Children in Immigrant Families.

The huge influx of immigrants coming to the United States from every corner of the globe has helped propel the issue of immigration high up on the national agenda. Most of the attention has focused on the legal side of the issue, especially with Congress set to tackle comprehensive immigration reform this year.

In contrast, relatively little attention has focused on the side of the nation’s immigration story that represents the future: children.

This Research Brief draws on new results of Census 2000 data to take a closer look at children in immigrant families, that is, children with at least one foreign-born parent. For example, the brief reports that children in newcomer families are driving the nation’s racial and ethnic transformation. Moreover, these children constitute a very diverse group in terms of their national origin, as well as the places that they now call home. Children in newcomer families also have strong ties to their adopted country; four out of five are American citizens and three out of four are fluent in English. At the same time, children of immigrants are less likely to be enrolled in preschool programs, putting them at a disadvantage when it comes to the cognitive aspects of school readiness and English-language fluency.

In particular, this brief highlights the proportion, dispersion, national origins, language, and early education of children in newcomer families, both for the United States as a whole and in various states.

By Donald J. Hernandez, Ph.D., Nancy A. Denton, Ph.D., and Suzanne E. Macartney, M.A.

To view complete report CLICK below on Link (Adobe Acrobat Reader required):

http://www.childtrends.org/Files/Child_Trends-2007_04_01_RB_ChildrenImmigrant.pdf>