One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: The Increase in Immigrant Child Poverty from 1970 to 2000

Jennifer Van Hook, Bowling Green State University
Susan L. Brown, Bowling Green State University
Maxwell Ndigume Kwenda, Bowling Green State University

Prior research on child poverty has focused on family structure and, to a lesser extent, parental work patterns to explain trends over time and differences across groups. However, immigrant child poverty has increased significantly over the past three decades even though labor force participation is high among immigrants and immigrant families are likely to be headed by a married couple. We document the levels and determinants of child poverty trends among children of immigrants and children of natives from 1970 through 2000. Much of the increase in immigrant child poverty can be linked to declining returns to parental education and employment and increasing poverty levels among larger families. One interpretation of this finding is that the on-going macro-economic shifts from a manufacturing- to an information-based economy may have put in place significant new barriers to immigrant incorporation in the U.S.