Children in Immigrant Families & Economic Hardship: Patterns of Program Participation

Background and Purpose

            An increasing proportion of U.S. children reside in immigrant families. Non-native households, however, are more likely to experience economic distress, raising concerns about the wellbeing of this segment of the child population. Programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly the Food Stamp Program) are a potential source of support. Existing studies of program participation, however, offer conflicting results; some suggest the children of immigrant parents are more likely to participate in social welfare programs while others suggest immigrant households are less likely to participate. Immigrant families also face additional hurdles to participation, such as program rules restricting benefits to citizens and linguistic barriers, in addition to those experienced by all families in economic need. We seek to clarify the relationship between immigration and program participation. What child and parent characteristics are associated with participation in public programs? Do participation trends vary across programs?

Methods

            We use data from the 2008 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), a survey fielded by the Census Bureau that collects detailed social and economic information. With weighting to adjust for sampling procedures, the SIPP is representative of the non-institutionalized U.S. population. Our sample includes all children (age<18, n=25,197) and is drawn from Wave 2 of the survey. Wave 2 includes a topical module with information on residency and migration history. We create a set of variables indicating whether the child was covered by Medicaid, resided in a household receiving benefits from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Supplemental Security Income, SNAP/Food Stamps, or the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or lived in a household receiving rental support (e.g., public housing, Section 8). Next, we construct variables in the child record indicating whether the child had at least one parent born outside of the United States, that parent’s residency status, and length of time in the U.S. A series of logistic regression models examines the relationship between these parent characteristics and the child’s program participation.

Results

            Examining participation in any public support programs suggests that children of immigrant parents are more likely to receive benefits than children whose parents were born in the United States. This relationship, however, is largely driven by the child’s participation in Medicaid. Children with at least one immigrant parent are actually less likely to reside in households receiving cash and near-cash benefits from programs such as TANF or SNAP. These relationships remain even when controlling for other relevant child, parent, and household characteristics (e.g., parent education and employment, child age).

Conclusions and Implications

            Other than Medicaid, children with immigrant parents are less likely to receive benefits from public programs. Given that households with immigrant parents are at greater risk of economic adversity than otherwise similar households, their reduced access to cash and near-cash supports may have negative consequences for disadvantaged children. The study’s findings also suggest that, in contrast to popular perception, immigrant parents are not imposing undue burden on American social welfare programs.