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From: Migration Policy Institute Communications
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Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2016 9:33 AM
Subject: MPI: 86% of Children with Unauthorized Immigrant Parents Could
Potentially See Parents Benefit from Suspended DAPA Program
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| PRESS RELEASE
January 13, 2016
Contact: Michelle Mittelstadt
202-266-1910
mmittelstadt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Parents’ Unauthorized Status Places 5.1 Million Children, Nearly 80 Percent
of Them Born in the United States, at Disadvantage 86% of Such Children Could
Potentially See Parents Benefit from Suspended DAPA Program
WASHINGTON – Research shows that children who have a parent who is an
unauthorized immigrant are at a significant disadvantage, regardless of whether
the children were born in the United States. A new Migration Policy Institute
(MPI) fact sheet uses an innovative methodology that permits comparison of
children of unauthorized immigrants to other children in the United States to
offer new data measuring that disadvantage at economic, educational and
linguistic levels.
MPI estimates that approximately 5.1 million children (under age 18) — 79
percent (4.1 million) of them born in the United States — live with a parent
who is an unauthorized immigrant, representing 7 percent of the U.S. child
population. In the new fact sheet, MPI researchers trace the disadvantage
associated with parental unauthorized status: higher levels of poverty and
linguistic isolation, reduced rates of family socioeconomic progress and
English proficiency as well as lower pre-school enrollment.
With a legal challenge blocking, at least temporarily, an Obama administration
initiative that would grant work permits and temporary relief from deportation
to the parents of as many as 86 percent of these children, the disadvantage
sketched by the MPI researchers likely will persist for millions of children.
The Supreme Court this month is expected to decide whether to take up the case
challenging the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent
Residents (DAPA) program unveiled by the administration in November 2014.
The fact sheet, A Profile of U.S. Children with Unauthorized Immigrant
Parents, finds that 42 percent of children with an unauthorized immigrant
parent live in one of the 26 states that joined the DAPA challenge. All 10
states that have the highest shares of children with unauthorized immigrant
parents among their overall children of immigrant population (North Carolina,
Arkansas, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Mississippi,
Idaho and Texas) joined the DAPA lawsuit.
The fact sheet provides a unique snapshot of children of unauthorized
immigrants at state and top county levels, including their number,
characteristics (including citizenship, age, English proficiency and school
enrollment) and socioeconomic status, as well as numbers of parents who might
be shielded from deportation under deferred action programs.
Drawing on MPI assignments of unauthorized status to noncitizens using U.S.
Census Bureau data (from the 2009-2013 American Community Survey and the 2008
Survey of Income and Program Participation), the MPI researchers find that:
- Three-quarters of children with unauthorized immigrant parents lived in
families with incomes below the threshold for free and reduced price school
lunches, compared to 51 percent of children of all immigrants and 40 percent of
the entire U.S. child population.
- In contrast to the experience of U.S. children generally, children with
unauthorized immigrant parents did not experience falling poverty as they made
the transition from childhood to adolescence.
- Children ages 3-4 with unauthorized immigrant parents were less likely to
be enrolled in preschool: 37 percent versus 45 percent among children of
immigrants generally and 48 percent for the entire U.S. child population.
- At all ages, children with unauthorized parents were more likely to be
linguistically isolated, in other words living in a household lacking English
proficiency among household members ages 14 and older. Overall, 43 percent were
linguistically isolated, compared to 24 percent for all children of immigrants
and 6 percent for all U.S. children.
- Children ages 5 and older with unauthorized immigrant parents were more
likely than children of immigrants generally and the overall U.S. population to
be limited English proficient (LEP) themselves (27 percent versus 16 percent
and 3.4 percent respectively), a gap that closed with age.
“Barring implementation of DAPA or other major policy changes, the development
of these children will take place in families disadvantaged by parental
unauthorized status,” said Randy Capps, director of research for MPI’s U.S.
programs.
The fact sheet also finds that the share of children who were themselves
unauthorized rose with age: from 3 percent for ages 0-2 to 17 percent at ages
5-11 and 41 percent for ages 15-17.
The fact sheet adds to MPI’s research on the effects of unauthorized status on
families and children, including a report that examines the evidence concerning
the impacts of deportation and fears of deportation on unauthorized immigrant
families and children, and one that assesses the involvement of families with a
deported parent with health and social service systems in five states.
The fact sheet can be downloaded at:
www.migrationpolicy.org/research/profile-us-children-unauthorized-immigrant-parents.
MPI researchers will participate in a webinar today at 11 a.m. ET to discuss
their findings. For more information or to register, click here.
# # #
The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) is an independent, non-partisan,
non-profit think tank in Washington, DC dedicated to analysis of the movement
of people worldwide. MPI provides analysis, development and evaluation of
migration and refugee policies at the local, national and international levels.
For more on MPI, visit www.migrationpolicy.org.
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