Immigrant Children: Introducing the Issue

Immigrant Children: Introducing the Issue

Marta Tienda and Ron Haskins

arge numbers of immigrant aging society that will require unprecedented children are experiencing seri- social expenditures for and retirement ous problems with education, benefits for seniors. Third, large numbers of physical and , these youth now live in communities where poverty, and assimilation into few foreign-born residents have previously LAmerican society. The purpose of this volume settled. That more than 5 million youth now is to examine the well-being of these children reside in households of mixed legal status, and what might be done to improve their where one or both parents are unauthor- educational attainment, health status, social ized to live and work in the United States, and cognitive development, and long-term heightens still further the uncertainty about prospects for economic mobility. the futures of immigrant children.3 Although nearly three-fourths of children who live The well-being of immigrant children is with undocumented parents are citizens by especially important to the nation because birth, their status as dependents of unauthor- they are the fastest-growing segment of the ized residents thwarts integration prospects U.S. population. In 2008, nearly one in four during their crucial formative years.4 Even youth aged seventeen and under lived with having certifiably legal status is not enough to an immigrant parent, up from 15 percent in guarantee children’s access to social programs 1990.1 Among children younger than nine, if parents lack information about ben- those with immigrant parents have accounted efits and entitlements, as well as the savvy to for virtually all of the net growth since 1990.2 navigate complex bureaucracies. What these demographic trends portend for the future of immigrant children, however, In this volume, we use the term immigrant is highly uncertain for several reasons. First, youth to refer to children from birth to age whether they achieve social integration and seventeen who have at least one foreign-born economic mobility depends on the degree of parent. Because an immigrant child’s birth- access they have to quality education from place—that is, whether inside or outside the preschool through college. Second, these United States—is associated with different young immigrants are coming of age in an rights and responsibilities and also determines

Marta Tienda is the Maurice P. During ’22 Professor in Demographic Studies and a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University. Ron Haskins is a senior editor of The Future of Children, a senior fellow in economic studies and co-director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution, and a senior consultant at the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

VOL. 21 / NO. 1 / SPRING 2011 3 Marta Tienda and Ron Haskins eligibility for some social programs, to the to seventeen living in families that speak extent possible contributors to the volume a language other than English rose from 9 distinguish between youth who are foreign- percent in 1979 to 21 percent in 2008. Of born (designated the first generation) and these youth in non-English-language house- those who were born in the United States to holds, who represent 5 percent of all school- immigrant parents (the second generation). aged youth in the United States, nearly one U.S.-born children whose parents also were in four speaks English with difficulty.8 Youth born in the United States make up the third reared in homes where English is not spoken generation.5 lag behind native youth in reading and math achievement, especially if their parents have The Problem little education. We underscore that it is the Contemporary immigrant youth are far more combination of poor parental schooling and diverse by national origin, socioeconomic not using English at home that is associated status, and settlement patterns than earlier waves of immigrants, and their growing with poor scholastic outcomes for immigrant 9 numbers coincide with a period of high socio- minority youth. economic inequality.6 Recent economic and social trends provide cause for concern. On most social indicators, children with immi- Recent economic and social grant parents fare worse than their native- trends provide cause for born counterparts. For example, compared with their third-generation age counterparts, concern. On most social immigrant youth are more likely to live in indicators, children with poverty, forgo needed medical care, drop out of high school, and experience behavioral immigrant parents fare 7 problems. At the same time, however, immi- worse than their native-born grant youth are more likely than natives to reside with two parents, a family arrangement counterparts. generally associated with better outcomes for youth than is residing with a single parent. The benefits of this protective family arrange- Historically immigrants have used schools ment, however, are weakened for immigrant not only to acquire the skills and knowledge youth whose parents are not proficient in needed for successful integration into U.S. English, are not authorized to live and work society, but also, paradoxically, to achieve in the United States, and have only limited ethnic recognition. Even as the children of earnings capacity. German, Italian, and Russian immigrants learned English and adopted American The academic progress of the large majority norms decades ago, their parents rallied of immigrant youth residing in households whose members speak a language other around foreign-language instruction and 10 than English lags behind that of children bilingualism as a symbol of national identity. whose parents were born in the United Although contemporary immigrants largely States. According to the U.S. Department hail from Latin America and Asia rather of Education, the share of children aged five than from Europe, similar scenes play out

4 THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN Immigrant Children: Introducing the Issue today in disputes between parents and school of English and their home language, home administrators about whether schools are language loss is virtually complete by the third responsible for maintenance of home lan- generation, even in cities such as Los Angeles guages and in the enactment of public laws where the density of foreign-born populations that declare English the nation’s official lan- permits bilingualism to proliferate in public guage. A crucial difference, however, is that venues.13 What is not debatable is the respon- the educational requirements for successful sibility of public schools to teach English so economic integration are higher now than in that immigrant youth can succeed in school. the past, when basic literacy and numeracy Pragmatically, that responsibility requires often provided entry to secure jobs that paid effective teaching of academic subjects in a family wage. Today, failure to master En- English so that students master increasingly glish in the early grades undermines scholas- complex concepts and vocabulary. tic achievement, educational attainment, and, ultimately, economic mobility.11 Researchers disagree about whether it is more effective to teach English to non- Although researchers and policy analysts English speakers through bilingual instruc- agree that the educational attainment of tion or English immersion. Indeed, in the immigrants rises between the first and the debate over the better means to reach the second generation, they are divided over end—academic achievement—the means whether educational gains plateau or per- sometimes becomes an end in itself. In their haps even decline for the third generation article in this volume, Margarita Calderón, and beyond.12 The debate over that question Robert Slavin, and Marta Sánchez assert remains largely academic because method- that the pedagogical strategy is less conse- ological and data problems prevent a defini- quential than the quality of instruction, but tive adjudication. Nor do studies of multiple this message has been slow to reach schools generations of immigrants provide an answer, and districts mired in bureaucratic regula- because the experiences of immigrants dur- tions for serving immigrant youth. Contro- ing the 1960s and 1970s do not reflect the versies about pedagogy aside, evidence is diverse social and economic circumstances incontrovertible that children who begin faced by contemporary immigrant youth. kindergarten with limited proficiency in Although Mexicans are the nation’s largest spoken English fall behind native speakers in immigrant group and the subject of many both reading and math proficiency; more- studies, their experiences cannot be general- over, early achievement gaps widen through ized to all recent immigrant groups, even primary school and carry over to middle those from Latin America. school and beyond.14 Sociologist Min Zhao claims, and we agree, that English mastery Controversy about the most effective way is the single most important prerequisite for to teach children whose first language is not academic success and socioeconomic assimi- English is anything but academic. Ideologi- lation of immigrant children.15 cal and political debates about preserving home languages notwithstanding, both the Analyses of the Longitu- contemporary and historical records show dinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99 that regardless of whether immigrant youths (ECLS–K), show that the reading skills of are instructed in English or a combination language-minority kindergarten students

VOL. 21 / NO. 1 / SPRING 2011 5 Marta Tienda and Ron Haskins who are proficient in spoken English are of demographic trends and family arrange- comparable to those of native speakers and ments. The following five articles address that the two groups make comparable gains educational trends and differentials, includ- in skills as they move through school. Fur- ing language fluency. The final three articles thermore, math achievement gaps between take a close look at youthful immigrants’ native speakers and immigrant youth who health status, social integration, and partici- are proficient in English when they begin pation in welfare and other public programs. school narrow over time.16 By contrast, We turn now to a summary of the articles in minority students who begin kindergarten the volume. with limited oral English proficiency fall behind native speakers in their reading abil- Demographic Trends ity, resulting in a substantial achievement gap Jeffrey Passel of the Pew Hispanic Center by fifth grade.17 surveys demographic trends of the U.S. youth population, with an emphasis on trends Despite ample evidence of upward educa- among immigrant youth. Immigrant youth tional mobility between the first and second now account for one-fourth of the nation’s 75 generation, especially for immigrant youth million children; by 2050 they are projected from Latin America, the uneven progress to make up one-third of more than 100 mil- by national origin is worrisome. Asian-origin lion U.S. children. The wave of migrants attain higher levels of education under way since the mid-1960s has made on average than native white youth, owing children the most racially and ethnically largely to their higher college attendance diverse age group in the United States in the and completion rates. Most of Hispanics’ nation’s history. In 1960, Hispanic, Asian, intergenerational educational progress takes and mixed-race youth made up 4 percent place at the secondary level; their postsec- of all U.S. children; today their share is 28 ondary progress has been more limited.18 percent. During that same period the share College attendance, it must be said, is not of non-Hispanic white children steadily a basic right nor is access to a postsecond- dropped from about 80 percent to 57 per- ary education guaranteed for academically cent. Demographers project that by 2050, qualified youth, regardless of their parents’ when one-third of all U.S. children will be or their own immigration status. The 1982 Hispanic, non-Hispanic whites will make up Plyler v. Doe Supreme Court decision that only 40 percent. guarantees K–12 schooling for immigrant youth whose parents, or who themselves, are Because many immigrants arriving since 1970 undocumented does not apply to postsecond- are unskilled, and hence have low earnings ary schooling, which is neither compulsory capacity, the changing demography of Ameri- nor free.19 ca’s youth presents policy makers with several challenges in coming decades, including high Findings of the Volume rates of youth poverty, particularly among The articles in this volume fall into three foreign-born children and children of undoc- broad categories. The first two articles set the umented parents, dispersal of immigrants stage for the subsequent review of research to new destinations, and a lack of political about the well-being of immigrant youth in voice. In addition, youth and the elderly will the United States and provide an overview compete for scarce societal resources such

6 THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN Immigrant Children: Introducing the Issue as education funding, Social Security, and both of the Rand Corporation, examine how government health benefits. early care and education (ECE) programs can offset these problems and promote Living Arrangements the development of preschool immigrant Nancy Landale, Kevin Thomas, and Jennifer children. Participation in center-based care Van Hook, all of Pennsylvania State Univer- and formal preschool programs has been sity, examine differences by country of origin shown to have substantial short-term ben- in immigrant families’ human capital, legal efits that may extend into and status, social resources, and living arrange- beyond. Yet immigrant children participate ments, focusing especially on children of in nonparental care of any type, including Mexican, Southeast Asian, and black Carib- center-based ECE programs, at lower rates bean origin. Problems common to immigrant than native children. families, such as poverty and discrimination, may be partially offset by the benefits of liv- Affordability, availability, and access to ing in two-parent families, an arrangement ECE programs are structural barriers for that is more common among immigrants than many immigrant families, just as they are among U.S.-born youth. But the strong mar- for disadvantaged families more generally. riage bonds that protect immigrant children In addition, language barriers, bureaucratic erode as families in the second and subse- complexity, and distrust of government quent generations become swept up in the programs, especially among undocumented same social forces that are increasing single workers, may discourage participation, even parenthood among all American families. when children might qualify for subsidies. Cultural preferences for parental care at Immigrant families face many risks. The home can also be a barrier. migration itself sometimes separates par- ents from their children. Mixed legal status The authors make two policy recommenda- afflicts many families, especially those from tions for improving ECE participation rates Mexico. Parents’ unauthorized status can among immigrant children. First, although mire children in poverty and unstable living arrangements. Sometimes unauthorized federal and state ECE programs that target parents are too fearful of deportation to claim disadvantaged children in general are likely the public benefits for which their children to benefit disadvantaged immigrant children qualify. , especially Southeast Asian as well, making preschool attendance uni- immigrants, sometimes lose family members versal, as some states have done, or making to war or hardship in camps. preschool available based on residence in targeted communities rather than based on Education: Preschool Programs targeted child or family characteristics, would Immigrant children are more likely than likely further boost participation by immi- native children to face circumstances, such grant children. Second, publicly subsidized as low family income, poor parental educa- programs can be structured and marketed to tion, and language barriers, that place them minimize such obstacles as language barriers, at risk of developmental delay and poor cultural sensitivities, informational gaps, and academic performance once they enter misperceptions about government services or school. Lynn Karoly and Gabriella Gonzalez, ECE programs.

VOL. 21 / NO. 1 / SPRING 2011 7 Marta Tienda and Ron Haskins

Education: K–12 these advantages and place immigrant chil- Robert Crosnoe of the University of dren at risk for a host of negative develop- Texas–Austin and Ruth López Turley of mental outcomes. Rice University examine the performance of immigrant children in K–12 education, Crosnoe and Turley also discuss policy pro- paying special attention to differences by posals targeting immigrant youth, especially generational status, race and ethnicity, and those from Latin America. Among the pro- national origin. Immigrant youths often posals are the federal Development, Relief, outperform their native peers in school—an and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) advantage known as the immigrant paradox, Act, which would create a pathway to citizen- because it would not be predicted by the ship for undocumented youth who meet relatively higher rates of social and economic certain criteria, including completing two disadvantages among immigrant families. years of postsecondary education; culturally The paradox is more pronounced among the grounded programs to prepare immigrant children of Asian and African immigrants adolescents for college; and programs to than other groups, is stronger for boys than involve immigrant parents in young chil- for girls, and is far more consistent in second- dren’s schooling. ary school than in elementary school. School readiness appears to be one area of potential Education: Community Colleges risk for children from immigrant families, Robert Teranishi, Carola Suárez-Orozco, especially those of Mexican origin. For many and Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, all of New York groups, including those from Latin America, University, explore how community colleges evidence of the immigrant paradox usually can better serve the specific educational emerges after researchers control for family needs of immigrant students. socioeconomic circumstances and children’s English language skills. For other groups, A first priority is to boost the enrollment of the immigrant paradox is at least partially such students. Because community col- explained by “immigrant selectivity,” or the leges are conveniently located, cost much tendency for more advantaged and ambitious less than four-year colleges, often feature families to leave their home country for the open admissions, and often try to accom- United States. modate the needs of students who work or have family responsibilities, immigrant Differences between immigrant and native students are already highly likely to enroll youth in nonacademic outcomes are often in two-year colleges. But through outreach more mixed. Adolescents from Asian immi- programs, community colleges could attract grant families often rank higher than their even more immigrant students by providing peers in academic achievement but lower in mentors to help them apply and to overcome socioemotional health. And kindergarten- hurdles unique to their status as immigrants. ers from Mexican immigrant families often Both government and private-sector groups rank lower than their peers on academic could support campaigns to inform immi- skills but higher on classroom adjustment. grant families about financial aid available Strong family ties help explain the immigrant for postsecondary studies and assist them advantages, but the poor quality of schools in navigating the financial aid system. Com- and immigrant neighborhoods may suppress munity colleges themselves could raise funds

8 THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN Immigrant Children: Introducing the Issue to provide scholarships for immigrants and Education: Four-Year Colleges undocumented students. Sandy Baum of Skidmore College and Stella Flores of Vanderbilt University stress that it is To ensure that immigrant students suc- in the nation’s long-term economic interest to ceed and continue their studies, commu- enable immigrants to complete a postsecond- nity colleges should provide high-quality ary education. counseling and academic planning tailored to their needs. To better serve those seek- Some immigrant youth are well represented ing to improve their English language skills, in the nation’s colleges and universities. Oth- community college leaders and state policy ers, notably those from Latin America, Laos, makers should fund high-quality En- and Cambodia, are not. The underrepresen- glish as a Second Language (ESL) instruc- tation of those groups is largely explained tion. Federal reforms should also allow finan- by the poor neighborhoods into which they cial aid to cover tuition for ESL courses. settle, the low socioeconomic status of their parents, the poor quality of the schools they attend, discrimination, and legal barriers. For low-income students, whether of the first, Through outreach programs, second, or third generation, paying for col- community colleges could lege is an especially formidable barrier. attract even more immigrant The sharp rise in demand for skilled labor students by providing over the past few decades has made it more urgent than ever to provide access to post- mentors to help them apply secondary education for all. Policy solutions, and to overcome hurdles say the authors, require researchers to learn more about the differences among immigrant unique to their status as groups, regarding both their human capital and the social and structural environments immigrants. into which they are received.

Removing the legal barriers to education Perhaps even more than for most of the topics faced by undocumented immigrants poses covered in this volume, research on programs political, not conceptual, problems. Because that are successful in improving the prepara- federal efforts have stalled, it is up to state tion, boosting the enrollment, or improving legislatures to address this issue. Providing the performance of immigrant students in adequate funding for postsecondary educa- community colleges is notably thin. There tion through some combination of low tuition is no shortage of good ideas, as this chapter and grant aid is also straightforward, if not shows, but it is difficult to know whether the easy to accomplish. Assuring that Mexican programs are effective. Thus, policy recom- immigrants and others who grow up in low- mendations for improving the role of com- income communities and attend low-quality munity colleges in increasing the educational schools can prepare themselves academically achievement of immigrant students require to succeed in college is especially challeng- more research about what works and why. ing. Policies to improve the elementary and

VOL. 21 / NO. 1 / SPRING 2011 9 Marta Tienda and Ron Haskins secondary school experiences of all children models: school structures and leadership; are likely the most important components language and literacy instruction; integration of a strategy to improve the postsecondary of language, literacy, and content instruction success of all. in secondary schools; cooperative learning; professional development; parent and fam- Education: English Learners ily support teams; tutoring; and monitoring The fastest-growing student population in implementation and outcomes. U.S. schools today is children of immigrants, half of whom do not speak English fluently. The authors conclude that because more Wide and persistent achievement disparities and more English learners are enrolling in between these English learners and English- the public schools, schools must improve the proficient students indicate that schools skills of all K–12 educators through compre- must address the language, literacy, and hensive professional development. academic needs of English learners more effectively. Margarita Calderón and Robert Physical and Mental Health Slavin of Johns Hopkins University and Health status is a vital aspect of human Marta Sánchez of the University of North capital. Poor childhood health contributes Carolina–Chapel Hill identify the elements to lower socioeconomic status in adulthood; of effective instruction and review a variety unhealthy workers are less productive, more of successful program models. costly for employers, and earn less over their lifetimes. Subsequently, low socioeco- Since the 1960s, most U.S. schools with nomic status among parents contributes to large populations of Spanish-speaking En- poor childhood health outcomes in the next glish learners have developed a variety generation. This cycle can be particularly of bilingual programs to instruct English pernicious for low-income minority popula- learners in both Spanish and English. Other tions, including many children of immigrants, schools have implemented English as a according to Krista Perreira of the University Second Language (ESL) programs in which teachers instruct only in English but use of North Carolina–Chapel Hill and India second-language acquisition instructional Ornelas of the University of Washington. strategies (sometimes called “Structured For the children of immigrants, poverty, the English Immersion”). Researchers have stresses of migration, and the challenges fiercely debated the merits of both forms of can substantially increase of instruction. their risk for developing physical and mental health problems. Calderón, Slavin, and Sánchez assert that the quality of instruction and program- Despite their poorer socioeconomic circum- matic features in a whole-school approach to stances and the stress associated with migra- instructing English learners is what matters tion and acculturation, foreign-born children most for promoting academic achievement. who immigrate to the United States typically The authors examine English language have lower mortality and morbidity risks than instruction that has been proven effective, U.S. children born to immigrant parents. highlighting comprehensive reform models, Over time and across generations, however, as well as individual components of these the health advantages fade.

10 THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN Immigrant Children: Introducing the Issue

Access to health care substantially influences Although poorly endowed immigrant fami- the physical and emotional health status of lies face distinct barriers to upward mobility, immigrant children. Less likely to have health their children can overcome these obstacles insurance and regular access to medical care through learning the language and culture services than nonimmigrants, immigrant of the host society while preserving, at least parents delay or forgo needed care for their in part, their home country language, values, children. When these children finally receive and customs. There is extensive evidence care, it is often in the emergency room after that immigrants adapt culturally and progress an urgent condition has developed. economically between the first and second generation. Because immigrant youth from By promoting the physical well-being and professional families tend to achieve social emotional health of immigrant children, and economic success, policy makers should health professionals and policy makers can focus on children from unskilled migrant ultimately improve the long-term economic families, many of whom are further handi- prospects of the next generation. To that capped by unauthorized legal status. Racial end, Perreira and Ornelas recommend that stereotypes produce a positive self-identity health researchers and reformers learn more for white and Asian students but a negative about the unique experiences of immigrant one for blacks and Latinos, and racialized children such as their language issues, family self-perceptions among Mexican American separations, and illegal status; increase access students endure into the third and fourth to medical care and the capacity of providers generations. to work with multilingual and multicultural populations; and continue to improve the The authors cite two important policies that availability and affordability of health insur- would help immigrant youth. One is to legal- ance for all Americans. ize unauthorized young migrants lest, barred from conventional mobility channels, they Assimilation turn to unorthodox means of self-affirmation Alejandro Portes and Alejandro Rivas of and survival. The other is to provide volun- Princeton University examine how young teer programs and other forms of outside immigrants adapt to life in the United States. assistance to guide the most disadvantaged They describe two distinct ethnic populations members of this population and help them of immigrant children: Asian Americans, stay in school. whose parents generally are highly skilled migrants; and Hispanics, whose parents are Poverty mostly unskilled manual workers. Partly Childhood poverty is linked with a range of because of their settlement patterns, and in negative adult socioeconomic outcomes, from particular their residential concentration in lower educational achievement and behav- poor, segregated neighborhoods with limited ioral problems to lower earnings in the labor amenities, differences between these two market. But few researchers have explored groups both in human capital and in their whether exposure to a disadvantaged back- reception in the United States mean large ground affects immigrant children and disparities in resources available to the fami- native children differently. George Borjas of lies and ethnic communities raising the new Harvard University uses Current Population generation. Survey (CPS) data on two specific indicators

VOL. 21 / NO. 1 / SPRING 2011 11 Marta Tienda and Ron Haskins of poverty—the poverty rate and the rate of to tell whether the link results from a set participation in public assistance programs— of permanent factors associated with spe- to examine this important question. cific individuals or groups that tend to lead to “good” or “bad” outcomes over time or He finds that immigrant children have from exposure during childhood to adverse significantly higher rates both of poverty socioeconomic outcomes, such as poverty and of program participation than do native or receipt of Medicaid. Future research children. Nearly half of immigrant children must explore the causal impact of child- are being raised in households that qualify hood poverty on immigrant adult outcomes for some type of means-tested assistance and why the impact might differ between compared with roughly one-third of native immigrant and native families. Developing children. Although the shares of immigrant successful policies to reduce the high cor- and native children living in poverty are relations of poverty and program participa- lower than the shares participating in means- tion between immigrant parents and their tested assistance programs, for each measure children requires better understanding of the rate for immigrant children is nonetheless this correlation. about 15 percentage points higher than that for native children. The higher immigrant participation in means-tested programs mainly reflects their receipt of Medicaid. Developing successful policies to reduce the high Poverty rates among children vary widely depending on whether their parents are correlations of poverty immigrants. The rate for foreign-born chil- and program participation dren with two immigrant parents is nearly double that for native children. The rate for between immigrant parents U.S.-born children of two immigrant parents and their children requires is nearly as high as that for foreign-born chil- dren, but that of U.S.-born children with one better understanding of this immigrant parent is about the same as that for native children. Immigrant children’s rates correlation. of poverty and participation in means-tested programs also vary by national origin, and the national origin groups with the highest mea- Securing the Future: sured poverty and program participation rates Immigrant Dividend or tend to be the largest immigrant groups. Immigrant Division? That today’s immigrant children are com- According to Borjas’s analysis of the CPS ing of age in an aging society means that the data, these native-immigrant differences well-being of future retirees will depend persist into young adulthood. In particular, increasingly on the productivity of younger the program participation and poverty rates workers. Some 13 percent of the U.S. of immigrant children are strongly correlated population today is aged sixty-five and over, with both rates when they become young and the elderly’s share of the population . But it is not possible, says Borjas, will continue to climb as successive cohorts

12 THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN Immigrant Children: Introducing the Issue of baby boomers approach retirement age. continue to explode; left unchecked, that Even as the absolute number of youth aged spending will absorb almost all new federal eighteen and under soars to a historical high, revenues in the future and eventually bank- estimated at around 75 million in 2009, rupt the federal government.23 young people represent a shrinking share of the U.S. population.20 Seniors enjoy another fiscal protection rela- tive to youth in part because their social ben- The social and economic implications of this efits are financed largely by federal payroll temporal coincidence cannot be overstated taxes; social programs for youth, notably edu- because the balance of public spending cur- cation and health care, rely heavily on state rently favors the burgeoning senior popula- and local tax revenue. Benefits do not shrink tion, whose political clout is strengthened for seniors because no law requires federal through powerful organizations like AARP. legislators to maintain a balanced budget Unlike seniors, children do not vote, and if and federal legislators are politically loath to their parents are not citizens, they too have cut benefits. By comparison, most states do little say in the political and administrative require a balanced budget, which forces state decisions that affect their children’s lives. and local politicians to make tough choices Although many organizations support immi- in order to balance budgets. Unlike many grants’ rights, either individually or collec- programs for the poor, the universal social tively, they lack the political muscle and focus programs for seniors—Social Security and that AARP and other organizations provide Medicare—do not shrink during periods of for seniors. These political realities are economic contraction. Simply put, seniors especially important now because Congress receive their Social Security benefits in both appears poised to begin attacking the federal lean and prosperous times, but school and government’s long-ignored debt burden, in health budgets often shrink and expand with part by slashing social programs. business cycles. The 2007–09 recession has been particularly harsh for state and local Declining birth rates and population aging governments, many of which have demon- have shifted the burden of economic depen- strated that no social program—not even dence from the young to seniors. A study by education—is immune from the blades of Susmita Pati and her associates shows that fiscal pruning. Unfortunately for immigrant the generational balance of public spending youth, the poorest school districts, where favors seniors over young people. Between they are disproportionately concentrated, 1980 and 2000, for example, social welfare have fared much worse than the wealthy spending grew in absolute terms and as a districts.24 share of gross national product for both the young and the elderly; however, the distribu- As immigrant children become an ever tion of spending remained fairly stable for greater share of the future U.S. workforce, seniors even as it fluctuated for children.21 the economic and social well-being of retirees Furthermore, the per capita spending gap will depend on the human capital and eco- widened by 20 percent over the period owing nomic productivity of these younger workers largely to higher Medicare and Medicaid to a much greater extent than ever before. expenses for the elderly.22 Worse, spend- Thus, at a critical juncture in its history, the ing on health programs for the elderly will United States has an opportunity to invest in

VOL. 21 / NO. 1 / SPRING 2011 13 Marta Tienda and Ron Haskins immigrant youth and enable them to contrib- because immigrant youth are the fastest- ute to national prosperity even as population growing population group and because the aging unfolds. Concretely, such investment returns to college relative to high school requires strengthening early education, increased markedly during the 1980s and including equalizing English proficiency 1990s, it is essential to raise the college atten- by third grade, and reducing financial and dance and completion rates of immigrant nonfinancial barriers to college. Because lan- youth to boost their economic mobility, foster guage proficiency is the learning platform for social cohesion, and increase their contribu- subsequent academic success, closing English tions to the nation’s economy and to federal proficiency gaps is a necessary, if insufficient, and state revenues. Barriers to postsecondary condition for eliminating achievement gaps education are especially hard to overcome in math, reading, and higher-order skills. for youth who lack legal status despite having James Heckman argues that English language attended U.S. schools and having achieved proficiency gaps must be closed before third sufficiently high academic credentials to grade because test score gaps are relatively qualify for admission. stable after third grade. In other words, later remedial investments may do little to reduce Several states, including Texas and California, such gaps.25 have passed legislation that extends in-state tuition to undocumented youth who are Poverty and low parental earnings capacity admitted to public institutions, but taxpayer- hurt all children, no matter what their own or funded financial aid remains off limits for their parents’ legal status is. Because poorly these youth. Other states interpret the provi- educated parents are less likely to read to sions of the 1996 Reform their children, a substantial share of immi- and Immigrant Responsibility Act to explic- grant youth, particularly those from Mexico itly preclude undocumented youth from and Latin America, has limited opportunity attending public institutions, especially since to acquire preliteracy skills. These gaps in the surge in anti-immigrant sentiment fol- school readiness are decidedly larger for lowing several failed federal attempts to pass Mexican-origin children, who make up the comprehensive reform legislation.27 Resolu- fastest-growing segment of the elementary tion of legal status for young people who have school population. As we have emphasized attended U.S. schools is essential both to already, immigrant children’s lower prelit- enable them to enroll in postsecondary insti- eracy skills stem not from the language their tutions and to garner economic returns from families speak at home, but rather from public investment in their education. their parents’ low educational attainment.26 Importantly, this disadvantage is remedi- Well before the advent of the current able—by ensuring that second-generation gridlock over comprehensive immigration Hispanic children have access to high-quality reform, the U.S. Congress considered several preschool programs. versions of the DREAM Act as a solution to the plight of immigrant youth whose legal Although a growing number of jobs require status often bars them from access to jobs, some postsecondary schooling, thousands college, and driver’s licenses.28 Jeanne Bata- of immigrant youth face financial and nonfi- lova and Margie McHugh estimate that more nancial barriers to college attendance. Both than 700,000 young adults would qualify for

14 THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN Immigrant Children: Introducing the Issue conditional permanent residence under the of foreign-born residents. Because disadvan- provisions of the most recent bill, including taged youth often benefit disproportionately about 110,000 who currently hold an associ- from universal social programs, investments ate’s degree or higher but are unauthorized in immigrant children should be targeted to work legally or to obtain a driver’s license. within universal programs, and goals could be Equally important, an additional 934,000 set to increase participation rates of immi- children now under age eighteen would be grant youth. eligible in the future if they complete a high school degree.29 In summary, the papers in this volume provide compelling evidence that the However compelling the wisdom of enhanc- development of immigrant children and ing the future of the nation through invest- their integration into American society will ments in immigrant youth, lawmakers face continue to lag unless some of the proposed three formidable challenges to do the right recommendations are implemented. Most thing. Political debate over immigration is important are the investments in health and polarized by differences about how to resolve education. Although the future of immi- the legal status of 11 million undocumented grant children is uncertain, what is certain is residents. State and local budgets have been that failure to make these investments will eroded during the severe recession. And result in higher spending on means-tested education spending is the largest single item assistance programs and lower tax revenues in most state and local budgets. Making in the future. As the ratio of senior citizens educational investments in immigrant youth to workers continues to climb, policies to is likely to meet with considerable opposi- ensure the productivity of future workers tion, particularly in school districts unac- will safeguard the future of the nation as well customed to the presence of large numbers as immigrant youth.

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Endnotes

1. Jeffrey S. Passel and Paul Taylor, Undocumented Immigrants and Their U.S.-Born Children (Washington: Pew Hispanic Center, 2010).

2. Karina Fourtney, Donald J. Hernandez, and Ajay Chaudry, “Young Children of Immigrants: The Leading Edge of America’s Future,” Brief 3 (Washington: Urban Institute, August 2010).

3. Passel and Taylor, Undocumented Immigrants and Their U.S.-Born Children (see note 1).

4. In 2008, just under 7 percent of K–12 students had at least one parent who was undocumented; see Jeffrey S. Passel and D’Vera Cohn, A Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States (Washington: Pew Hispanic Center, 2009).

5. Rubén Rumbaut refined discussions about and coined the decimal generations— those between the first and second generation—to acknowledge the great importance of age at migration in shaping youth integration prospects and, in particular, English mastery and academic performance. The most important of these distinctions is the “1.5-generation,” which refers to youth who arrive around age twelve or before. On many social indicators, the 1.5 generation is indistinguishable from U.S.-born children of immigrants. See Rubén G. Rumbaut, “Ages, Life Stages, and Generational Cohorts: Decomposing the Immigrant First and Second Generation in the United States,” International Migration Review 38, no. 3 (2004): 1160–1205.

6. Min Zhao, “Growing Up American: The Challenge Confronting Immigrant Children and Children of Immigrants,” Annual Review of Sociology 23 (1997): 63–95.

7. Child Trends, “Child Trends Indicators,” from Child Trends DataBank (2010) (http://childtrendsdatabank. org).

8. Susan Aud and others, The Condition of Education 2010, NCES 2010-028 (Washington: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, 2010).

9. Barbara Schneider, Sylvia Martinez, and Ann Owens, “Barriers to Educational Opportunities in the U.S.,” in Hispanics and the Future of America, edited by Marta Tienda and Faith Mitchell (Washington: National Academy Press, 2006). Alejandro Portes and Rubén Rumbaut distinguish between English-dominant, Spanish-dominant, and fluent bilingualism. The latter is associated with the strongest academic outcomes, followed by English dominance. Spanish-dominant bilingualism is highly problematic for academic achieve- ment; see Alejandro Portes and Rubén G. Rumbaut, Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Genera- tion (University of California Press, 2001).

10. Michael R. Olneck, “What Have Immigrants Wanted from American Schools? What Do They Want Now? Historical and Contemporary Perspectives of Immigrants, Language and American Schooling,” American Journal of Education 115, no. 3 (2009): 379–406.

11. James L. Heckman, “Skill Formation and the Economics of Investing in Disadvantaged Children,” Science 312, no. 5782 (2006): 1900–02.

12. Based on a longitudinal survey of Mexican Americans residing in Los Angeles and San Antonio during the late 1960s, Edward Telles and Vilma Ortiz find that educational achievement of the third- and fourth-

16 THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN Immigrant Children: Introducing the Issue

generation respondents are lower than that of their second-generation relatives. Brian Duncan and Steven J. Trejo question whether educational attainments of the third and later generations actually decline, or reflect the selective “opting out” of the most successful and assimilated Mexican Americans. See Edward Telles and Vilma Ortiz, Generations of Exclusion: Mexican Americans, Assimilation and Race (New York: Russell Sage, 2008); Brian Duncan and Stephen J. Trejo, “Ethnic Identification, Intermarriage, and Unmeasured Progress by Mexican Americans,” in Mexican Immigration to the United States, edited by George J. Borjas (Chicago: National Bureau of Economic Research and University of Chicago Press, 2007).

13. Rubén Rumbaut, Douglas S. Massey, and Frank D. Bean, “Linguistic Life Expectancies: Immigrant Lan- guage Retention in Southern California,” Population and Development Review 32, no. 3 (2006): 447–60.

14. Michael Kieffer, “Catching Up or Falling Behind? Initial English Proficiency, Concentrated Poverty, and the Reading Growth of Language Minority Learners in the United States,” Journal of Educational Psychol- ogy 100, no. 4 (2008): 851–68; Sean F. Reardon and Claudia Galindo, “Patterns of Hispanic Students’ Math Skill Proficiency in the Early Elementary Grades,”Journal of Latinos and Education 6, no. 3 (2007): 229–51; Sean F. Reardon and Claudia Galindo, “The Hispanic-White Achievement Gap in Math and Read- ing in the Elementary Grades,” American Educational Research Journal 46, no. 3 (2009): 853–91.

15. Zhao, “Growing Up American” (see note 6).

16. Reardon and Galindo, “The Hispanic-White Achievement Gap in Math and Reading in the Elementary Grades” (see note 14).

17. Kieffer, “Catching Up or Falling Behind?” (see note 14); Reardon and Galindo, “The Hispanic-White Achievement Gap in Math and Reading in the Elementary Grades” (see note 14).

18. Marta Tienda, “Hispanicity and : Risks, Opportunities, and the Nation’s Future,” (25th Tomás Rivera Lecture, annual conference of the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Edu- cation, San Antonio, Texas, March 2009).

19. Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982). The court ruled that the state of Texas could not withhold funds to school districts that educate children of undocumented immigrants because, as people in the “ordinary sense of the term,” they are protected by the Fourteenth Amendment and because the laws that restricted funds to districts serving children of undocumented immigrants did not serve a compelling state interest.

20. Jeffrey S. Passel, “Demography of Immigrant Youth: Past, Present, and Future,” The Future of Children 21, no. 1 (2011): 22, figure 1.

21. Susmita Pati and others, “Public Spending on Elders and Children: The Gap is Growing,” LSI Issue Brief 10, no. 2 (2004): 1–4.

22. Ibid.

23. Alice M. Rivlin and Joseph Antos, eds., Restoring Fiscal Sanity 2007: The Health Spending Challenge (Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 2007).

24. Kieffer, “Catching Up or Falling Behind?” (see note 14).

25. Heckman, “Skill Formation and the Economics of Investing in Disadvantaged Children” (see note 11).

VOL. 21 / NO. 1 / SPRING 2011 17 Marta Tienda and Ron Haskins

26. Schneider, Martinez, and Owens, “Barriers to Educational Opportunities in the U.S.” (see note 9).

27. Michael Olivas, “IIRIRA, the DREAM Act, and Undocumented College Student Residency,” Journal of College and University Law 30, no. 2 (2004): 435–64.

28. The most recent version of the bill, introduced in March 2009, would make eligible for conditional perma- nent resident status all persons under thirty-five years of age who entered the United States before age six- teen, who lived in the country for at least five years, and who received a high school diploma or equivalent; see Jeanne Batalova and Margie McHugh, Insight: DREAM vs. Reality: An Analysis of Potential DREAM Act Beneficiaries (Washington: Migration Policy Institute, 2010).

29. Ibid.

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