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Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance (1999)

Chapter: 12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey

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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

CHAPTER 12
Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey

Richard Mines

This paper reports information for the 1993 to 1995 period from the National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS), which interviews cropworkers across the United States annually. The NAWS collects detailed information about farm-workers as well as in-depth data about members of their families. Wherever possible the information directly describes children of interviewed farmworkers.

This paper also provides data on another (nonoverlapping) group of young people: the employed minor farmworkers (under age 18) directly interviewed by the NAWS who are living away from their parents. Information on these minor interviewees supplements the data on the children of farmworkers who live in their parents' households. These farmworker children who are unaccompanied by their parents are a small but significant group.1

1  

 During the period under study (fiscal years 1993 to 1995), young (under age 18) farmworkers unaccompanied by their parents made up 3.6 percent of all interviewees. Based on a national estimate of 1,810,000 farmworkers, there were about 65,000 of these workers. The figure 1.81 million is derived from the total number of farmworkers estimated by the Commission on Agricultural Workers (2.5 million) multiplied by the proportion of cropworkers estimated by the 1990 U.S. Census of Population and Housing (72.4 percent).

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

Finally, first-generation Puerto Rican-born farmworkers, since they are neither immigrants nor were born in one of the 50 United States, were treated differently in the analysis. Children living in Puerto Rico were not included in the sample of U.S.-based children and were treated as a separate group in the analysis.

INTRODUCTION

The arduous fieldwork of large-scale crop agriculture in the United States has been done, in large measure, by foreign-born or domestic migrants. Many ethnic groups and nationalities have taken such jobs temporarily, only to be replaced by later-arriving groups. When U.S.-born whites and blacks were the main source of labor in the 1930s, they were internal migrants who moved from the Midwest and South to the West. As journalist Carey McWilliams (1935) put it: "Sources of cheap labor in China, Japan, the Philippine Islands, Puerto Rico, Mexico, the Deep South, and Europe have been generously tapped to recruit its ever expanding [farmworker] ranks. As one contingent of recruits after the other has been exhausted, or has mutinied, others have been assembled to take their places."

Agriculture provides or enforces on its workers a flow-through labor market with extraordinarily high rates of turnover. In recent years almost one in five farmworkers was new to U.S. agriculture in the year of the interview—a rate of influx and departure that is quite remarkable. However, the flow through for workers who have U.S.-based children has been much less; just one in 20 of the U.S.-based children has parents who were new to agriculture in the year of the NAWS interview. Among the unaccompanied children who themselves worked in agriculture the rate was much higher—over half (56 percent) were in their first year of U.S. farmwork.

Farmwork has not, for the most part, been a lifetime profession. Instead, it is a job for young workers at the beginning of their employment careers and in their prime working years. The NAWS has demonstrated that in recent years about two-thirds of all farmworkers have been younger than 35 years of age. These are also the years of childbearing and the rearing of young children for these workers. More than four in 10 (44 percent) of the

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

children of farmworkers in the NAWS were under age 6 and three-quarters (75 percent) were younger than age 12.

Many foreign-born farmworkers go through various stages on a continuum between international back-and-forth migration and settlement. Large numbers of workers settle down in U.S. urban areas, where some find better jobs. Some settle in one farm area in the United States and live off agricultural work. Others continue migrating despite the inconvenience of transporting their families long distances at least twice a year. Finally, many find the environment north of the border inhospitable and return to their home country (see Gabbard et al., 1994).

Conditions in the farmworker community are greatly influenced by a large population of unaccompanied males (over half of all farmworkers) who have yet to bring or who will never bring their families to the United States. Many are married and have children abroad; a significant percentage are minors themselves and spend time in the United States working far from their parents.

Many other occupations depend on a high-turnover flow-through labor market that is constantly replenished by new immigrants. The garment and shoe sector, the back-of-the-house restaurant and hotel industry, the auto parts industry, the food-processing sector, the janitorial service industry, and many other sectors have been documented as relying on new immigrants (see Waldinger, 1996; U.S. Government Accounting Office, 1987; Mines and Avina, 1992; Lichtner and Waldinger, 1996). The children of these nonagricultural workers (who greatly outnumber farm-workers' children) may have living conditions similar to those of the children of farmworkers.

The study of children of immigrant farmworkers does not provide much information about children of foreign-born workers who have been living in the United States for many years. Because of the nature of this population, the focus of the present study is on the early years of immigration, settlement, and back-and-forth flows. Still, as a study of risk factors among poor immigrants struggling to survive and raise a family in their first years in the United States, the study of children of farmworkers serves as an excellent laboratory.

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

A Word About the Naws

The NAWS is a random employer-based sample survey of about 2,500 farmworkers per year, gathered in three cycles—winter, summer, and fall. Data from the surveys occurring in fiscal years 1993 to 1995 are used here. There were about 7,000 interviews in total in those years. Among these, there were about 3,000 parents, who together had about 6,000 children ages 0 to 17. These parents, their spouses, and children constitute the sample for the major part of this paper. Not counting their spouses, the parent interviewees are representative of about 775,000 farmworker parents who have about 1.6 million children. Of these children, about 880,000 live in the United States and about 720,000 live abroad at any given time.2 In addition, a small group of interviewed children living away from their parents are analyzed separately.

Organization of the Tables and Paper

The demographic and service access data are organized into two sections below. First, the basic demographics of children of farmworkers are used to describe certain obstacles they face in trying to gain access to American society. Then, some measures of the access they have achieved are reported. Finally, a separate group of children, those working in the United States without their parents, are described.

The first two sections of this paper are organized such that data can be reported and verified in stepwise fashion from Tables 12-1 to 12-4. The descriptions for the first three tables are for U.S.-

2  

The number of children is calculated by taking the ratio of weighted sampled children during fiscal years 1993 to 1995 to weighted sampled farmworker interviewees during the same years. This ratio is 0.88. This proportion of the total 1,810,000 cropworker population is approximately 1.6 million children. Fifty-five percent of the children are in the United States, 44 percent are abroad, and 1 percent are in Puerto Rico.

3  

The sample size of 4,838 in Tables 12-1 through 12-3 represents an estimated 880,000 children. These are the U.S.-based children. Adding the Puerto Rico-based children for Table 12-4, the sample size grows to 4,905, which represents an estimated population of 892,000 children. The population estimates of all cropworkers are derived from the Commission on Agricultural Workers and the U.S. Census of Population and Housing. They are lower-limit estimates.

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

TABLE 12-1 Circumstances of Children in Farmworker Families, for U.S.-Based Children by Child's Birthplace: 1993-195

 

U.S.-Born (%)

Foreign-Born (%)

Total U.S.-Based (%)

Interviewed Parent's Characteristics

 

 

 

U.S.-born non-Hispanic

28.0

0.0

21.0

U.S.-born Hispanic

9.0

1.0

7.5

Mexican-born

60.0

94.0

69.0

Other foreign-born

2.0

5.0

2.5

Total

100.0

100.

100.0

Parent finisher 8 or more years of school

46.0

18.0

40.1

Family migrates each year

22.0

23.0

25.4

School Variables

 

 

 

Enrolled in school, ages 6-11 (N = 974)

92.0

84.0

88.1

Enrolled in school, ages 12-17 (N = 873)

93.0

78.0

87.3

Behind grade level (N = 1,848)

13.3

23.6

16.7

Family Income

 

 

 

Median family income

$12,500-$14,999

$10,000-$12,499

$10,000-$12,499

Families below the poverty line (lower-bound estimate)

61.0

86.0

67.2

Families below the poverty line (upper-bound estimate)

66.0

89.8

72.9

Extended Family Members in Household

5.0

6.0

5.6

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

 

U.S.-Born (%)

Foreign-Born (%)

Total U.S.-Based (%)

Family Receives Federal Services

61.0

56.0

59.5

AFDC

9.0

3.0

7.7

Food stamps

40.0

31.0

38.3

Medicaid

40.0

32.0

37.7

WIC (N= 1,400)

43.0

20.0

40.3

Family in Poverty and Receives Federal Services

79.0

56.0

71.8

AFDC

15.0

3.0

10.7

Food stamps

57.0

35.0

50.7

Medicaid

50.0

34.0

45.0

WIC (N = 986)

47.0

21.0

43.4

Source of Family's Health Care

 

 

 

Emergency room

20.0

37.0

27.9

Migrant health clinic

10.0

18.0

13.0

Nowhere

9.8

11.0

6.4

Private

42.0

25.0

35.6

Public

19.2

9.8

19.0

Total

100.0

100.0

100.0

Family's Perceived Difficulty in Obtaining Health Care

17.0

25.0

19.6

Parent Mixes or Handles Pesticides at Work

29.9

24.7

28.5

Total, All Children

74.1

24.9

100.0

NOTES: N = 4,838, except where noted. See Appendix 12A for descriptions of selected variables.

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

TABLE 12-2 Circumstances of Children in Farmworker Families, for U.S.-Based Children by Parental Presence in Household and Birthplace, 1993-1995

 

Children in Immigrant Families

 

Two-Parent Families

 

Both Foreign Born (%)

One Foreign Born (%)

Child lives in U.S. and abroad

5.3

1.5

Child lives only in U.S.

94.7

98.5

Total (N = 2,045)

100.0

100.0

Siblings born in U.S. and abroad

43.6

5.6

Siblings all born in U.S.

56.4

94.4

Total (N = 2,045)

100.0

100.0

Child separated from one parent (N = 5,621)

59.1

10.1

Child's father came to U.S. first (N = 1,139)

71.0

X

Child's family migrates each year

29.6

31.0

Parent finished 8 or more years of school

21.0

36.0

Child enrolled in school, ages 6-11 (N = 974)

85.9

86.2

Child enrolled in school, ages 12-17 (N = 873)

84.8

91.0

Child behind grade level (N = 1,848)

15.5

11.1

Median family income

$10,000-$12,499

$10,000-$12,499

Families below the poverty line (lower-bound estimate)

76.0

68.0

Families below the poverty line (upper-bound estimate)

82.0

71.2

Extended family members in household

7.0

5.0

Nonfamily present in household

29.0

24.0

Family receiving any federal services

66.0

68.0

AFDC

44.6

40.3

Food stamps

38.0

47.0

Medicaid

41.0

43.0

WIC (N = 1,400)

31.0

33.0

Family in poverty and receives federal services

70.0

81.0

AFDC

4.0

12.0

Food stamps

46.0

65.0

Medicaid

43.0

49.0

WIC (N = 986)

34.0

36.0

Family's source of health care Emergency room

25.4

23.6

Migrant health clinic

11.3

17.2

Nowhere

5.7

5.0

Private

31.5

32.3

Public

19.2

19.8

Total

100.0

100.0

Family's perceived difficulty in obtaining health care

22.0

21.8

Parent mixes or applies pesticides at work

30.6

24.1

Total, all U.S.-based children

58.2

10.0

NOTES: N = 4,838, except where noted. See Appendix 12A for descriptions of selected variables.

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

 

 

Children in Nonimmigrant Families

 

One-Parent Family

Two-Parent Family

One-Parent Family

 

 

Lone-Parent Foreign Born (%)

Both U.S. Born (%)

Lone-Parent U.S. Born (%)

Total U.S.-Based (%)

Child lives in U.S. and abroad

15.1

X

X

3.3

Child lives only in U.S.

84.9

X

X

96.7

Total (N = 2,045)

100.0

X

X

 

Siblings born in U.S. and abroad

36.3

X

X

26.1

Siblings all born in U.S.

63.7

X

X

73.9

Total (N = 2,045)

100.0

X

X

 

Child separated from one parent (N = 5,621)

X

2.2

X

50.8

Child's father came to U.S. first (N = 1,139)

X

X

X

71.3

Child's family migrates each year

35.0

11.7

11.7

27.2

Parent finished 8 or more years of school

29.0

89.0

88.0

39.8

Child enrolled in school, ages 6-11 (N = 974)

97.0

93.3

87.8

87.9

Child enrolled in school, ages 12-17 (N = 873)

87.4

89.9

96.4

87.2

Child behind grade level (N = 1,848)

27.9

18.1

17.9

17.2

Median family income

$10,000$12,499

$10,000$12,499

$10,000 -$12,499

$10,000$12,499

Families below the poverty line (lower-bound estimate)

86.0

31.0

80.0

67.4

Families below the poverty line (upper-bound estimate)

87.9

36.2

82.7

73.1

Extended family members in household

6.0

3.0

4.0

5.6

Nonfamily present in household

33.0

10.0

30.0

26.0

Family receiving any federal services

62.4

27.0

79.0

59.5

AFDC

41.5

16.6

68.6

42.1

Food stamps

43.0

20.0

71.0

37.7

Medicaid

40.0

16.0

59.0

37.8

WIC (N = 1,400)

22.0

7.0

38.0

26.8

Family in poverty and receives federal services

60.0

60.0

92.0

71.5

AFDC

21.0

20.0

52.0

10.6

Food stamps

47.0

52.0

82.0

50.7

Medicaid

46.0

35.0

69.0

45.0

WIC (N = 986)

23.0

14.0

39.0

31.6

Family's source of health care

 

 

 

 

Emergency room

40.4

16.2

23.9

25.9

Migrant health clinic

13.9

2.6

2.9

9.7

Nowhere

9.9

0.6

3.5

4.8

Private

10.2

58.3

34.9

35.9

Public

24.6

20.3

35.3

23.7

Total

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

Family's perceived difficulty in obtaining health care

31.2

9.4

14.6

19.7

Parent mixes or applies pesticides at work

21.7

331.6

15.8

28.4

Total, all U.S.-based children

6.5

18.4

6.8

100.0

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

TABLE 12-3 Circumstances of Children in Farmworker Families, for U.S.-Based Children by Legal Status of Child's Interviewed Parent, 1993-1995

 

U.S. Citizen (%)

Legal Resident (%)

Status Pending (%)

Unauthorized (%)

Total U.S.-Based (%)

Parent is U.S.-born non-Hispanic

63.5

0.0

0.0

0.2

20.6

Parent is U.S.-born Hispanic

26.6

0.0

0.0

0.0

7.4

Parent is Mexican born

9.1

98.4

93.2

93.5

68.0

Parent is other foreign born

1.0

1.4

5.9

6.1

2.5

Total

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

Child is U.S. born

95.0

69.0

56.0

53.0

74.4

Child is foreign born

3.0

30.0

43.0

43.0

0.7

Child was born in Puerto Rico

2.2

10.0

0.0

4.0

24.6

Total

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

Child lives in U.S. and abroad

X

3.3

8.4

14.2

3.2

Child lives only in U.S.

X

96.7

91.6

85.8

96.8

Total (N = 2,045)

X

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

Siblings born in U.S. and abroad

X

34.9

52.4

45.7

26.0

Siblings all born in U.S.

X

65.1

47.7

54.3

74.0

Total (N = 2,045)

X

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

 

U.S. Citizen (%)

Legal Resident (%)

Status Pending (%)

Unauthorized (%)

Total U.S.-Based (%)

Child separated from one parent (N = 5,621)

16.9

40.7

56.8

77.0

50.6

Child's father came to U.S. first (N = 1,139)

X

81.2

77.4

77.4

75.3

Child's family migrates each year

21.5

23.1

34.7

46.7

27.2

Parent finished 8 or more years of school

79.0

22.0

15.0

25.0

40.5

Child enrolled in school, ages 6-11 (N = 974)

91.0

86.0

85.0

85.0

87.4

Child enrolled in school, ages 12-17 (N = 873)

91.0

89.0

71.0

75.0

86.9

Child behind grade level (N = 1,848)

19.5

12.1

26.3

25.4

17.2

Median family income

$12,500

$12,500

$10,000

$7,500

$10,000

 

$14,999

$14,999

$12,499

$9,999

$12,499

Families below the poverty line (lower-bound estimate)

50.0

69.0

86.0

86.0

67.2

Families below the poverty line (upper-bound estimate)

54.8

77.1

87.9

89.3

72.9

Extended family members in household

4.0

7.0

9.0

3.0

5.5

Nonfamily present in household

20.0

14.0

34.0

54.0

26.9

Family receives any federal services

46.0

64.0

70.0

64.0

59.5

AFDC

13.7

4.8

1.7

6.6

7.6

Food stamps

29.0

60.0

55.0

38.0

38.3

Medicaid

24.0

47.0

32.0

41.0

37.5

WIC (N = 1,400)

29.0

41.0

62.0

43.0

40.3

Total, all U.S.-based children

33.2

42.4

8.9

15.5

100.0

NOTES: N = 4,838, except where noted. See Appendix 12A for descriptions of selected variables.

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

TABLE 12-4 Circumstances of Children in Farmworker Families, for U.S.-Based and Puerto Rico-Based Children by Ethnicity and Birthplace of Child's Interviewed Parent, 1993-1995

 

U.S.-Born Non-Hispanic (%)

U.S.-Born Hispanic (%)

Child lives in U.S. and abroad

X

0.3

Child lives only in U.S.

X

99.7

Total (N = 2,045)

X

73.0

Siblings born in U.S. and abroad

X

3.1

Siblings all born in U.S.

X

96.9

Total (N = 2,045)

X

100.0

Child separated from one parent (N = 5,621)

1.3

8.9

Child's father came to U.S. first (N = 658)

X

X

Child's family migrates each year

6.3

37.7

Parent finished 8 or more years of school

92.0

63.0

Child enrolled in school, ages 6-11 (N = 1,537)

92.2

85.4

Child enrolled in school, ages 12-17 (N = 1,310)

91.2

91.1

Child behind grade level (N = 1,892)

17.3

21.1

Median family income

$17,500-$19,999

$10,000-$12,499

Families below the poverty line (lower-bound estimate)

41.7

77.0

Families below the poverty line (upper-bound estimate)

37.0

74.0

Extended family members in household

0.0

5.0

Nonfamily present in household

14.0

22.0

Family receives any federal services

37.0

70.0

AFDC

38.5

37.5

Food stamps

28.0

60.0

Medicaid

24.0

47.0

WIC (N = 1,423)

34.0

41.0

Family in poverty and receives any federal services

73.0

81.0

TAFDC

33.0

30.0

Food stamps

62.0

74.0

Medicaid

48.0

53.0

WIC (N = 1,010)

39.0

37.0

Family's source of health care

 

 

Emergency room

18.5

18.6

Migrant health clinic

0.0

16.1

Nowhere

1.1

3.5

Private

52.0

41.1

Public

22.0

17.6

Total

100.0

100.0

Family's perceived difficulty in obtaining health care

9.3

19.6

Parent mixes or applies pesticides

29.1

16.4

Total, all U.S.-based children

20.20

7.30

NOTES: N = 4,905, except where noted. See Appendix 12A for descriptions of selected variables.

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

 

Puerto Rican (%)

Mexico-Born (%)

Other Foreign-Born (%)

Total U.S.-Based (%)

Child lives in U.S. and abroad

0.0

5.4

18.3

3.3

Child lives only in U.S.

100.0

94.6

81.7

96.8

Total (N = 2,045)

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

Siblings born in U. S. and abroad

X

38.2

52.4

26.1

Siblings all born in U.S.

X

61.8

47.6

74.0

Total (N = 2,045)

X

100.0

100.0

100.0

Child separated from one parent (N = 5,621)

86.8

55.3

78.2

50.7

Child's father came to U.S. first (N = 658)

X

81.7

56.4

62.9

Child's family migrates each year

74.4

29.7

35.4

27.2

Parent finished 8 or more years of school

60.0

22.0

17.0

40.5

Child enrolled in school, ages 6-11 (N = 1,537)

62.4

90.2

90.0

85.9

Child enrolled in school, ages 12-17 (N = 1,310)

72.5

86.1

66.0

85.9

Child behind grade level (N = 1,892)

29.7

16.1

14.2

71.2

Median family income

$5,000-$7,499

$7,500-$9,999

$5,000-$7,499

$10,000-$12,499

Families below the poverty line (lower-bound estimate)

91.8

81.3

79.3

73.6

Families below the poverty line (upper-bound estimate)

91.0

75.0

77.0

68.3

Extended family members in household

7.0

6.0

15.0

5.7

Nonfamily present in household

83.0

29.0

59.0

28.2

Family receives any federal services

64.0

65.0

53.0

59.5

AFDC

19.9

43.3

47.4

42.2

Food stamps

55.0

38.0

29.0

38.3

Medicaid

32.0

41.0

36.0

37.5

WIC (N = 1,423)

62.0

43.0

39.0

40.3

Family in poverty and receives any federal services

69.0

7.1

55.0

71.2

TAFDC

8.0

6.0

3.0

10.5

Food stamps

60.0

47.0

40.0

51.0

Medicaid

33.0

44.0

37.0

44.3

WIC (N = 1,010)

6.0

43.0

5.0

43.2

Family's source of health care

 

 

 

 

Emergency room

25.8

26.7

19.2

24.3

Migrant health clinic

22.2

11.4

14.5

9.9

Nowhere

9.0

5.9

5.7

4.9

Private

8.2

29.7

24.5

34.2

Public

7.4

19.9

20.3

19.7

Total

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

Family's perceived difficulty in obtaining health care

20.2

21.3

32.2

19.0

Parent mixes or applies pesticides

31.6

29.7

17.7

28.3

Total, all U.S.-based children

3.40

66.60

2.50

100.00

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

based children only, while the fourth table includes Puerto Rico-based children as well.3 Foreign-based children are excluded from all tables unless otherwise specified. Table 12-1 compares the groups by the birthplaces of the children, both foreign and U.S. born. Table 12-2 distinguishes the children by type of family. These include three types of two-parent families: both parents are U.S. born, both are foreign born, and one parent of each. It also includes foreign-and U.S.-born single-parent families. Table 12-3 discusses the children with regard to the legal status of their interviewee parent. The four possibilities here are U.S. citizen, legal permanent resident (green card holder), pending (waiting for status adjudication), and unauthorized. Finally, Table 12-4 discusses the children in terms of their ethnicity or birthplace. There are two U.S.-born categories (U.S. non-Hispanic and U.S. Hispanic), a Puerto Rican category, and two foreign-born categories (Mexican and other foreign born). (See Appendix 12A for further details about the tables.) Some numbers reported in the text do not appear in any of the tables. Table 12-5 accompanies the discussion of child farmworkers not accompanied by parents.

TABLE 12-5 Circumstances of Child Farmworkers Not Accompanied by Parents, 1993-1995

Median income

$1,000-$2,500

Proportion with more than 8 years of schooling

35

Proportion who migrate each year

79

Proportion who are unauthorized U.S. residents

90

Proportion who migrate each year

79

Proportion who are unauthorized to work in the U.S.

90

Proportion whose family receives food stamps

6

Proportion whose family receives Medicaid

6

Proportion whose family receives WIC

2

Proportion whose family receives AFDC

0

Proportion who mix or apply pesticides at work

15

Source of health care

 

Emergency room

38

Public clinics

42

Private doctors

7

Nowhere or in Mexico

14

Total

100

NOTE: See Appendix 12A for descriptions of selected variables.

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

OBSTACLES TO CHILDREN'S WELL-BEING

A number of sociological factors complicate the lives of children of farmworkers and act as obstacles to their well-being. One important group relates to the foreign origin of the children and their parents and the precarious legal status of many families. These factors may act as cultural and legal barriers for parents in obtaining services for their children's needs as well as for the children in gaining access to the greater society.

In the NAWS, most U.S-based children (children who live in the United States) have foreign-born parents. The proportions of foreign-born and Hispanics among parents are higher than among the general farmworker population. This is true because a large proportion of white non-Hispanic farmworkers are young unmarried workers with short time commitments to farmwork. Also, foreign-born farmworkers on average have children at a younger age than do their U.S.-born counterparts. Overall, 72 percent of the U.S-based children in the survey have a foreign-born parent, 8 percent have a U.S.-born Hispanic parent, and only 21 percent have a non-Hispanic U.S.-born interviewee parent. Even limiting the discussion here to only children who were born and are based in the United States, 62 percent have a foreign-born parent, 9 percent a U.S.-born Hispanic parent, and 28 percent a non-Hispanic U.S.-born parent (see Table 12-1).

Moreover, non-Puerto Rican U.S.-born Hispanics should be considered with special care since they are extremely intertwined with the immigrant community. Most are of Mexican parentage and apparently mix easily with new Mexican immigrants. Among the children of U.S.-born Hispanic farmworker parents in the NAWS, 39 percent have a U.S.-born farmworker parent who is married to a foreigner, 32 percent have a farmworker parent married to a U.S.-born individual, and 29 percent have single parents. Although the parents may speak English, three-quarters (76 percent) of the children have farmworker parents who list Spanish as their first language. This is not surprising, since they live and work in Spanish-dominated environments.

Moreover, few (5 percent) of the foreign-born parents interviewed in the NAWS have become U.S. citizens. Only one in 10 of the children with citizen parents are the children of foreign-

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

born parents. Naturally, among the other legal status categories—legal permanent resident, pending, and undocumented—all of the interviewee parents were foreign born (see Table 12-3). Of these, about 95 percent were Mexican born.

The precarious legal status of many of the farmworker parents in the NAWS may restrict the access of their children to American society; 9 percent of these children have a parent with pending status, and 16 percent are in a family with an undocumented interviewee. Based on the estimate of 880,000 U.S.-based children of cropworkers, about 140,000 children of farmworkers are living with a parent who is in this country without work-authorized status. Approximately half of these children of undocumented immigrants who now live in the United States were born here (54 percent); they, of course, are U.S. citizens, which may lower the barriers for their children.

A child's birthplace (regardless of the legal status of his or her parents) may affect his or her well-being; being born abroad may add to the negative impacts of having foreign-born parents. This factor comes into play because in the NAWS the majority of children born to U.S. farmworkers were born abroad. Looking at all children of farmworkers, 44 percent were born abroad and are still abroad, 14 percent were born abroad but have moved to the United States, 41 percent were born and live in the United States, and 1 percent were born and live in Puerto Rico. Overall, 58 percent of the children were born abroad, and 55 percent lived in the United States at the time of their NAWS interview.

Focusing on just those children living in the United States at the time of their NAWS interview, the proportion born abroad is still significant—one-quarter of the U.S.-based children of farm-workers were born abroad (see Table 12-1). Almost two-thirds (65 percent) of U.S.-based children with foreign-born parents were born in the United States.

U.S.-based children in families with some children living abroad and some living in the United States (''mixed-residence" families) and those in families with some children born abroad and some born in the United States ("mixed-birth" families) may face special problems. Few U.S.-based children live in families that also have children living abroad. Of the U.S.-based children in families in the NAWS with at least one foreign-born parent and

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

at least one child living in the United States, only 3 percent had some children living in the United States and some elsewhere. In terms of children's birthplaces, there were many more mixed families. Twenty-six percent of the children in families with a foreign-born parent and a U.S-based child had some children who were born abroad and some who were born in the United States (see Table 12-2).

Children in single-parent foreign-born households in the NAWS have very high rates of mixed households. Fifteen percent of these children live in families with children residing in two countries, and 36 percent live in families with children who were born in two different countries. Children in two-parent foreign-born families also have high levels of mixed households. The percentages are 5 percent for mixed residence and 44 percent for mixed place of birth. Also, a few children in families with one U.S.- and one foreign-born parent have mixed households. Two percent live in mixed-residence households and 5 percent live in mixed-birth households (see Table 12-2).

Looking at this phenomenon from the viewpoint of the legal status of those with foreign nationality, children of farmworkers with undocumented or pending status have the highest percentage of mixed-status families—almost half have some children born both here and others born abroad. Children of legal permanent residents have the lowest levels; even they have 3 percent mixed-residence and 35 percent mixed-birthplace families (see Table 12-3).

Children of non-Mexican foreign-born farmworkers have higher levels of mixed residence (18 percent) and mixed birth (53 percent) than the children of Mexicans, who have a high level of mixed birth (38 percent) but not mixed residence (5 percent). Even a small number of children in U.S. Hispanic families have mixed-birth or mixed-residence families (see Table 12-4). Families with children of mixed nationality and place of residence may face special obstacles in accessing services since some of the children in these families may qualify and others may not.

The separation of children from their foreign-born farm-worker parents may present another serious problem for the children. The immigrant status of the parents of most children of farmworkers may have at least one advantage—fewer of the chil-

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

dren are in single-parent families. The number of broken marriages is lower in Latin American countries than in the United States. The foreign born bring this behavior with them when they come to the United States. In the NAWS one-quarter of the U.S.-based children from households with at least one U.S.-born parent were from a single-parent family, whereas only 9 percent of the children from households with one or more foreign-born parents lived with a single parent. Children of Puerto Rican farmworkers had an intermediate level of single parents—21 percent.

This tendency for foreign-born parents to maintain two-parent families here in the United States is, however, of less value to the children if one of the parents is habitually absent from home. To check the total rate of separation from one of the parents in two-parent families, I report on children from two-parent families living both in the United States and abroad. Overall, about half of all children of farmworkers from two-parent families are separated from one of their parents. This separation is concentrated almost entirely among children with foreign-born or Puerto Rican parents.

Looking at this phenomenon according to the different types of two-parent families, three-fifths (59 percent) of children who have two foreign-born parents are separated from one parent; for those who come from families with one U.S.-born and one foreign-born parent, 10 percent are separated; for those with two U.S.-born parents, only 2 percent are separated from one of their parents (Table 12-2). Looking at the legal status categories, all of the children of noncitizen families have separation rates over 40 percent, but the children of undocumented residents have the highest rate of separation at 77 percent (Table 12-3). Looking at this issue by ethnic/nationality groups shows that the children of Puerto Ricans (87 percent) and of non-Mexican other foreign-born parents (78 percent) have the highest rates of separation, but the children of the largest group, Mexicans, also have a very high rate of separation from one of their parents, 55 percent (Table 12-4).

The one bright spot in the separation story is that most U.S. farmworkers' children who are living abroad appear to be with their mothers in home countries. In nearly 100 percent of the

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

cases where the child is separated from one parent, the child and mother are residing in the same country.

Studying this issue only for U.S.-based children (about 55 percent of the total), the rate of separation is much lower. Except for the children of Puerto Ricans, 54 percent of whom are separated from one parent, the other groups have relatively low rates of separation. The children of undocumented workers and those of other foreign-born parents are the groups with the most separation (8 and 12 percent, respectively). These data show several interconnected phenomena. The children of most foreign-born U.S. farmworkers are left behind in their home countries while one of their parents (usually the father) does farmwork in the United States. However, once the children come to the United States or for those who are born here, in a large majority of cases they live with both of their parents. Still, the years of separation from one parent for the children who eventually come to the United States may be a negative factor in their ability to adapt to American society.

One element of this separation that is crucial for social planning is the tendency of those family members who are living abroad to eventually come to the United States. The NAWS data imply that regrouping of families in the United States is a tendency among many of these immigrants regardless of legal status. For children with fathers in the households that were reunited in the United States, generally the fathers were the first to come to this country. Four-fifths (80 percent) had fathers who came to the United States before their children (Table 12-2). A minority had fathers (about 20 percent) who came to the United States at the same time they did. The fathers of nearly seven-tenths (69 percent) of the children came to the United States before the mothers. Most had mothers (72 percent) who came at the same time as their children. However, some children's mothers came first (28 percent). The only group with a lower rate is that of other foreign born. Only 45 percent of the children of this group came to this country after their fathers (Table 12-4). There is a strong tendency for eventual reunion of families in the United States with the male head of household for almost all groups.

In addition to separation from their parents, many children of farmworkers undergo problems associated with migration. In the

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

NAWS the parents of 53 percent of all children of farmworkers are migrants.4 A smaller yet still sizable level of migrancy applies to the children of farmworkers living in the United States—26 percent of these children have parents who are migrant farmworkers.

Considering all types of migration, there is a great deal of variation across demographic groups. Children of U.S.-born non-Hispanic farmworkers have very low levels of parental migration-only 6 percent. The other ethnic groups all have high levels. U.S.-born Hispanics actually have slightly higher levels than the foreign-born groups. About 38 percent of the children of U.S. Hispanics have parents who migrate, while 30 percent of the children of Mexicans and 35 percent of the children of the other foreign born have parents who migrate. Puerto Ricans have the highest level of migration—almost three-quarters of children of Puerto Ricans have parents who migrate (Table 12-4). The overwhelming majority of the Puerto Rican parent interviewees in the NAWS were men whose families lived in Puerto Rico.

Looking at migration rates by type of family, over 30 percent of the children who have at least one foreign-born parent have a parent who migrates. Thirty-five percent of the children of foreign-born single-parent workers have a migrating parent (Table 12-2). By contrast, fewer than 12 percent of the children in households headed by U.S.-born parents have a parent who migrates. As would be expected, higher proportions of children whose parents have pending or undocumented status have a parent who migrates (35 and 47 percent, respectively) than the proportion of children whose parents are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents (just over 20 percent migrate).

There are several types of migration that have different impacts on children, but all are disruptive to a stable lifestyle (see Figure 12-1).5 One style of migration is to follow crops from one

4  

A migrant is defined by the NAWS as anyone who travels 75 miles or more to do or to look for a farmwork job in the United States.

5  

To a small extent the migration categories overlap. A migrant who shuttles back and forth between either a foreign location or a non-U.S. farmwork location and a U.S. farmwork area but also continues on to follow crops to other U.S. farmwork areas is both a follow-the-crop and a shuttle migrant.

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

FIGURE 12-1 U.S.-based children who migrate with their farmworker parents.

area to another in the United States. In the NAWS the parents of about 11 percent of U.S.-based children participate in this type of migration. Another style is to have a home base either in the United States or abroad (where one does not do U.S. farmwork) and then each year "shuttle" migrate to a U.S. farm area. Approximately 19 percent of U.S.-based children accompany their parents in this kind of migration. About half of these children (9 percent of all U.S.-based children) migrate to and from a U.S. location, while the other half (10 percent of all U.S.-based children) have their home base abroad, which means that each year these children must travel back and forth across international borders. All together, approximately 24 percent of all the U.S.-based children of farmworkers take a trek each year on the migrant trail.6 Since there are approximately 880,000 U.S.-based children, about 212,000 youngsters whose parents are cropworkers are in the migrant stream and about 80,000 are international shuttle migrant

6  

Since 26 percent of the children have parents who migrate and 2 percent of the children do not accompany their parents when they migrate, that leaves 24 percent who actually make the migrant trek.

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

children. Another 2 percent of U.S.-based children have parents who migrate while the children stay behind in their U.S. home base. Similar proportions of children in all age groups appear to participate in the different types of migration.

The low educational levels of farmworkers are another barrier for their children. The parents, especially foreign-born parents, have had little schooling. In the NAWS only 40 percent of U.S.-based children have parents who finished the eighth grade. Almost half (46 percent) of the U.S.-born children have parents who finished the eighth grade, while only 18 percent of the foreign-born children have parents who went that far in school (Table 12-1). Among the family types, less than 30 percent of children in families with one or two foreign-born parents had a parent who finished the eighth grade, while in the families with a single U.S.-born parent or two U.S.-born parents, the parents of 88 percent of the children finished the eighth grade (Table 12-2). Interestingly, the children with undocumented parents had somewhat better educated parents than the children of parents with pending status (Table 12-3). This may be explained by the fact that more recent arrivals from Mexico tend to be better educated. The clearest contrast can be seen by looking at the different ethnic groups. For the children of U.S.-born non-Hispanics, 92 percent have parents who finished the eighth grade; for the children of U.S. Hispanics and Puerto Ricans, about 60 percent have a parent who went that far in school; of children in the foreign-born groups, about 20 percent have parents who finished eight years of school (Table 12-4).

The children themselves have poor academic records. Overall, school enrollment levels are low for all groups. About 87 percent of both the young children and the adolescents are in school. The groups with particularly low levels are the foreign born over age 12—only 78 percent are enrolled. This is particularly true for the children of farmworkers with pending or undocumented immigration status—only 71 and 75 percent, respectively, of those adolescents are enrolled in school (Table 12-3). Puerto Rican children have very low levels of enrollment—only 72 percent of adolescents are enrolled in school, and only 62 percent of children ages 6 to 11 are enrolled (Table 12-4).

Many of the children are performing at least one grade level

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

below that expected for their age. Overall, about 17 percent of U.S.-based children are below grade level. Not surprisingly, only 13 percent of U.S.-born children are below grade level, while 24 percent of the foreign born are behind. Moreover, comparing foreign-born children with U.S.-born children of foreign-born parents, children born abroad are particularly disadvantaged educationally. About one-quarter (24 percent) of U.S.-based foreign-born children of foreign-born parents are below grade level, while only 9 percent of U.S.-born children of foreign-born parents have fallen behind.

Looking at family types, children living in a foreign-born single-parent family are particularly disadvantaged—28 percent are performing below grade level, while fewer than 20 percent of children in other family types are behind (Table 12-2). The children of parents whose legal status is pending or undocumented are the farthest behind—about one-quarter are below grade level, whereas fewer than 20 percent of children of citizens and legal permanent residents are below grade level (Table 12-3). As many as 30 percent of Puerto Rican children are performing below grade level in school.

More children tend to fall behind at the higher grades than in grammar school. Nine percent of 6 to 11 year olds are behind, while 27 percent of 12 to 17 year olds are behind. This is due in part to dropout rates and in part to the fact that some children come to the United States as teenagers and begin working immediately instead of going to school. One can observe this phenomenon by comparing the proportion of adolescents falling behind who do farmwork (about 16 percent of 12 to 17 year olds work) with those who do not. Among those who do not do farmwork, 24 percent are behind; among working teenagers, 41 percent are behind.

There are other factors associated with children of farm-workers falling below grade level. The education level of their parents has an impact but only if the parents have very low educational achievement. For children with parents who have less than four years of school, 30 percent are below grade, compared to the average of 17 percent for children whose parents have had more schooling. For children whose parents have higher levels of education, no pattern emerges. Also, migration has an impact in

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

certain circumstances. International shuttle migration has a statistically significant and negative impact on children's performance in school. Also, domestic shuttle migration and follow-the-crop migration both show a negative impact on school performance, but the effect is not statistically significant.

Probably the most serious barrier to the children of farm-workers is the extreme poverty of their families. The median annual income for such U.S.-based children's families is $10,000 to $12,500. Income differs when looking at families by parental groups. Dividing by family type, children in families with two U.S.-born parents have a median annual income of $17,500 to $20,000, while children in two-parent families with one or two foreign-born parents earn $10,000 to $12,500 annually, and those in single-parent families (either foreign or U.S. born) have a median annual income of $5,000 to $7,500 (Table 12-2). With respect to legal status, pending and undocumented workers earn less than the other groups. Children in pending status families have family incomes of $10,000 to $12,500 annually, while children of undocumented farmworkers have family earnings of $7,500 to $10,000 per year; children in families of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents have family earnings of $12,500 to $15,000 (Table 12-3). By ethnic group, children in U.S. non-Hispanic families have family earnings much higher than the others ($17,500 to $20,000). Children of U.S. Hispanics have the next highest family earnings ($10,000 to $12,500); next are Mexicans at $7,500 to $10,000, while Puerto Ricans and the other foreign born have the lowest family earnings, at $5,000 to $7,500 per year (Table 12-4).

The extent of impoverishment among children of farm-workers becomes even clearer when looking at the proportions who fall below the poverty line adjusted by the size of the family living in the United States. Only conservative estimates for poverty are reported in Tables 12-1 through 12-5. Readers should note that these numbers represent an optimistically low estimate of poverty for children in the NAWS. These families reported a range of incomes, and the lower-bound estimate for poverty makes reference only to the top (upper end) of that income range (see Appendix 12A). The tables also report upper-bound estimates of poverty. According to the lower-bound estimate, 68 percent of U.S.-based children of farmworkers are in families that fall

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

below the poverty line. Using the upper-bound estimate, 73 percent of the U.S.-based children are in poor families. Only conservative lower-bound estimates are presented below (see tables for upper-bound estimates).

Even among children in the United States who have both parents present in the household, in the NAWS two-thirds (65 percent) are in poor families. Children in two-parent families in which both parents are U.S. born did better—only 31 percent of these children live below poverty.7 But over two-thirds (68 percent) of the children in mixed families and three-quarters (76 percent) of those in families with two foreign-born parents are poor. Considerably more children in the single-parent families, not surprisingly, are poorer than children in two-parent families. For children living with a single U.S.-born parent, 80 percent are poor; among children living with a single foreign-born parent, 86 percent live below the poverty line (see Table 12-2). Legal status is also a strong indicator of poverty for those with children in the United States. Half of the children living with a citizen interviewee live below the poverty line. Among those living with a legal permanent resident, 69 percent of the children live in poverty, but 86 percent of those living with a parent with pending or unauthorized status live in poverty (Table 12-3).

For children in families headed by a U.S.-born non-Hispanic, 37 percent are in families whose income puts them below the poverty line, while three-quarters of the children in families headed by a U.S. Hispanic or a foreign-born individual are in families whose income is below that minimal level (Table 12-4). Ninety-one percent of the children of Puerto Ricans lived in families whose income is below the poverty line. One group, indigenous-speaking Central Americans and Mexicans, is particularly poor—100 percent of the families with U.S.-based children are living in poverty.

Children of farmworkers also suffer some risks because of a lack of supervised child care. In the NAWS only 4 percent of the

7  

If the interviewee was an Hispanic in these two-parent U.S.-born families, 63 percent were poor; if the interviewee was a non-Hispanic, only 26 percent were poor.

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

children under age 12 are taken to child care centers. About the same proportion (4 percent) are left in less than safe conditions. These children are either left alone, brought with their parents to the fields, or left with other minor children. The overwhelming majority of children (92 percent) are left with a spouse, other relative, neighbor, or adult sibling. The level of unsafe child care is higher for the children of single parents than for other children. About 9 percent of the children in single-parent households are left in unsafe conditions while their parent works.

Some children experience risks by engaging in farmwork themselves. In the NAWS about 13 percent of children ages 10 to 17 who live with their farmworker parents were reported by their parent as doing farmwork. The majority (51 percent) of these children were ages 16 and 17, and 83 percent were age 14 or older. About one-third of the 16 to 17 year olds do farmwork. The proportion of 10 to 17 year olds who do farmwork is particularly high for children whose farmworker parent is a U.S.-born Hispanic. One-quarter of these young U.S. Hispanic children do farmwork, while only 12 percent of the non-Hispanic U.S. born do farmwork. The level is also particularly high among the children of single parents—22 percent of these children do farmwork. At a national level, the 13 percent figure for children ages 10 to 17 living with their farmworker parents yields an estimate of 40,000 children engaged in crop agriculture.8 This figure does not count the young workers who are not living with their parents. They are discussed in a separate section.

Another problem facing children of farmworkers is the presence of nonnuclear family members in the household. This phenomenon is related to the large presence of solo male immigrants in farmworker communities. In fact, over half of all farmworkers are men unaccompanied by their families. (Ninety percent of them are either foreign- or U.S.-born Hispanics.) Many live in all-male arrangements, ranging from employer-owned labor camps

8  

This is calculated on the basis that about 19.2 percent of all U.S. farmworker children are U.S. based and are 10 to 17 years old (19.2 percent of 1.6 million or about 310,000). Thirteen percent of these children is about 40,000.

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

to apartments in rural towns. In addition, large numbers of these men double up with families of farmworkers; about one in five farmworker families has a nonrelative sharing their living space (Mines et al., 1997). Solo male agglomerations tend to lead to questionable social behaviors, such as gambling and prostitution, which can present risks to children living alongside them (see Commission on Agricultural Workers, 1993; Griffith and Kissam, 1995).

Although only a small percentage of farmworker children live in households with extended family members present (about 6 percent), over a quarter live with nonrelatives. The concentration of these nonrelatives is among the families connected with immigrants. Looking at family type, about a quarter to a third of the children living with two foreign-born parents with mixed U.S.-/foreign-born families or in single-parent families have nonrelatives living with them. However, only one in 10 of the children in families with two U.S.-born parents have nonrelatives living with them (Table 12-2). According to legal status, 34 percent of children whose parents have pending status and 54 percent of children whose parents have undocumented status have nonrelatives living with them (Table 12-3). By ethnic group, 83 percent of children with Puerto Rican parents and 59 percent of non-Mexican foreign-born parents have nonrelatives living in their households (Table 12-4).

Access to Public Resources

Having reviewed the social and economic circumstances of children in farmworker families, measures of their access to and use of social services are examined next. We look at any use of federal services first for the families of all children and then for those children whose families are below the poverty line. For all income levels, about three out of five children are in families that use some federal service. Looking at use of services by type of family shows that children in families with a single U.S. parent are the most likely to receive any service—79 percent (Table 12-2). Children in families with one or more foreign-born parents are more likely to use services (over 60 percent do) than children in families with two U.S.-born parents (27 percent do). Children in

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

families headed by a U.S. citizen are less likely to use any service (46 percent) than are children in families headed by an immigrant (64 percent or more; Table 12-3). The children from non-Hispanic U.S.-born families are less likely to use any federal service than the other groups (37 percent use services), while children in families headed by U.S.-born Hispanics are the most likely to use federal services (70 percent; Table 12-4).

Restricting the analysis to children of farmworkers whose family incomes are below the poverty line, the results change dramatically. In this poor-only group, 72 percent use some federal social services. Considerably more families of U.S.-born children use federal social services than the families of foreign-born children (79 vs. 56 percent; Table 12-1). Looking at family type, proportionately more children of U.S.-born single parents (92 percent) and mixed families with one foreign-born and one U.S.-born parent (81 percent) use federal social services than do other family types (Table 12-2). By ethnic group, children of U.S.-born Hispanics have the highest proportion of users of any social service (81 percent), followed by U.S. non-Hispanics at 73 percent, Mexicans and Puerto Rican-born families at about 70 percent, and the other foreign born at 55 percent (Table 12-4).

There is a tendency for more families with younger children to use social services. Combining the four major social services demonstrates that for all U.S.-based children about 58 percent are in families that use some service. For children under age 6, 67 percent are in families that use social services, 55 percent for children ages 6 to 11, and 48 percent for teenage children. Finally, certain regions of the country demonstrated higher service utilization rates. The regions where larger proportions of children used services were the West, Midwest, Southeast, and Western Plains areas, while the lower-utilization regions were the Northeast and Northwest.

There are four major social services used by farmworkers—Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC); food stamps; Medicaid; and the supplemental food program, Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). The other federal social services are not used by many farmworkers. Social Security, veterans' pay, low-income housing, legal services, and disaster relief are used by 2 percent

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

or less of the families with children. Disability insurance is used by 3 percent.

AFDC is a program used by fewer families headed by immigrants than those headed by U.S.-born individuals. It is also a program that is used much less in general than the other three benefits programs. For groups of all income levels in the NAWS, 8 percent of the children lived in families that received AFDC, and for the poor-only group 11 percent received AFDC benefits. There is, however, considerable variation across groups, with relatively higher proportions of certain groups receiving AFDC.

U.S.-born children live in families that are three times more likely to receive AFDC than the foreign born. Among the poor-only group, U.S.-born children's families are five times more likely (15 vs. 3 percent) to receive AFDC (Table 12-1). Looking at the use of AFDC by family type, definite utilization differences are seen. Among children in two-parent foreign-born families, the utilization rate is quite low in the poor-only group (4 percent). For children in two-parent families in which one or both parents are U.S. born, the rate is higher among the poor-only group. For mixed-nationality couples, 12 percent of the children lived in families collecting AFDC; among children in U.S.-born two-parent families, 20 percent lived in families collecting AFDC. For children in foreign-born single-parent families, the level is relatively high, at 20 percent. However, extremely high levels are found for children in single-parent U.S.-born families. Among the poor-only group, 52 percent of the children lived in families that received AFDC (Table 12-2).

Looking at the groups by ethnic type, a definite slant is seen toward higher utilization by U.S.-born groups. Among the poor-only group, for both the non-Hispanic and Hispanic U.S. born, over 30 percent of the children lived in families receiving AFDC. Among Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, and other foreign born, 8 percent or less received AFDC benefits (Table 12-4). This program is also used much more by the U.S. citizen group. Looking at all children (regardless of poverty status) in the NAWS, 14 percent of the children from U.S. citizen-headed households received AFDC, but only 5 percent of the children from legal permanent resident families did, as well as 2 percent of the children from households

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

with a pending status head and 7 percent of those from undocumented families (Table 12-3).

With respect to the other three noncash benefits programs, the patterns of utilization are different. For children in all families in the NAWS, regardless of income levels, all programs were used at moderate levels—about 40 percent of the children lived in families that used them. For children in poor-only families, higher levels of use were recorded; 43 to 51 percent of the children lived in families that used these programs (Table 12-1).

For children in poor-only families, food stamps were the most used program; 51 percent of such children lived in families that used food stamps. A focus on children in poor-only families shows the distinctions in utilization patterns for food stamps more clearly. U.S.-born children's families were much more likely to use the program than those in foreign-born families. Looking at the groups by family type shows that the proportionately highest users were children in U.S. single-parent families—82 percent (Table 12-2). Among children with mixed-nationality parents, 65 percent received food stamps. For the other groups—children in two-parent families and single-parent foreign-born families—about half lived in families that received food stamps. Analysis by ethnic group shows similar trends. The groups with the highest proportions of food stamp use were U.S. Hispanics (74 percent) and U.S. non-Hispanics (62 percent). The families of children from the other groups received proportionately less in the way of food stamps—-60 percent of children in Puerto Rican families, 47 percent of children in Mexican-born families, and 40 percent of the families of other foreign-born children (Table 12-4). In sum, moderate levels of all groups used food stamps, while higher proportions of some U.S.-born groups did so.

Medicaid was the second most frequently utilized federal program for the poor-only group. Among all farmworkers' children, 38 percent were from families using Medicaid, while in the poor-only group, 45 percent were from families receiving Medicaid benefits. Again, the focus here is strictly on the poor-only group to demonstrate clear distinctions in utilization across groups. As with the other social services, the families of U.S.-born children used Medicaid more than the families of foreign-born children. Looking at utilization by type of family, certain patterns emerge.

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

Sixty-nine percent of the children of a single U.S.-born parent lived in families using Medicaid. Between 43 and 49 percent of the families of children with one or more foreign-born parents used the service. However, fewer of the families of children in two-parent U.S.-born families used Medicaid than the other family types (Table 12-2). With respect to ethnic groups, there are a few small differences. Fifty-three percent of the children of U.S.-born Hispanics lived in families using this service, while fewer Puerto Ricans and other foreign born did so—about a third of the children's families in these groups used the service (Table 12-4). In sum, fewer than half of poor farmworkers' children lived in families using Medicaid. The only exceptions were children in U.S.-born single-parent families and U.S.-born Hispanic families.

The Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program also is used to some extent by farmworker families. In the NAWS 40 percent of children age 5 and under came from families of all income brackets that utilized this benefit. For children under age 6 in families below the poverty line, the rate of receipt rose only to 43 percent. Again, I report data for the poor-only groups to show distinctions more clearly. Proportionately twice as many U.S-born children's families used WIC than the families of foreign-born children (47 vs. 21 percent; Table 12-1). Family types show that the smallest percentage of users is found in families made up of two U.S.-born parents—only 14 percent of children from that group were in families that received WIC. Again, proportionately more children in U.S.-born single-parent families used the program (69 percent) than the other groups (42 to 45 percent of the childrens' families did; Table 12-2). According to ethnic group, approximately 40 percent of the children in U.S.-born and Mexican-born families (with children under age 6) lived in families receiving WIC, while only about 5 percent of the children of Puerto Rican and other foreign-born families did so (Table 12-4).

One comment must be made about the use of these three in-kind transfer payments by legal status. Analyzing the data regardless of poverty level, the differences among the foreign-born legal status groups are not remarkable. One exception is that for food stamps higher percentages of children in the legal permanent resident and pending status families received food stamps than children in undocumented families. It is with undocu-

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

mented farmworkers with children born abroad but living in the United States that the level of children receiving services drops markedly. Fewer U.S.-based children born abroad who lived with an unauthorized parent had a parent receiving federal social services than did U.S.-born children living with parents who are unauthorized U.S. residents. Only about 18 percent of these foreign-born children are in families that received food stamps, 26 percent received Medicaid, and 23 percent received WIC. It should be noted that the presence of an unauthorized interviewee in a household may not mean that the family does not qualify for services. Another adult may be a legal resident, and some services, such as emergency Medicaid, are legally available to unauthorized U.S. residents.

Turning our attention to another measure of children's well-being—use of health care services—we find that farmworker parents have some interesting access patterns. Among all children, about a third (30 percent) are in families that go to public clinics (including migrant clinics) for health care, about a quarter (24 percent) go to emergency rooms, about a third go to private doctors (34 percent), and about 5 percent either go nowhere or go back to their native country. However, among major groups there are big differences. For example, the proportion of children in U.S.-born non-Hispanic farmworker families using private doctors is relatively high—over half (52 percent). These children's families are much less likely to use emergency rooms—only 18 percent do. For children from Mexican-born households, 30 percent lived in families using private doctors and 27 percent use emergency rooms. Migrant health care centers are used almost exclusively by foreign-born residents and U.S.-born Hispanics. Children from U.S.-born Hispanic families are in households that are actually the largest relative users of migrant clinics—16 percent of these children are from families that seek health care services at these clinics. Puerto Ricans follow the pattern of the foreign-born groups—almost half use emergency care and very few private doctors (Table 12-4). Looking at family structure, another interesting finding emerges; nearly 4 out of 10 children from foreign-born single-parent families are taken to emergency rooms when they are sick, a much larger proportion than those who use other service providers (Table 12-2).

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

A relatively large percentage (19 percent) of farmworker parents say that it is difficult to access health care in the United States. Fewer U.S.-born children live in families experiencing difficulty than those who are foreign born. Only 9 percent of children in non-Hispanic U.S.-born families experienced difficulty; 19 percent of all the other ethnic categories lived in families that experienced difficulty obtaining health care services (Table 12-4). Among children in families headed by a non-Mexican foreign-born person, 32 percent reported difficulty accessing health care. This difficulty is experienced by twice as many children (proportionately) from families with at least one foreign parent (22 percent) than by children without a foreign-born parent (11 percent). Foreign-born single parents more often reported having a difficult time accessing health care in the United States. For 31 percent of children from this type of family, health care was perceived as hard to obtain (Table 12-2). For those who find health care services difficult to obtain, the major barriers for farmworkers' children are cost (34 percent), language (17 percent), and fear of losing one's job if one goes to the doctor (11 percent). With respect to language, only children with both foreign-born parents or a foreign-born single parent experienced this barrier; families with mixed-nationality parents, not surprisingly, had few problems of this type.

A small group of children have farmworker parents who have access to off-the-job health care—14 percent. The proportion of children with a parent who is a U.S.-born non-Hispanic with access to health care is somewhat higher (17 percent) than among children of U.S. Hispanics (8 percent) and children of foreign-born parents (14 percent). The proportion of children whose parents are unauthorized U.S. residents or have pending status who are covered by off-the-job health care is much lower—only 6 percent.

Many farmworkers mix or apply pesticides and other chemicals in their work. In the NAWS, 28 percent of all children have parents who engage in this activity. About 14 percent of such children live on a farm with their parents. Of these children, 34 percent have parents who apply or mix chemicals at work.

U.S.-born children are more likely to live with parents who apply pesticides at work (30 percent) than are foreign-born children (25 percent; Table 12-1). There are few patterns by type of family: children in two-parent families were more likely to have a

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

head of household who applies pesticides at work than children in single-parent families. By ethnic group, the groups most likely to apply pesticides are Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and U.S. non-Hispanics (Table 12-4). This task is more closely associated with experience and seniority than with ethnic group or family organization.

UNACCOMPANIED MINORS

In addition to the children of employed farmworkers, the NAWS collects data on another group of children—those who are themselves farmworkers and who are not living with their parents at the time of their NAWS interview. In the 1993 to 1995 surveys these employed unaccompanied children made up about 4 percent of the interviewees, or the equivalent of 65,000 workers.9

About two-thirds of these minors are foreign born. These young foreigners, who number perhaps 44,000 workers, are a group especially likely to experience high risk on the socioeconomic factors measured in the NAWS (see Table 12-5). They have very low personal income—the median is $1,000 to $2,500 per year. Even including the incomes of relatives with whom they share their budgets, family income averages $2,500 to $5,000 per year. Like most foreign farmworkers, these children have a low level of educational achievement—only 35 percent of the young foreign workers have gone to school beyond the eighth grade. They are also an extremely migratory group—79 percent migrated in the year prior to their interview. Almost one-quarter of them follow crops from one area of the United States to another during the year, and almost three out of five either are first-year immigrants or return to their country of origin each year. Nearly 9 out of 10 do not have documents authorizing them to work in the

9  

 The weighted sample size for all unaccompanied youth for 1993 to 1995 is 248 workers. The sample size for the foreign born is 167. From these weighted sample sizes (as a proportion of all workers in the total sample) point estimates of the population were calculated. The base level of cropworkers is 1,810,000, derived from the U.S. Census of Population and Housing for the proportion of cropworkers and the Commission on Agricultural Workers for the size of the total population of farmworkers (see note 1).

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

United States. Almost all of them are between the ages of 14 and 17, 6 percent are married, and a large majority (85 percent) are boys.

These children often live in all-male environments, where lack of adult supervision and protection may put them at risk. There are several indicators of risk in the NAWS data. First, almost all of these children live in households without any relatives at all—only 13 percent live with a relative who is not their parent. The households they live in receive almost no social services. Despite the fact that 78 percent of such children live below the poverty line, their households receive no transfer payments; 2 percent receive WIC, 6 percent receive Medicaid, and 6 percent receive food stamps. Despite their age, 15 percent mix or apply pesticides, and few (23 percent) receive instruction on how to use the chemicals safely, as is required by law. In addition, over half say it is difficult to access health care facilities. Seventy-three percent indicate that the language barrier keeps them from finding health care services. When they do find services, 38 percent use emergency rooms, 42 percent go to public clinics, only 7 percent go to private doctors, and 14 percent go back to their native country when sick or they do not seek treatment. Finally, only 1 percent, compared to 11 percent of all farmworkers, say that they are covered by off-the-job health insurance.

The other one-third of these young unaccompanied workers are U.S. born. Apparently, these young people are better connected to family and U.S. institutions than their foreign-born counterparts, as their conditions are somewhat better. Although they earn little income themselves (the median is $1,000 to $2,500), they are associated with households whose median annual incomes are $10,000 to $12,500. About half live below the poverty line. These youth have had much more education than their foreign-born counterparts—more than half completed tenth grade or beyond. Their rates of migration are much less—only 20 percent migrate each year. More of them receive federal social services—21 percent receive food stamps, 17 percent receive Medicaid, and 4 percent receive WIC. On one issue they are at greater risk than foreign-born young people: 24 percent mix or apply pesticides in their work.

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

SUMMARY

This study of farmworkers' children serves as a first look at such children. Many of these children are disadvantaged by educational and linguistic handicaps, by separation from their parents, and often by periodic migration. In fact, the farmworkers' world can be seen as a sort of ''foreign island" in American society, where Spanish is a first language and the proportion of newly arrived foreign born each year is extremely high.

The high flow-through labor market characterized by a high percentage of solo males is common in other labor markets but is difficult to study since household-based surveys and censuses miss many of the participants in these labor markets. The research reported here is a first such effort to describe the circumstances of children in one of these labor markets.

This paper shows that many of these children experience a variety of risks. They are "strangers in our fields"—three-quarters of U.S.-based farmworkers' children have a foreign parent and a quarter are foreign born. Although children of foreign-born parents are less likely to be from single-parent families, most are separated from one of their parents. In addition, a quarter of the children are in the migrant stream. All together, about 212,000 farmworkers' children migrate each year. Among these are about 80,000 who go back and forth across international borders. The data show that these "international shuttle" children are particularly likely to be behind in school. In fact, most farmworkers' children have parents with limited educational attainments—only 40 percent have parents who finished the eighth grade. Moreover, more than one-sixth of the U.S.-based children are behind grade level for their age. This rate is higher for teenagers, many of whom work with their parents in the fields.

The most serious difficulty for such children may be extreme poverty, especially for the foreign born and for U.S. Hispanics. Overall, 68 to 73 percent of the children come from families whose income is below the poverty line. For the foreign born and U.S. Hispanics, three-quarters live in poverty. Despite this poverty, most poor children's families do not use most federal social services. Except for food stamps, most legally authorized poor families, who clearly qualify for the programs, do not use them.

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

When they are sick, immigrant families tend to use emergency rooms and public clinics. Many children have parents who say they have difficulty accessing care because of language and economic barriers. In addition, many have parents who mix and apply pesticides in their work, which may be a hazard for the children. Finally, there is a small but significant group of unaccompanied children, most of whom are far from their Mexican and Central American parents. They live in all-male subgroups and face some of the most severe risks of any farmworkers be they adults or children.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author thanks Kyra Kissam, Anne Steirman, Susan Gabbard, Bea Boccalandro, Flavio Flefferman, and Victor Renteria for their contributions to the preparation of this paper. This paper reflects the opinions of the author and not necessarily those of the U.S. Department of Labor.

REFERENCES

Commission on Agricultural Workers 1993 Report to Congress, Case Studies and Research Reports, Appendix I. Washington, D.C.: Commission on Agricultural Workers.


Gabbard, S., R. Mines, and B. Boccalandro 1994 Migrant Farmworkers: Pursuing Stability in an Unstable Labor Market. Research Report No. 5. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor.

Griffith, D., and E. Kissam 1995 Working Poor. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.


Lichter, M., and R. Waldinger 1996 Black/Immigrant Labor Market Competition: New Insights from a Case Study of the Hospital Industry in Los Angeles. Unpublished manuscript, UCLA.


McWilliams, C. 1935 Factories in the Field. Santa Barbara: Peregrine Press.

Mines, R., and J. Avina 1992 Immigrants and labor standards: The case of California janitors. In U.S.-Mexico Relations: Labor Market Interdependence, J. Bustamante, C. Reynolds, and R. Hinojosa, eds. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

Mines, R., S. Gabbard, and A. Steirman 1997 A Profile of U.S. Farmworkers: Demographics, Household Composition, Income and Use of Services. Research Report No. 6. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor.

U.S. Government Accounting Office 1997 Illegal Aliens: Influence of Illegal Workers on Wages and Working Conditions of Legal Workers. GAO/PEMD-88-13BR. Washington, D.C.: U.S. General Accounting Office.


Waldinger, R. 1996 Still the Promised City. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

APPENDIX 12A: EXPLANATION OF SELECTED VARIABLES

Child is separated from one parent:

This variable gives the percentage of children separated from one of their parents if they live in a two-parent family. It includes children based abroad and in the United States and therefore has a larger sample size than the other variables.

Child's father came to the United States first:

This variable gives the percentage of children whose fathers preceded them to the United States. It includes only U.S.-based foreign-born children who have a foreign-born parent.

Child's family migrates every year:

This variable gives the percentage of children whose interviewee parent moves 75 miles or more to look for or obtain farmwork.

Parent finished eight or more years of school:

This variable gives the percentage of children whose interviewee parent finished eight years of school.

Child is enrolled in school:

This variable gives the percentage of children enrolled in school in the year of the interview. It includes only children age 6 and older.

Child is behind in grade level:

This variable gives the percentage of children who were a full year or more behind in school for their age. For example, a 9 year old who has not reached second grade or a 17 year old who has not reached tenth grade would be classified as behind. It includes only children age 6 and older.

Median family income:

This variable gives the median income range earned by the families of farmworker children.

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×

Poverty:

Since income is reported as a range rather than a point quantity, two calculations were made: one underestimates poverty in the groups (lower-bound estimate) and one overestimates it (upper-bound estimate). In the lower-bound estimate, the top of the range was used to estimate poverty for the family; in the upper-bound estimate, the bottom of the range was used. For example, if a family of four reported an income level of $12,500 to $15,000 and if the poverty threshold is $13,500, it is not known for sure on which side of the line the family is. As a result, two calculations were made, one assuming the family earned $12,500 and fell below the poverty line (upper-bound estimate) and one assuming it earned $15,000 and thus was not poor (lower-bound estimate). In the text the conservative lower-bound measure was used.

AFDC, food stamps, Medicaid, WIC:

These variables give the percentage of children from families that collected a given federal benefit. WIC is for children age 5 and younger.

Source of family's health care:

This variable presents the percentage of children whose families used different kinds of health care providers.

Family's perceived difficulty in obtaining health care:

This variable gives the percentage of children whose parents find it difficult to access health care.

Parent mixes or handles pesticides at work:

This variable gives the percentage of children whose interviewee parent mixes or applies pesticides.

Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
×
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Page 653
Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Suggested Citation:"12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey." National Research Council. 1999. Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9592.
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Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance Get This Book
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Immigrant children and youth are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population, and so their prospects bear heavily on the well-being of the country. Children of Immigrants represents some of the very best and most extensive research efforts to date on the circumstances, health, and development of children in immigrant families and the delivery of health and social services to these children and their families.

This book presents new, detailed analyses of more than a dozen existing datasets that constitute a large share of the national system for monitoring the health and well-being of the U.S. population. Prior to these new analyses, few of these datasets had been used to assess the circumstances of children in immigrant families. The analyses enormously expand the available knowledge about the physical and mental health status and risk behaviors, educational experiences and outcomes, and socioeconomic and demographic circumstances of first- and second-generation immigrant children, compared with children with U.S.-born parents.

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