Immigrant Children: Introducing the Issue
This introduction to the Spring 2011 issue of the Princeton/Brookings journal "Future of Children" examines the well-being of immigrant children and what might be done to improve their educational attainment, health status, social and cognitive development, and long-term prospects for economic mobility.
Large numbers of immigrant children are experiencing serious problems with education, physical and mental health, poverty and assimilation into American society. Their well-being is especially important to the U.S. because immigrant children are the fastest-growing segment of the population.
What this demographic trend portends for the future of immigrant children is highly uncertain for several reasons:1. Whether they achieve social integration and economic mobility depends on the degree of access they have to quality education from preschool through college. 2. These young immigrants are coming of age in an aging society that will require unprecedented social expenditures for health and retirement benefits for seniors. 3. Large numbers of these youth now live in communities where few foreign-born residents have previously settled.
Tienda, M. and Haskin, R. (2011). Immigrant Children: Introducing the Issue. Immigrant Children, 21(1), pp. 3-18.