How Much Does Change in the Proportion of Children Living in Immigrant Families Contribute to Change in the Poverty Rate among Children?

In the midst of the debate over immigration, some argue that the high poverty rate among children in the United States is mainly due to the large number of children who live in poor immigrant families. Using data from the US Current Population Survey, this study investigates how much of the dramatic decrease in the child poverty rate between 1993 and 2001, and the equally dramatic increase between 2001 and 2010, can be attributed to changes in the proportion of children living in immigrant families. The decomposition analyses show that, although children of immigrants placed upward pressure on the child poverty rate during both periods, they played a negligible role in the fluctuations of the rates. Nonetheless, children in noncitizen families and those with longer residency made larger contributions to the child poverty rate than children in naturalized-citizen or newly immigrated families.