Because of recent immigration trends, children with immigrant parents—whether legal or illegal—are the fastest growing segment of the nation's child population, making up about 20 percent of all children in the United States. Children of immigrants, especially undocumented immigrants, often face greater hardship than their native counterparts.

How many children of immigrants are there?

There are 15 million children of immigrants living in the United States. About 12 million of those children were born here and are, therefore, citizens. But approximately 3.5 million of those U.S.-born children live with undocumented parents.

How are these children affected?

Children who are citizens are entitled to public benefits, but their unauthorized parents may be reluctant to approach public institutions for services for fear of deportation. Unauthorized parents also tend to work at low-paying, unstable jobs and lack access to bank accounts and other financial services.

In 2000, 32 percent of children of immigrants in the elementary grades had parents without high school degrees, compared with 9 percent of children of natives. Fifteen percent of children of immigrants had parents with less than 9th grade educations, compared with only 1 percent of children of natives.

In 2000, 68 percent of the total population of young children of immigrants lived in six "major destination" states: California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, and New Jersey.

What about their economic situation?

Children of immigrants live in lower income families than children of natives. In 2003, 54 percent of children of immigrants versus 36 percent of children of natives lived in low-income families, those with incomes less than twice the federal poverty level.

The median hourly wage for native parents of young children was about $17 in 2002, compared to $13 for immigrant parents of young children.

Since unauthorized immigrants earn especially low wages, their children are most likely to be low income. In 2003, the low-income share was 33 percent for children with naturalized parents, 56 percent for children with legal noncitizen parents, and 72 percent for children with unauthorized parents.

Overview research (pdf files)

"Children of Immigrants: Facts and Figures"

"The Health and Well-Being of Young Children of Immigrants"

"The New Demography of America's Schools: Immigration and the No Child Left Behind Act"

"A Profile of Low-Income Working Immigrant Families"