Report Documents Steep U.S. Declines in Poverty Among Immigrants and Their Children from the Great Recession into the Global Pandemic
WASHINGTON, DC — The United States has witnessed a historic decline in poverty in recent years. Poverty rates fell sharply during the decade following the end of the 2007–09 recession and preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, lifting millions out of poverty. Poverty rates continued to drop between 2019 and 2021, notwithstanding the economic turmoil generated by the pandemic, as government at all levels introduced aid programs to blunt the financial harms.
The poverty rate declines were felt across the overall population, U.S. born and immigrant alike, with a particularly sharp drop in child poverty. Poverty declined among both naturalized and non-citizen immigrant populations, and across all major racial and ethnic categories, a Migration Policy Institute (MPI) issue brief out today reveals. Using the U.S. Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, MPI researchers analyzed how poverty rates changed for U.S.-born citizens and immigrants between 2009 and 2021.
Despite an increase in the immigrant population over the 2009-2019 period, the number of immigrants experiencing poverty fell from 9.6 million in 2009 to slightly less than 8 million a decade later with the share in poverty dropping from 25 percent to 18 percent. The number and share of immigrants in poverty also fell precipitously between 2019 and 2021, from 18 percent to 13 percent, with the introduction of large-scale government aid packages during the pandemic.
Expansion of the nation’s safety net over the past three decades, a strengthening economy coming out of the 2007-09 recession and the changing characteristics of the immigrant population also help explain the poverty reduction.
During the past decade, the proportion of immigrant adults without a high school education fell and the share with a college degree rose, as did English proficiency, the issue brief notes. The share of immigrant women in the workforce also grew while the size of immigrant families declined. The changing legal status composition of the immigrant population also likely contributed to poverty declines as shares of naturalized citizens and green-card holders rose while the unauthorized share of the foreign-born population fell from 28 percent to 23 percent between 2010 and 2019.
“In short, the broad, somewhat surprising declines in poverty across the nation’s immigrant population likely result not only from the stronger social welfare policies and spending in recent years but also from the immigrant population’s changing characteristics and positive immigrant integration trends,” MPI researchers Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix write.
Even as poverty rates fell across the board, the steepest declines occurred within the nation’s child population. In 2021, 3.5 million children under age 18 lived in poverty as compared to 12.1 million in 2009. About 2 million of the 3.5 million children in poverty were U.S.-born children with only U.S.-born parents, down from 7.5 million in 2009; over the same period, the number of children of immigrants in poverty fell from 4.6 million to 1.5 million.
Racial and ethnic minorities also experienced large declines in poverty, with all major racial and ethnic groups seeing lower poverty rates in 2021 than in 2009. For instance, the shares of Latino and Black non-citizens in poverty—historically disadvantaged both because of their minority and non-citizen status—fell by about half between 2009 and 2021. Moreover, the gaps between U.S.-born White individuals (the population with the lowest poverty exposure) and other race/ethnicity and citizenship groups narrowed over this period, highlighting progress in reducing racial inequities regarding poverty.
Still, despite these improvements, disparities by citizenship and race/ethnicity remain. As before, Latino and Black non-citizens were more likely to be in poverty in 2021 (18 percent and 17 percent, respectively) than non-citizens who were Asian American and Pacific Islander (13 percent) or White (11 percent). U.S.-born individuals who identified as Black or Latino were also more likely to be poor (11 percent and 9 percent, respectively) than those who were AAPI (7 percent) or White (6 percent). Patterns of disadvantage along racial and ethnic lines were similar among children as well. The study finds that children (U.S. citizen and non-citizen alike) with only non-citizen parents had poverty rates three to four times higher than those with at least one U.S.-citizen parent.
The researchers note some developments are poised to reverse some of the poverty declines, including the termination of pandemic-linked assistance, coming at a time of rising inflation. Part of the story will also turn on how well post-pandemic arrivals are integrated into U.S. society.
Read the brief here: www.migrationpolicy.org/research/poverty-declines-immigrants-united-states.
Earlier MPI work examines immigrants’ eligibility and participation in federal safety net programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), immigrant children’s use of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and immigrant adult eligibility for Medicaid.