Thread: Illegal Immigration Increases US Proverty

edited article ....

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/bg2064.cfm

August 27, 2007
How Poor Are America's Poor? Examining the "Plague" of Poverty in America
by Robert E. Rector
Backgrounder #2064

While renewed welfare reform can help to reduce poverty, under current conditions, such efforts will be partially offset by the poverty-boostÂ*ing impact of the nation's immigration system. Each year, the U.S. imports, through both legal and illegal immigration, hundreds of thousands of additional poor persons from abroad.

As a result, one-quarter of all poor persons in the U.S. are now first-generaÂ*tion immigrants or the minor children of those immigrants. Roughly one in ten of the persons counted among the poor by the Census Bureau is either an illegal immigrant or the minor child of an illegal.

As long as the present steady flow of poverty-prone persons from foreign countries continues, efforts to reduce the total number of poor in the U.S. will be far more difficult. A sound anti-poverty strategy must seek to increase work and marriage, reduce illegal immigration, and increase the skill level of future legal immigrants.

Immigration and Poverty

Unfortunately, any effort to reduce the number of poor persons in the U.S. will be partially offset by current immigration policies. Each year, immigraÂ*tion (both legal and illegal) adds hundreds of thouÂ*sands of new persons to the nation's poverty count. Overall, first-generation immigrants and their minor children account for nearly one-fourth of all poor people in the U.S.[37]

Illegal as well as legal immigrants play a signifiÂ*cant role in swelling the count of Americans in povÂ*erty. This may seem surprising as there is a common perception that illegal immigrants are not recorded in Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS), which forms the basis of the official poverty estimate. This perception is inaccurate. The CPS and other Census surveys record whether an individual is an immigrant or non-immigrant but do not distinÂ*guish between legal and illegal immigrants. Close examination reveals that the number of self-identiÂ*fied immigrants appearing in the CPS exceeds the potential number of legal immigrants in the U.S. by some 10 or 11 million persons. These "extra" immiÂ*grants in the CPS are, in fact, illegal immigrants.[38] Because millions of illegal immigrants are reported in the CPS, these same illegal immigrants are also included in the official count of poor persons which is based on CPS data.

Roughly 30 percent of illegal immigrants are poor by official government standards. Among the children of illegal immigrants, the poverty rate is 37 percent.[39] Overall, illegal immigrants and their chilÂ*dren represent between 4.5 percent and 5.0 percent of the U.S. population, but they are roughly one-tenth of all poor persons appearing in government poverty reports.[40]

Immigrants have high levels of poverty because they have low levels of education compared to non-immigrants. Roughly a third of immigrant households are headed by persons without a high school degree. Among adult illegal immigrants, some 50 percent to 60 percent lack a high school degree. By contrast, only 12 percent of non-immigrant households are headed by persons without a high school degree.[41]

Another major factor contributing to poverty among children of immigrants is out-of-wedlock childbearing. Hispanic immigrants account for around 59 percent of all births to immigrants. Among the Hispanic immigrants, 42.3 percent of children are born out of wedlock. In general, chilÂ*dren born and raised outside marriage are seven times more likely to live in poverty than are children born and raised by married couples.[42]

As long as the current steady influx of low-skilled, poverty-prone immigrants continues, efforts to reduce the number of poor in the U.S. will be far more difficult. By contrast, policies to stop the flood of illegal immigrants into the U.S. and to increase the education and skill levels of future legal immigrants would substantially reduce the number of poor persons in the U.S. in future years.

Conclusion

The living conditions of persons defined as poor by the government bear little resemblance to notions of "poverty" promoted by politicians and political activists. If poverty is defined as lacking adequate nutritious food for one's family, a reasonably warm and dry apartment to live in, or a car with which to get to work when one is needed, then there are relatively few poor perÂ*sons remaining in the United States. Real mateÂ*rial hardship does occur, but it is limited in scope and severity.

The typical American defined as "poor" by the government has a car, air conditioning, a refrigeraÂ*tor, a stove, a clothes washer and dryer, and a microÂ*wave. He has two color televisions, cable or satellite TV reception, a VCR or DVD player, and a stereo. He is able to obtain medical care. His home is in good repair and is not overcrowded. By his own report, his family is not hungry and he had suffiÂ*cient funds in the past year to meet his family's essential needs. While this individual's life is not opulent, it is equally far from the popular images of dire poverty conveyed by the press, liberal activists, and politicians.

But the living conditions of the average poor perÂ*son should not be taken to mean that all poor AmerÂ*icans live without hardship. There is a wide range of living conditions among the poor. Roughly a third of poor households do face material hardships such as overcrowding, intermittent food shortages, or difficulty obtaining medical care. However, even these households would be judged to have high livÂ*ing standards in comparison to most other people in the world.

Moreover, the United States can readily reduce its remaining poverty, especially among children. The main causes of child poverty in the United States are low levels of parental work, high numbers of single-parent families, and low skill levels of incoming immigrants. By increasing work and marÂ*riage, reducing illegal immigration, and by improvÂ*ing the skill level of future legal immigrants, our nation can, over time, virtually eliminate remaining child poverty.

Robert Rector is Senior Research Fellow in Domestic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation.

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/bg2064.cfm

The main causes of child poverty in the United States are low levels of parental work, high numbers of single-parent families, and low skill levels of incoming immigrants.

One of the main causes of child poverty is low skill levels of incoming immigrants? That's funny, that's exactly what businesses have been trying to convince everyone we need.