Census

This data brief is the second in a series that profiles children of immigrants using up-to-date Census data and other sources. The first brief highlighted the fast growth of the immigrant population and the increase in children of immigrants, along with important demographic trends. The current publication describes the family circumstances of children of immigrants, including family structure and parental employment.

This brief provides new insights about health insurance coverage gaps among racial and ethnic minority groups, focusing on parents with employment in small firms or nonstandard employment. Compared with white parents, a disproportionate share of Latino and black parents have nonstandard employment, and Latino parents are more likely to have employment in small firms. These work arrangements increase the risk of being uninsured since they are less likely to come with an offer of health insurance compared to regular large firm employment. Few uninsured Latino parents could obtain coverage under existing Medicaid programs. Potential impacts of health reform are discussed.

This study implements the modern poverty measure for Minnesota using the American Community Survey (ACS) and simulates the potential effects of alternative safety net policies on poverty. The analysis uses the TRIM3 microsimulation model to correct for survey underreporting and to add information required for this poverty measure, including near-cash benefits, taxes and nondiscretionary expenses. The alternative simulations apply new program rules and behavioral assumptions to recalculate family resources and poverty. The results show the importance of the modern poverty measure for analyzing state policies and also highlight the numerous decisions and imputations required to implement the new measure.

The paper provides an independent evaluation of the SIPP Synthetic Beta File. This file, created by the Bureau of the Census, is intended to provide a public use database with similar statistical properties as the confidential Social Security Administration's earnings and benefit data linked to the SIPP. There is much to praise in the Census work. Many univariate distributions were "spot on." Unweighted regression analyses had some problems and results for them were mixed. In policy simulation modeling there were many instances of differences between the Synthetic and actual data that would have led researchers to wrong conclusions.

The number and share of children with at least one immigrant parent, the percentage of children of immigrants who are U.S. citizens, and the share of children of immigrants vs. children with native parents who are poor are just some of the data this snapshot (in English and Spanish) provides.

This fact sheet is the first in a series of publications on children of immigrants in the United States that updates the Urban Institute's May 2006 fact sheet that described the circumstances of these children in the early 2000s. The current fact sheet examines immigration trends and finds that children of immigrants are the fastest growing segment of the nation's children population - while the number of children of natives increased by 2.1 million between 1990 and 2007, children of immigrants grew by 8.1 million accounting for 77 percent of the growth of the U.S. children population during this time.

Between 2007 and 2008, real incomes fell and poverty rose in the United States, Institute Fellow Harry Holzer testified before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. Even if the recession ends this year, rising unemployment will mean that real income keeps falling while poverty increases for a few more years — and almost certainly by much more than occurred between 2007 and 2008. It will likely take several years beyond 2010 before real income and poverty fully recover from the effects of the downturn.

Today, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that the U.S. poverty rate reached 13.2 percent in 2008. Even this significant increase from the 12.5 percent rate in 2007 surely understates the share of Americans struggling to make ends meet today in September 2009.

In this analysis, a health reform scenario is modeled that would expand Medicaid to an estimated 17.0 million uninsured individuals with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL), would provide subsidies to 16.3 million uninsured individuals with incomes between 133 and 399 percent of the FPL, and would require an additional 4.3 million uninsured individuals to obtain coverage through an individual mandate, though they would not be eligible for Medicaid or subsidies. The first brief contains an overview of the entire nonelderly uninsured population, and the three remaining briefs address children, parents and childless adults, respectively.

Up-to-date state information on children of immigrants is essential for social policies that affect children and families. This brief, accompanying the Urban Institute's interactive Children of Immigrants Data Tool, describes the national and state characteristics of children of immigrants based on recent American Community Survey data. Since children of immigrants account for almost a quarter (24 percent) of children under age 5, their share in the school-age population will increase, with important implications for education policy. In addition, children of immigrants' poverty and low-income rates vary across states, highlighting the importance of state and local policies in promoting children's well-being.