From Generation to Generation The Health and Well-Being of Children in Immigrant Families (1998) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Pages 1-16
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From page 1... ...
Over time and across generations, however, as immigrant children become part of American society, many of these advantages do not appear to be sustained. The vast majority of children in immigrant families are admitted legally or are citizens by dint of birth in the United States to parents who are immigrants.
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From page 2... ...
Because of the burgeoning importance of children and youth in immigrant families to the vitality of the nation, the Committee on the Health and Adjustment of Immigrant Children and Families was appointed to conduct a study to: · synthesize and supplement the relevant research literature and provide a demographic description of children in immigrant families, · clarify what is known about the development of children in immigrant families regarding the risk and protective factors associated with differential health and well-being of different immigrant groups and the delivery of health and social services to these groups, and · assess the adequacy of existing data and make recommendations for new data collection and research needed to inform and improve public policy and programs. The committee was keenly aware throughout its deliberations that children who live in poverty many of them racial and ethnic minorities often experience restricted access to many of the resources, programs, and benefits that it considered specifically with respect to immigrant children and children with immigrant parents.
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From page 3... ...
Most immigrant children and youth have origins in Latin America or Asia, regions with dozens of languages and enormous diversity in cultural beliefs and practices. Those who speak English or acquire English quickly and who have parents who speak English are likely to have an advantage as they adjust to school, attempt to fit into peer groups, and, in general, navigate within American culture.
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From page 4... ...
Under welfare reform, the extremely restrictive eligibility rules for many programs that applied historically only to illegal immigrants are now also applied to legal immigrants who arrived after August 22, 1996 (when the law was enacted) , unless they become citizens, and to refugees beginning five to seven years after their arrival in the United States.
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From page 5... ...
Children and parents in immigrant families belonging to these racial and ethnic minorities may assimilate to native minority groups and thus find their opportunities restricted in ways similar to these nonimmigrant minorities. Children in immigrant families who belong to racial and ethnic minorities may face more or less discrimination depending on where they live, which can also affect their access not only to economic opportunities, but also to medical, health, educational, and housing resources.
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From page 6... ...
And Mexican-origin children in immigrant families are considerably more likely to be reported by their parents as having poor health and dental problems, and they have been found to exhibit elevated blood lead levels. Among adolescents overall and for most specific countries of origin studied, immigrants are less likely than U.S.-born adolescents with immigrant and U.S.-born parents to consider themselves in poor health or to have school absences due to health or emotional problems.
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From page 7... ...
Care must be taken not to overgeneralize these findings, in light of the diversity that characterizes children from different countries of origin with different histories of migration, family circumstances, and experiences at school and in their neighborhoods. SOCIOECONOMIC RISK FACTORS One of the best-documented relationships in epidemiology and child development is that children who have family incomes below the poverty threshold, parents with low educational attainments, one parent or many siblings in the home, or overcrowded housing conditions are at risk of negative health, developmental, and educational outcomes.
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From page 8... ...
Of particular concern are children with origins in 12 specific countries that account for close to half of all children in immigrant families; their average poverty rates exceed 25 percent; their parents tend to have very little formal education; and they are at high risk of living in overcrowded housing. Interestingly, poverty within this subgroup of countries was not consistently related to low rates of labor force participation by fathers or to living in a single-parent family or a family with many siblings.
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From page 9... ...
PUBLIC ASSISTANCE AND HEALTH SERVICES: PARTICIPATION AND USE Benefits and services provided by health and social programs, whether from public or private sources, represent important investments in and critical resources for all children and youth, including but not restricted to those in immigrant families. Prior to welfare reform, children in immigrant families were about as likely as, or only slightly more likely than, children in U.S.-born families to live in families receiving public assistance, particularly noncash assistance.
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From page 10... ...
Immigrant children and youth are three times as likely and second-generation children and youth are twice as likely, compared with the third and later generation, to lack health insurance coverage, mainly because of its high cost and lack of employer coverage. Even among children whose parents work full-time, year-round, those in immigrant families are less likely to be insured than those in U.S.-born families.
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From page 11... ...
Meaningful conclusions about the circumstances and causal processes affecting children in immigrant families require, in addition, the identification and measurement of those aspects of the immigrant experience, context, and culture that are unique to immigrants, as well as those factors that are relevant to the healthy development of all children living in the United States. Few national information systems currently collect the full array of data needed on country of origin and immigrant status, few have samples large enough to support conclusions for more than three or four specific countries of origin, and none has progressed significantly in collecting information on aspects of healthy development and adjustment that may be unique to children in immigrant families.
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From page 12... ...
No existing research effort provides an adequate basis for a national assessment of these issues. Moreover, several of the most intriguing findings in the current literature on immigrant children notably those pertaining to unexpected positive outcomes and deteriorating outcomes over time require longitudinal data and substantial contextual information if their causes and pathways are to be clarified.
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From page 13... ...
A series of ethnographic studies on the physical and mental health of children and youth in diverse immigrant families should, insofar as possible, be embedded in the proposed longitudinal survey of children in immigrant families or in other national surveys. The proposed longitudinal survey of children in immigrant families can provide statistically reliable estimates of major outcomes and processes for children in immigrant families as a whole, and for important social and cultural subgroups.
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From page 14... ...
The need for care to be provided in a culturally competent manner, including immigrant involvement in programs for their own care, has being widely recognized by numerous federal and international health agencies and professional associations of physicians, nurses, and social workers. Efforts supported by federal and state governments, professional organizations, and health care institutions should be systematically assessed to provide the basis for implementing and evaluating community intervention programs that are also culturally sensitive.
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From page 15... ...
Although a recent presidential executive order mandates the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics to publish an annual report on children (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1996, 1997)
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