Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/MichaelEFix

Arkansas, which had the 4th fastest growing immigrant population and fastest growing Latino population of any state between 2000 and 2005, is the subject of this series of reports. Volume 1 provides detailed demographic information about the foreign-born in Arkansas and compares immigrants to natives on a wide variety of quality-of-life measures. It profiles immigrants' countries of birth, legal status, educational attainment, poverty, homeownership, employment, and the primary industries in which they are employed. Volume 2 assesses immigrants' impacts on the Arkansas economy, in terms of consumer spending, tax contributions, fiscal costs, and the savings that businesses and consumers realize by using immigrant labor. An executive summary is also included.

As Congress debates the fate of more than 10 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States, their impact on the U.S. low-skilled labor force is an important consideration. In 2005, immigrants overall represented more than a fifth of low-wage workers—those earning less than twice the minimum wage—and almost half of workers without a high school education. Unauthorized workers were nearly a tenth of low-wage workers and a quarter of low-skilled workers. The number of low-wage and low-skilled native-born workers fell between 2000 and 2005, due to improvements in their educational attainment but also due to decreasing labor force participation. This report, underwritten by the Hitachi Foundation, describes recent trends in the immigrant labor force and their implications for the U.S. economy.

This report provides estimates on federal, state and local taxes paid by immigrant households in the Washington DC metropolitan region in 1999-2000. The region’s almost 1 million immigrant households comprised 21 percent of all households and had $29.5 billion in income, or 19 percent of the income of all households. Immigrant households paid $9.8 billion or 18 percent of the region’s total taxes, even though they had lower incomes on average than non-immigrant households ($78,000 versus $88,000). They contributed almost a quarter of the local taxes collected in the region’s two largest jurisdictions: Montgomery County, MD, and Fairfax County, VA.

Immigration is changing the face of rural America, from Florida to Washington and from Maine to California. Migrants arrive, many from Mexico, to fill jobs on farms and in farm-related industries, usually at earnings below the poverty. Leaders of rural industries are adamant that a steady influx of foreign workers is necessary for economic survival. But the integration of these newcomers is uneven: many immigrants achieve some measure of the American dream, but others find persistent poverty, overcrowded housing, and crime. The New Rural Poverty examines the effect of rural immigration on inland agricultural areas in California, farm areas in coastal California, and meat and poultry processing centers in Delaware and Iowa. The authors examine the interdependencies between immigrants and agriculture in the United States, explore the policy challenges and options, and assess how current proposals for immigration reform will affect rural America.

There are over 10 million undocumented immigrants in the United States by the latest estimates. Over 90 percent of undocumented immigrant men work, and most pay payroll as well as consumption taxes. Two thirds of the children of undocumented immigrants are U.S.-born citizens. This piece uses fact-based evidence to dispel common myths about this controversial population.

U.S. schools are experiencing rapid demographic change due to high levels of immigration, while they at the same time they are implementing the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. NCLB holds schools accountable for the performance of limited English proficient (LEP) children and other groups that include many children of immigrants. This report describes the demographics of children of immigrants, and the considerable overlap among NCLB's protected groups: LEPs, low-income students, blacks, Hispanics and Asians. The report describes variations in characteristics among children with parents born in different countries, and discusses implications for NCLB implementation in high-LEP schools and districts. [View the corresponding press release]

Immigrants compose a large and growing share of U.S. workers, and of low-income working families. In 2001 immigrants were one fifth of all low-wage workers, and immigrant families were one-quarter of all low-income working families. Like other low-income families, immigrants face economic hardship and need work supports such as tax credits, food, housing assistance, health care, and child care. Immigrant families, however, are less likely to be eligible for or have access to needed benefits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, Medicaid, Food Stamps, and child care subsidies.

There are 5.1 million young children of immigrants, representing 22 percent of all U.S. children under age 6. While 93 percent of these children are U.S.-born citizens, 29 percent have undocumented parents. 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. [View the corresponding press release]

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.

The 2002 Farm Bill's legal immigrant eligibility restorations took place against a backdrop of high, steady levels of immigration. By the end of 2003, short-term targets for increased non-citizen participation in the Food Stamp Program had been met -- over 150,000 legal immigrants were added to the rolls across eight study states (well on schedule to meet the goal of enrolling 400,000 legal immigrants nationally by 2006). While the Farm Bill represents a significant policy success in terms of supplanting the legal immigrant restrictions of PRWORA, substantial barriers to immigrant food stamp participation remain.

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