Latino Immigrant Poverty

The importance of looking at Latino immigrants and their children is not only because they are one of fastest growing populations but also because of the special circumstances that revolve around this population. Latino immigrants (mostly unauthorized) have lower levels of education, are less likely to receive government assistance, are overrepresented in low paying manual jobs, and are more likely to be in poverty. When looking at unauthorized adult Latino immigrants (ages 25-64), 47% have less than a high school education, by contrast, only 8% of native born individuals (ages 25-64) have not graduated from high school (Passel and Cohn, 2009). Of the United States 2008 labor force of 154 million people, there was an estimated 8.3 million …show more content…
Even at the lowest quartile in which poverty is achieved there is income discrepancy, at this level native born earn $14,349 while immigrants earn $12,036 (Gans, 2013), a 2 thousand dollar difference that makes a great impact in the daily lives of these families. Poverty is one of the most important predictors of negative child outcomes since it affects both psycho-social factors but also overall child wellbeing. Poverty rates are generally higher among children of immigrants (25% in poverty) than among children of natives (20% in poverty), and are highest for young children of unauthorized immigrants (33%) (Lincroft and Resner, 2006; Urban Instituate, 2010; Passel and Cohn, 2009). In California, these statstitsics do not fare better, in 2003, 24 percent of children of legal immigrants and 38 percent of children of unauthorized immigrants lived in poverty compared with 15 percent for children of U.S.- born citizens. (Fortuny, Capps and Passel, 2007). Many critics can be quick to say that the families impoverished state could be alleviated by receiving government assistance, however its not as simple as that. For many immigrant families receiving government support such as TANF and food stamps are not always options since they are inelabielbe due to their undocumented status or are recent immigrants (Urban Insituate, 2010). Even when low income children from immigrant families receive TANF and food stamps they receive half the rate that low-income children born to natives get ((7 percent vs. 17 percent for TANF; 20 percent vs. 40 percent for food stamps) (Lincroft and Resner, 2006). Knowing the various basic hardships that immigrant Latinos face, will better help us understand the psycho-social factors that end up influencing their entry into the child welfare system. This thesis particularly focuses on