View Research by Author - Karina Fortuny

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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.

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.

Low-income status in the United States varies significantly by race and ethnicity. Of the more than 13.4 million families with children living on incomes less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level, 30 percent are Hispanic, 22 percent are black or African American, and 6 percent are other nonwhites. This fact sheet provides statistics on racial and ethnic differences in family structure, work effort, nativity or immigration status, earnings, and education.

Historically, residential segregation constrained where minorities could live, contributing to disparities in education, employment, and wealth. Researchers interested in the well-being and future prospects of low-income working families have not yet explored how their residential patterns may vary across racial and ethnic lines or considered the implications of these patterns. Therefore, this paper explores differences in neighborhood characteristics among white, black, and Hispanic low-income working families. The findings suggest that policies aimed at reducing the persistent disadvantages facing minority low-income working families need to address the ways the neighborhoods in which minorities live may be compounding these disadvantages.

This report discusses the contribution of immigrants to Maryland's workforce, trends in the workforce between 2000 and 2006, and recommendations for educating and training immigrant workers. Rapid growth in the number and share of immigrant workers in the state do not appear to have come at the expense of native-born workers, who saw their labor force participation grow over this six year period. Maryland's immigrant workers are unusually diverse, highly educated and work in key skilled industries such as healthcare, information technology and the sciences.

This brief summarizes the contribution of immigrants to Maryland's workforce and trends in the workforce between 2000 and 2006. Maryland's immigrant workers are unusually highly educated and work in key skilled industries such as healthcare, information technology and the sciences. However, there are also large numbers of immigrant workers with low educational attainment and English proficiency—they largely work in construction, agriculture, and services. Education, English language, and job training programs if properly tailored to immigrants' and employers' needs could potentially raise the incomes of immigrant workers and increase their tax contributions to the state.

The paper explores the financial well-being and economic integration of immigrant groups compared with native-born minorities and whites in vulnerable urban neighborhoods. Among the main findings from the analysis is that immigrants and native minorities in the neighborhoods we examine face similar types of economic difficulties. However, after controlling for citizenship, English proficiency, educational attainment, and having a driver’s license and a reliable car, many of the economic disadvantages disappear for immigrant groups, but not for native-born minorities. These findings suggest that even in tough neighborhoods, the potential for economic integration of immigrants is strong.

This report hopes to fill some of the knowledge gaps in the current immigration debate by describing the unauthorized population nationally and in California and Los Angeles—the state and urban area with the largest numbers of these immigrants. Unauthorized immigrants numbered 2.45 million in California in 2004, representing almost one-quarter (24 percent) of the nation's total (10.3 million). There are about 1 million unauthorized immigrants in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, almost twice the number of any other metro area; the unauthorized are one-tenth of the area's population (10 million). The report presents findings about these populations, including their socio-economic characteristics, such as national origin, education, employment, and poverty.

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.

In 2004 there were about 50,000 immigrants in the Louisville metropolitan area, representing 4.5 percent of the area’s population. Louisville, like other Southeastern cities, has a relatively small but rapidly growing foreign-born population. But Louisville’s immigrants are more diverse than elsewhere in the Southeast: higher shares are from African and Asian, and a lower share from Latin America. Louisville also has a lower share of undocumented immigrants and a higher share of refugees, due to a large and successful resettlement program. Louisville’s immigrants—which make up an increasing component of the labor force in sectors such as manufacturing, retail and health care—are also relatively well educated compared to the nationwide foreign-born population. This report, sponsored by the Louisville Metro Office for International Affairs, describes characteristics and trends in the city’s international population, and makes recommendations for the future successful integration.

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