Disproportionate Economic Hardships of Covid-19 on Immigrants Households in the United States

Background: Immigrant households faced disproportionate hardships during Covid-19. Several factors contribute to this including higher rates of job losses, limited access to benefits and language barriers. Studies reported higher job loss (27%) among immigrants compared to U.S. born adults (18%) in the first few months of the pandemic. additionally, immigrants in the labor force are overrepresented in low-paying jobs with fewer benefit and less flexible opportunities for remote work.

In addition to the economic hardships, immigrants faced higher health risks. Immigrants accounted for significantly higher share of essential workers accounting for18% of the overall healthcare workers. Almost 40% of home health aides are foreign-born individual. This reduced the chances of working remotely and increased the likelihood of contacting the virus and bringing it home to their loved ones. This study focuses to answer the following questions:

• How did immigrant households experience hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to non-immigrant households?
• Did the hardship experience differ by gender?

Data and Methods: The study used data from a nationally representative Socioeconomic Impacts of COVID-19 Survey conducted by the Social Policy Institute at Washington University in St. Louis (SPI) which includes roughly 5,000 respondents followed over five waves from April 2020 to May 2021. The purpose of the survey was to understand the social and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The analysis used logistic regression with random effects. Two models were run, the first set of models uses each hardship measure (job loss, food insecurity, rental hardship and debt), as the dependent variable and immigrant household as predictor. Demographic factors - gender, partner, education, number of children, age, income was controlled for.

The second set of models uses each hardship measure as a dependent variable and interaction of immigrant individual and gender as predictor. Gender is individual level variable, we use only respondent immigrant status and individual level hardship measures. In the first set of models, hardship experience was analyzed at the household level.

Results:

Food insecurity: Immigrant households represented 15.7% of the total sample (N = 5045). After controlling for demographic characteristics, job loss and rental hardships were statistically significant and higher in immigrant households. The odds of job loss were two times (OR = 2.033**) as high in immigrant households compared to non-immigrant households. The chances of facing rental hardship was also significantly higher in immigrants’ households. The odd of rental hardship were 1.9 times higher for immigrant households compared to non-immigrants. (OR = 1.90**). None of the other outcomes related to food insecurity and debt were significant.

Gender disparities in hardships: While we find being female was statistically significant and associated with food insecurity, debt and rental hardship in the overall sample, the interaction of female*immigrant (immigrant women) was not statistically significant. Gender was measured at the individual level.

Conclusion: Overall, Job loss and food insecurity were significantly higher among immigrant households. Hence, immigrant households experienced significantly higher economic hardships during Covid-19 pandemic. Policy and practice implication are discussed in the paper.