Most of poverty increase is imported!
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| Fri, 09-03-2004 - 4:18pm |
The gap between immigrant and native poverty almost tripled in size between 1979 and 1997. The poverty rate for persons living in immigrant households grew dramatically, from 15.5 percent in 1979 to 18.8 percent in 1989 and to 21.8 percent in 1997, while over the same period the poverty rate for persons in native households stayed relatively constant at roughly 12 percent.
In 1997, more than one in five persons (21.6 percent) living in poverty resided in an immigrant household. And nearly one in four children in poverty now lives in an immigrant household. In comparison, only 9.7 percent of the poor lived in immigrant households in 1979.
The growth in immigrant-related poverty accounted for 75 percent (3 million people) of the total increase in the size of the poor population between 1989 and 1997. This increase is enough to entirely offset the 2.7 million reduction in the size of the poor population that results from the $64 billion spent annually on means-tested cash assistance programs.
Immigration is one of the primary factors causing the nation's overall poverty rate and the number of people living in poverty to be higher today than they were 20 years ago. If immigrant-headed households are excluded, the total number of people in poverty in 1997 and the nation's poverty rate would have been only slightly higher than it was in the late 1970s.
This rise in immigrant-related poverty was caused partly by an increase in the poverty rate for each wave of new arrivals. In 1979, the poverty rate for persons living in households headed by an immigrant who arrived in the ten year prior was 23 percent; by 1997, the poverty rate for individuals in households headed by a new immigrant had increased to 29.2 percent.
The increase in immigrant-related poverty was also caused by a slowing in the pace of progress immigrants make in moving out of poverty over time. For example, the poverty rate for immigrant households who arrived in the 1980s was still over 25 percent in 1997 —double that of natives.
The increase in the poverty rate for immigrant households in the 1990s was very broad, affecting persons with different levels of education and individuals in and out of the labor force, as well as households from most parts of the world. The rise in the poverty rate was particularly large for children in immigrant households, increasing from 24.8 to 30.9 percent.
The gap in the poverty rate for persons in immigrant and native households widened in every region of the country and in almost every major metropolitan area during the 1990s.
The poverty rate varies significantly by region of origin. Immigrants from Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America have the highest poverty rates, while those from Europe and Asia tend to have the lowest.
In addition to an increased likelihood of living in poverty, people in immigrant households are also more likely to be near-poor. In 1997, 13.4 percent of persons in immigrant households had incomes that were only 50 percent above the poverty line compared to 8.6 percent of natives. In total, 35.2 percent or 12.4 million persons in immigrant households live in or near poverty.
The high poverty rate associated with immigrants is primarily explained by their much lower levels of education, higher unemployment, and larger family size. However, even after controlling for a wide variety of factors, including race, age, family structure, and education, statistical analysis indicates that persons in immigrant households are still significantly more likely to be living in poverty than individuals in native households.
Welfare reform does not seem to have caused the rise in immigrant poverty. Immigrant poverty was increasing well before 1996, when Congress curtailed benefits to legal immigrants. Moreover, the gap between the poverty rate for people living in immigrant and native households has actually narrowed slightly since welfare reform was enacted.
The rise in immigrant poverty was not caused by an increase in the recency of the immigrant population. Since newly arrived immigrants tend to have higher poverty rates than those who are more established, an increase in the proportion of persons living in households headed by a newly arrived immigrant might account for the rise in poverty. However, this is not the case. Households headed by new arrivals account for a smaller share of the total population living in immigrant households in 1997 than in 1979.
The high poverty rate associated with immigrants is not explained by the presence of illegal immigrants. Although their poverty rate is high, illegal aliens comprise only an estimated 22.5 percent of persons in immigrant households living in poverty in 1997.

Renee ~~~