Success Stories

A New Report on the Young
Children of Immigrants

The fastest growing sector of children in America is the group younger than six years with at least one immigrant parent. This online publication, “The Health and Well-Being of Young Children of Immigrants” by Randolph Capps, Michael E. Fix, Jason Ost, Jane Reardon-Anderson, and Jeffrey S. Passel, from the Urban Institute provides current information. The insights are valuable to helping early childhood and family educators understand how to meet the needs of this diverse population. One of the key findings from the Urban Institute summary follows.

“Many young children of immigrants live in families with low incomes, have parents with low education levels and limited English proficiency, and interact less often with their parents. All these factors are associated with low performance in school.

“Fifty-six percent of young children of immigrants live in low-income families (families with incomes less than twice the federal poverty level); 64 percent of foreign-born children of immigrants live in low-income families.

“Twenty-nine percent of young children of immigrants have parents with less than a high school education (versus 8 percent of children of natives).
Fifty-eight percent have one or more limited English proficient (LEP) parents. Seventy-four percent of young children of immigrants are read to by parents at least three times a week, compared with 89 percent of children of natives.”

Download the full report by going to the Urban Institute’s website. On that page, click on “Find Research by Topic” in the Research Finder box. Select “Child Care and Development,” and you will find a link to the report “The Health and Well-Being of Young Children of Immigrants” on that page. Additional facts about new American children can be downloaded from the Foundation for Child Development.