Fact Sheets Offer Key U.S., State Data on U.S.-Born & Immigrant Parents of Young & Elementary School-Age Children to Aid in Addressing Disparities and Two-Generation Integration Needs

WASHINGTON — The Migration Policy Institute’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy (NCIIP) today published a series of U.S. and state fact sheets that aim to inform efforts to more equitably address the integration needs of U.S. immigrant families through the early childhood, K-12, post-secondary, adult education and health and social services systems.

Longstanding disparities that undermine the economic mobility and integration of immigrant parents and their children’s prospects for success in school and beyond have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite expectations that education and health and social services systems play a major role in addressing disparities experienced by these children and families, they remain largely unaddressed, in part due to limited availability and use of data that pinpoints significant, and often compounding, two-generation challenges affecting these parents and their children.

Drawing on tabulation of 2014–2018 data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), the fact sheets offer general demographic characteristics, educational attainment and English proficiency, income and poverty levels, employment characteristics and digital access for U.S.-born and immigrant parents of young (0-4) and elementary school-age (5-10) children. The fact sheets span the United States and 31 states. Accompanying data tables provide results for all 50 states and the 50 most populous counties, as well as data for parents with children ages 11-13 and 14-17.

The data highlight significant barriers that are disproportionately experienced by immigrant families, including poverty, limited English proficiency, digital access and device challenges, linguistic isolation and low levels of parental formal education. By doing so, the analysis underscores the intertwined nature of disparities facing immigrant-background children and their parents, as well as the need for policy and program frameworks to more equitably and effectively respond to these intertwined disparities.

“The pandemic has harshly spotlighted multiple inequities experienced by immigrant and other racial, ethnic and low-income communities. Rebuilding toward a stronger and more equitable future requires a fresh look at disparities plainly evident in analyses such as this, and investments in updated program and system designs that recognize their existence and effectively respond to them,” said NCIIP Director Margie McHugh.

The fact sheets cover the following states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

Access the U.S. and state fact sheets, as well as accompanying data tables, here: www.migrationpolicy.org/research/immigrant-us-born-parents-young-children.

For more of the NCIIP’s work on MPI’s work on children and families, visit: www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/nciip-children-and-family-policy.

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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. MPI’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy is a crossroads for elected officials, researchers, state and local agency managers, grassroots leaders, local service providers and others who seek to understand and respond to the challenges and opportunities today’s high rates of immigration create in local communities.