Children of Immigrants Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance (1999) / Chapter Skim
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12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey
12 Children in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Farmworker Families: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey
Pages 620-658
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From page 620... ...
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.
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From page 621... ...
put it: "Sources of cheap labor in China, lapan, the Philippine Islands, Puerto Rico, Mexico, the Deep South, and Europe have been generously tapped to recruit its ever expanding [farmworker] ranks.
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From page 622... ...
Government Accounting Office, 1987; Mines and Avina, 1992; Lichtner and Waldinger, 1996~. The children of these nonagricultural workers (who greatly outnumber farmworkers' children)
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From page 623... ...
Of these children, about 880,000 live in the United States and about 720,000 live abroad at any given timed 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.
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From page 626... ...
31.0 Family in poverty and receives federal services 70.0 AFDC 4.0 Food stamps 46.0 Medicaid 43.0 WIC (N = 986) 34.0 Family's source of health care Emergency room Migrant health clinic Nowhere Private Public Total Family's perceived difficulty in obtaining health care Parent mixes or applies pesticides at work Total, all U.S.-based children 5.3 94.7 1 00.0 43.6 56.4 1 00.0 59.1 71.0 29.6 21.0 85.9 84.8 25.4 11.3 5.7 31.5 19.2 1 00.0 22.0 30.6 58.2 1.5 98.5 1 00.0 5.6 94.4 1 00.0 10.1 X 31.0 36.0 86.2 91.0 11.1 $1 0,000-$1 2,499 68.0 71.2 5.0 24.0 68.0 40.3 47.0 43.0 33.0 81.0 12.0 65.0 49.0 36.0 23.6 17.2 5.0 32.3 19.8 1 00.0 21.8 24.1 10.0 15.1 84.9 1 00.0 36.3 63.7 1 00.0 X X 35.0 29.0 97.0 87.4 27.9 $1 0,000 86.0 87.9 6.0 33.0 62.4 41.5 43.0 40.0 22.0 60.0 21.0 47.0 46.0 23.0 40.4 13.9 9.9 10.2 24.6 1 00.0 31.2 21.7 6.5 NOTES: N = 4,838, except where noted.
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From page 627... ...
Lone-Parent Total D) Foreign Born (%)
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From page 630... ...
41.7 77.0 91.8 Families below the poverty line (upper-bound estimate) 37.0 74.0 91.0 Extended family members in household 0.0 5.0 7.0 Nonfamily present in household 14.0 22.0 83.0 Family receives any federal services 37.0 70.0 64.0 AFDC 38.5 37.5 19.9 Food stamps 28.0 60.0 55.0 Medicaid 24.0 47.0 32.0 WIC (N=1,423)
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From page 631... ...
RICHARD MINES J.S. Child's 631 torn Puerto Rican Mexico-Born Other Total nic(%)
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From page 632... ...
Proportion whose family receives food stamps Proportion whose family receives Medicaid Proportion whose family receives WIC Proportion whose family receives AFDC Proportion who mix or apply pesticides at work Source of health care Emergency room Public clinics Private doctors Nowhere or in Mexico Total $1 ,000-$2,500 35 79 90 79 90 6 6 2 a 15 38 42 7 14 100 NOTE: See Appendix 1 2A for descriptions of selected variables.
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From page 633... ...
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)
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From page 634... ...
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.
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From page 635... ...
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.
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From page 636... ...
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.
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From page 637... ...
. The only group with a lower rate is that of other foreign born.
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From page 638... ...
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~.
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From page 639... ...
RICHARD MINES 639 9% 10% 11% 2% ,' Call 26% ~Blow Qume ,~.o~ An' \~ polo FIGURE 12-1 U.S.-based children who migrate with their farmworker parents. area to another in the United States.
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From page 640... ...
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
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From page 641... ...
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~.
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From page 642... ...
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~.
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From page 643... ...
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~.
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From page 644... ...
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.
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From page 645... ...
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.
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From page 646... ...
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.
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From page 647... ...
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.
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From page 648... ...
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.
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From page 649... ...
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.
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From page 650... ...
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.
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From page 651... ...
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~.
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From page 652... ...
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.
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From page 653... ...
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.
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From page 654... ...
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.
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From page 655... ...
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 FIefferman, and Victor Renteria for their contributions to the preparation of this paper.
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From page 656... ...
656 CHILDREN IN FARMWORKER FAMILIES Mines, R., S Gabbard, and A
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From page 657... ...
Child'sfamily migrates every year: This variable gives the percentage of children whose interviewee parent moves 75 miles or more to look for or obtain farmwork. Parentfinished eight or more years of school: This variable gives the percentage of children whose interviewee parent finished eight years of school.
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From page 658... ...
Source offamily'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.
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