.
  • More than 250,000 children in the U.S. have at least one parent who is a DACA recipient.22
  • An estimated 6.9 million children lived with undocumented parents.23

Beyond tearing down the harmful policies that separate families and chill access to critical services, we must lean forward and build a permanent solution to this nation’s immigration crisis so that every child has the opportunity to grow up in a safe, stable, and loving family and community.

Immigrant Families are Essential Members of Our Communities and Must Be Prioritized in COVID-19 Relief

Right now, immigrant workers are at the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis, keeping all of us healthy, fed, and cared for in health care, retail, manufacturing, and other essential industries. 24 In recognition of the critical role immigrant families play in our communities, Congress must ensure that COVID relief packages are inclusive of our immigrant children and families.25

For example, our leaders have the opportunity to make economic stimulus payments inclusive and fair. Immigrants and their families must be included in any new COVID stimulus payments and receive retroactive stimulus from when they were cut out of relief last year—regardless of the kind of taxpayer identification they use.

COVID relief, including economic stimulus payments, help families make ends meet during this crisis, and it is well established that cash assistance also supports children’s well-being and healthy development.26 Our leaders must act swiftly to ensure the next COVID relief package is the most robust and inclusive yet.

Who Are Children in Immigrant Families?

In recent years, chil­dren in immi­grant fam­i­lies reg­u­lar­ly have been at the cen­ter of major pub­lic pol­i­cy dis­cus­sions, such as those regard­ing the south­ern bor­der of the Unit­ed States and the Deferred Action for Child­hood Arrivals pol­i­cy, among oth­ers. To pro­mote an accu­rate under­stand­ing of this pop­u­la­tion and con­struc­tive con­ver­sa­tions about how to sup­port these chil­dren and their fam­i­lies, it is impor­tant to under­stand basic ter­mi­nol­o­gy and key facts about this group in the Unit­ed States.

Def­i­n­i­tions About Chil­dren in Immi­grant Families

Immi­grant or Foreign-born

The terms immi­grant and for­eign-born are inter­change­able and refer to indi­vid­u­als who were not U.S. cit­i­zens at birth but may have become cit­i­zens through nat­u­ral­iza­tion. Those who are not cit­i­zens may include law­ful per­ma­nent res­i­dents, those with tem­po­rary visas, refugees and asy­lum seek­ers or unau­tho­rized immi­grants.

U.S. Cit­i­zens

Cit­i­zen­ship usu­al­ly is acquired when a child is born in the Unit­ed States, Puer­to Rico, Guam, the U.S. Vir­gin Islands or the North­ern Mar­i­anas or born abroad to Amer­i­can par­ents. Cit­i­zen­ship also can be obtained through the nat­u­ral­iza­tion process.

Nat­u­ral­iza­tion

The process in which a law­ful per­ma­nent res­i­dent becomes a U.S. cit­i­zen after meet­ing require­ments in the Immi­gra­tion and Nation­al­i­ty Act.

Law­ful per­ma­nent res­i­dents (also known as ​“green card” holders)

This per­ma­nent sta­tus may be obtained through mul­ti­ple meth­ods, includ­ing fam­i­ly rela­tion­ships, employ­ment spon­sor­ships, human­i­tar­i­an pro­tec­tion (for refugees and asy­lum seek­ers) or the Diver­si­ty Visa Pro­gram lottery.

Asy­lum Seek­ers and Refugees

These are indi­vid­u­als who need pro­tec­tion due to per­se­cu­tion or fear of per­se­cu­tion ​“on account of race, reli­gion, nation­al­i­ty and/​or mem­ber­ship in a par­tic­u­lar social group or polit­i­cal opin­ion.” Asy­lum seek­ers sub­mit appli­ca­tions at a port of entry to the Unit­ed States or when they are already in the coun­try, while refugees are out­side of the Unit­ed States when they are con­sid­ered for resettlement. 

Unau­tho­rized (Undoc­u­ment­ed) Immigrants

This term refers to for­eign-born indi­vid­u­als who are not cit­i­zens and not legal res­i­dents. This includes peo­ple who entered the Unit­ed States with­out inspec­tion and those who were legal­ly admit­ted on a tem­po­rary basis but stayed beyond their required depar­ture date.

Migrants

Gen­er­al­ly, a migrant refers to some­one who changed his or her coun­try of usu­al res­i­dence regard­less of the rea­son. It may be vol­un­tary or forced migra­tion, and it may be tem­po­rary or permanent.

Nativ­i­ty

Nativ­i­ty refers to whether indi­vid­u­als are native-born ver­sus for­eign-born. Native-born is defined as born in the Unit­ed States, Puer­to Rico, Guam, the U.S. Vir­gin Islands or the North­ern Mar­i­anas or born abroad to Amer­i­can parents. 

First-gen­er­a­tion Immi­grant Children

This term typ­i­cal­ly refers to for­eign-born chil­dren with at least one for­eign-born parent. 

Sec­ond-gen­er­a­tion Immi­grant Children

This term typ­i­cal­ly refers to native-born chil­dren with at least one for­eign-born parent. 

Chil­dren in Immi­grant Families

Gen­er­al­ly, this term includes both first- and sec­ond-gen­er­a­tion immi­grant children.  

Key Facts About Chil­dren in Immi­grant Families

How many chil­dren are in immi­grant fam­i­lies in the Unit­ed States? 

One in four — or 18.2 mil­lion chil­dren are in immi­grant fam­i­lies in the Unit­ed States — in 2019, up from one in five in the ear­ly 2000s.

What states have the largest share of chil­dren in immi­grant families?

Cal­i­for­nia (46%), New Jer­sey (40%), Neva­da (36%), New York (35%) and Texas and Flori­da (both 33%). See the data on chil­dren in immi­grant fam­i­lies from all states.

How many chil­dren in immi­grant fam­i­lies are U.S. citizens? 

In 2019, 90% — an increase from 84% in 2005. 

How many chil­dren in immi­grant fam­i­lies do not have par­ents who are U.S. cit­i­zens (i.e., nei­ther par­ent at home is a citizen)? 

In 2019, 37% — a fig­ure that has been declin­ing for a decade. 

How many U.S. chil­dren are foreign-born? 

In 2019, 3%, or 2.5 million.

Immi­grant Youth and Youth in Immi­grant Families

How many young peo­ple are immi­grants or live in immi­grant fam­i­lies in the Unit­ed States? 

Near­ly 10. 4 mil­lion or 22% of young peo­ple ages 14 to 24 were for­eign-born or lived with at least one for­eign-born par­ent in 2015–2019.

What states have the largest share of these youth?

Cal­i­for­nia (44%), Neva­da (34%), New Jer­sey (33%), New York (32%) and Texas and Flori­da (both 31%). See data for all states.

What is the racial and eth­nic make­up of this population? 

More than three-quar­ters (77%) of Asian and Pacif­ic Islander youth and young adults were immi­grants or lived in immi­grant fam­i­lies in 2015–2019. The same was true for 51% of Lati­no, 21% of two or more race, 14% of Black, 11% of Amer­i­can Indi­an and 6% of non-His­pan­ic white youth.

What share of young peo­ple in immi­grant fam­i­lies live in low-income households? 

Near­ly half (44%) in 2015–2019, with state lev­els rang­ing from 26% in Hawaii to 56% in New Mex­i­co, among states with avail­able data.

What per­cent­age of youth in immi­grant fam­i­lies live in high-pover­ty areas? 

In 2015–2019, 12%, down from 20% in 2011–2015. At the state lev­el, fig­ures were as low as 1% in Alas­ka and as high as 27% in New Mex­i­co in 2015–2019.

How like­ly are fourth-grade Eng­lish lan­guage learn­ers to score below pro­fi­cient in reading? 

Nation­wide, 91% of fourth graders who were also Eng­lish lan­guage learn­ers scored below pro­fi­cient in read­ing in 2019. By com­par­i­son: Just 62% of their Eng­lish-speak­ing class­mates failed to achieve read­ing proficiency.

Socioe­co­nom­ic and Hous­ing Sta­tis­tics for Chil­dren in Immi­grant Families

How like­ly are chil­dren in immi­grant fam­i­lies to live in low-income work­ing households? 

One in three in 2019, com­pared to one in five chil­dren in U.S.-born fam­i­lies, a gap that has nar­rowed only slight­ly over the last decade. 

What is the medi­an income for immi­grant and non-immi­grant fam­i­lies with children?

In 2019, the medi­an income for house­holds with chil­dren in immi­grant fam­i­lies was $67,900, com­pared to $78,000 for house­holds with chil­dren in U. S.-born fam­i­lies. House­holds with chil­dren in immi­grant fam­i­lies con­sis­tent­ly have had low­er medi­an incomes in recent decades, although incomes sub­stan­tial­ly increased for both house­hold types since 2010.

How does the abil­i­ty to afford hous­ing compare? 

In 2019, 38% of chil­dren in immi­grant fam­i­lies lived in house­holds with a high hous­ing cost bur­den (i.e., more than 30% of month­ly income spent on hous­ing), ver­sus 27% of chil­dren in U.S.-born fam­i­lies. While hous­ing cost bur­dens have declined for both groups since 2010, this dis­par­i­ty has per­sist­ed since 2000–2002, the first year of data availability.

How does home own­er­ship com­pare for immi­grant and non-immi­grant fam­i­lies with children?

Chil­dren in U.S.-born fam­i­lies are more like­ly to live in house­holds that own their homes (65% in 2019) than chil­dren in immi­grant fam­i­lies (54%), a gap that has held rel­a­tive­ly steady for two decades.

What share of chil­dren in immi­grant fam­i­lies live in crowd­ed hous­ing com­pared to chil­dren in non-immi­grant families?

In 2019, chil­dren in immi­grant fam­i­lies were close to three times more like­ly to live in crowd­ed hous­ing (defined as more than one per­son per room). While this is an improve­ment from 36% in 2000–2002, it com­pares to just 10% of chil­dren in U.S.-born fam­i­lies in the same years. 

How like­ly are chil­dren in immi­grant fam­i­lies to have no par­ent at home with a high school diplo­ma or equivalent?

In 2019, 20% of chil­dren in immi­grant fam­i­lies had no par­ent with a high school diplo­ma, a decrease from 29% in 2000–2002. Among chil­dren in U.S.-born fam­i­lies, the per­cent­age is much low­er and declined from 9% to 5% dur­ing this 20-year period.

What share of chil­dren in immi­grant fam­i­lies live in lin­guis­ti­cal­ly iso­lat­ed households? 

In 2019, 18% of chil­dren in immi­grant fam­i­lies lived in a lin­guis­ti­cal­ly iso­lat­ed house­hold. States with the great­est share were Louisiana (25%), Alaba­ma (24%), Ken­tucky (24%) and Iowa (24%), among those with avail­able data. (Note: A lin­guis­ti­cal­ly iso­lat­ed house­hold is one in which no per­son age 14 or old­er speaks only Eng­lish, and no per­son age 14 or old­er who speaks Eng­lish as a sec­ond lan­guage speaks it very well. )

Learn More About Immi­grant Children

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion offers a range of reports and resources to pro­mote the health and well-being of chil­dren and fam­i­lies, includ­ing the immi­grant pop­u­la­tion. Explore the resources below and sign up for our newslet­ters to con­tin­ue learning. 

  • See all data by fam­i­ly nativity on the KIDS COUNT Data Center 
  • Blog post: Mak­ing Pub­lic Sys­tems Work Bet­ter for Immi­grant Fam­i­lies (2018)
  • Report: Nonci­t­i­zen Youth in the Juve­nile Jus­tice Sys­tem (2018)
  • Report: Race for Results (2017)
  • Report: Serv­ing Immi­grant Fam­i­lies Through Two-Gen­er­a­tion Pro­grams (2016)
  • Report: Improv­ing Immi­grant Access to Work­force Ser­vices (2016)
  • Pod­cast: Casey’s New Pod­cast Tack­les Race, Immi­gra­tion and Inequal­i­ty (2016)
90,000 Education for immigrant children 90,001 90,002 Immigrant children have the same educational rights as children of US citizens, including the right to free education in public schools.

In an American school, no one cares that a new student has just arrived in the country and does not speak English. To do this, he will be offered free classes in which he will quickly master it.

The main difference between the American school is that it focuses on the personality of the child and his ability to think, analyze, draw conclusions, and not on simple memorization of the material. nine0008

If you can choose a kindergarten at your own discretion and the number of groups, then choosing a school is different. All American schools are strictly tied to the place of residence. Therefore, families choose their place of residence not only in accordance with their expectations about the area and its infrastructure, but also, first of all, because of the school.

Features of American schools

Each school is evaluated on a 10-point scale according to the achievements of its graduates. You can see the rating of the school on the site Greatschools. org . It is enough to enter the Zip-code (zip code) in the search box on this site and see all available schools and their ratings.

Adaptation of children takes place in a friendly environment - both children and teachers try to help newcomers. At the same time, the rules of the school are somewhat different from Russian ones. First, discipline is strictly observed. All violations of discipline are reported to the teacher. He, in turn, informs his parents. Secondly, if a child misbehaves, parents can be fined. nine0003

There are no parent-teacher meetings in an American school. Instead, school conferences, when parents of one child have 15 minutes to talk with the teacher face to face or on the phone. But the contacts don't end there. Parents of schoolchildren receive dozens of letters from the school every day. For example, a child is distracted in class or falls and scratches his knee - parents are immediately informed.

Individualized education in US schools. Each child has mandatory lessons, as well as those that he can attend based on his interests. For example, if a child excels in some subject better than others, he is not forced to sit with others in the lesson, he has the right to go to the same subject, but with a class older. nine0003

American schools are also organizationally different:

  • Primary school - up to grade 5.
  • Senior - from 9 to 12 grades.

And all these are not just different classes, these are different schools (buildings).

To enter a prestigious college, a student must have high scores on the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test), an analogue of our USE.

Public and private schools in America

0013 private schools , of which there are almost 35 thousand in the country. The cost of training starts from $10,000 per year and reaches $85-90 thousand. Private religious schools will be cheaper, since they are also funded by churches. The higher the status of the school and the results of its graduates, the higher the cost of education, respectively.

In addition to private and public schools, charter schools are developed in America . They are funded by the state like a public school, but with a more simplified management system. nine0007 To get into a charter school, you need to have academic achievements and participate in a selective lottery.

Public schools also offer children free meals and a school bus.

Children of immigrants have the same rights and obligations not only for quality free education . They also apply for participation in various projects in sports, art, science. All this can later help you get a grant for free education at the best universities in the world. nine0014

Read also about child care availability for immigrant families in the US .

1 in 12 US children born to illegal immigrants

1 in 12 US children are the offspring of illegal immigrants, according to a new study released by the NGO Pew Hispanic Center. If undocumented immigrants account for just over 4% of the population of America, the proportion of their children from all children born in the country exceeds 8%. nine0003

About 340,000 of the 4.3 million babies born in America last year had parents who did not have the right to stay in the country. There is another figure: of the 5.1 million children of illegal immigrants who were in the United States in 2009, approximately 79% were eligible for American citizenship by birthplace. Such results could spark new controversy over the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which states that children born in the country automatically become citizens of the United States. nine0003

"Undocumented immigrants tend to be younger than the rest of the US population and more likely to marry and have children," said Pew Center senior demographer Jeffrey Passel.

There are currently 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. About 75% of this number are representatives of Latin American countries. One in four children under 18 in the US is Hispanic. With the standard of living of Americans falling, general dissatisfaction with the number of illegal immigrants in the country is growing. As a result, representatives of the Republican Party proposed amending the 14th amendment to the Constitution, which could limit the issuance of citizenship to all babies that appear on the territory of the country. As early as last month, Senator Lindsey Graham supported the issue of a possible review of the citizenship of children born to illegal immigrants. According to him, the existence of such a law provokes people to secretly enter the country and give birth to children who could receive the benefits of US citizens. Graham's legislators make it clear that the 14th Amendment was created to emancipate slaves after the American Civil War, not to call all descendants of illegal immigrants citizens. nine0003

One of the Republican senators' arguments is that illegal immigrants can have children in the United States, obtain citizenship for them, and then take them back to their homeland and raise them as terrorists.


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