Report: More academic failure, poverty among the children of immigrants

Children of immigrants are more likely to live in chronic poverty and less likely to perform at grade level in school, according to a report being released Tuesday by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

The report highlights disparities in opportunities for children of immigrants. It also highlights the harder-to-measure impacts of persistent stress on children affected by government policies that result in the profiling, deportation and detention of immigrants.

“When you hear conversations about immigration and immigration policies, it’s rare that you hear about the impacts on kids being discussed,” said Laura Steer, associate director for policy reform and advocacy for the Casey Foundation. “These kids are going to be our future leaders, our future workforce. We need them to be successful.”

Nationally, there are 18 million children who live with parents who emigrated from another country. Of those, 88 percent are U.S. citizens. About 5 million children have a parent who is undocumented.

While children of immigrants make up less than a quarter of the nation’s population of children, they account for 30 percent of those from low-income families, the report says.

They are also more likely to struggle in school. Only 8 percent of fourth-graders in immigrant families scored at or above proficient in reading in 2015 compared to 38 percent of children from nonimmigrant families. And just 5 percent of eighth-grade children from immigrant families scored at or above proficient in math in 2015 compared to 34 percent of children from nonimmigrant families.

Nonso Umunna, research director at Advocates for Children and Youth, based in Maryland, said language and cultural barriers in public schools could be contributing to the disparities in academic performance.

He also noted the relatively low number of children who are attending preschool, an indicator of future academic success.

Children from immigrant families fare better on some measures. Nationally, 80 percent of children from immigrant families have two parents at home, compared to 65 percent of those from U.S.-born families. The disparity is more stark in Washington, D.C. — 77 of children with immigrant parents live with two parents compared to 38 of those with U.S.-born parents.

The data come from the second triennial “Race for Results” report which measures how children from different racial backgrounds are faring in every state across the country.

The report includes policy recommendations to promote the well-being of children of immigrants, including making it a priority to keep immigrant families together when making decisions about deporting or detaining parents.

It also recommends health and education-related policies to help children meet important developmental milestones and policies that would improve economic opportunities for their parents.