Woodrow-Lafield, Karen A. 2004. “Immigrant Families in Poverty: Investigation and Paradox,” Presented at the annual meeting of the Southern Demographic Association, Hilton Head.


In 2001, the official poverty measure classified 11.7 percent of the U.S. population as poor, 16.1 percent of the foreign-born as poor, and 19.7 percent of noncitizens as poor. According to the National Academy of Sciences and other experts, the official poverty measure has serious weaknesses in not accounting for noncash benefits and necessary expenses of contemporary families. Another point of concern has been geographic differences in living costs. This paper shows poverty rates for the foreign-born recalculated according to alternative measures in the official poverty report for 2002, finding foreign-born householder families, especially noncitizens, would be more likely classified as poor. The current official measure understates difficulties these families face due to higher housing costs, higher work expenses such as child care and paying taxes, and fewer resources from food stamps, energy assistance, and housing subsidies. Poor immigrants are not faring as well as officially indicated and these results suggest the number of children of foreign-born parents in poverty may be greater than official estimates. Paradoxically, where families live is more difficult to incorporate within poverty measurement at the same time as immigrant families are multiplying in high-cost metropolitan areas.