Including Children in Immigrant Families in Policy Approaches to Reduce Child Poverty.

Although they are an increasing share of the US child population (26% in 2020) and have much higher poverty rates than children in nonimmigrant families (20.9% vs 9.9%), children in immigrant families have much more restricted access to the social safety net, which can lead to increased economic hardship and health and developmental risks. More than 90% of children in immigrant families are US citizens, but they are excluded from the safety net due to restrictions that affect their parents and other family members. Exclusions that affect children in immigrant families include restricted categorical eligibility based on immigrant status, stricter income eligibility, reduced benefit levels, high administrative burden, and interactions with immigration policy such as public charge. These exclusions limit the ability of both existing and enhanced social programs to reduce child poverty among this population. Results derived from the Transfer Income Model simulations for the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine's 2019 report A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty show that the poverty-reducing effects of potential enhancements to three main antipoverty programs result in unequal poverty reduction effects by family citizenship/immigration status with disproportionate negative effects on Hispanic children, 54% of whom live in immigrant families. Policy principles to improve equitable access and poverty-reduction effects of social programs for children in immigrant families include basing eligibility and benefit levels on the developmental, health and nutrition needs of the child instead of the immigration status of other family members, reducing administrative burden, and eliminating the link between immigration policy and access to the safety net.

Restoring An Inclusionary Safety Net For Children In Immigrant Families: A Review Of Three Social Policies.

Since the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, known as "welfare reform," in 1996, US social policy has increasingly stratified immigrants by legality, extending eligibility exclusions, benefit limitations, and administrative burdens not only to undocumented immigrants but also to lawful permanent residents and US citizens in immigrant families. This stratification is a form of structural discrimination, which is a social determinant of health. Children in immigrant families, most of whom are US citizens, have not been able to fully realize the benefits from social safety-net programs-including the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act stimulus payments. Policy deliberations over pandemic recovery, the equity focus of the Biden administration, and proposals to address child poverty provide an opportunity to reexamine immigrant exclusions, restrictions, and administrative burdens in public programs. We discuss immigrant stratification by legal status in social policy and review how it affects citizen children in mixed-status families in three safety-net programs: the Earned Income Tax Credit, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and Child Care and Development Block Grant. We provide eight policy recommendations to restore equity to the social safety net for children in immigrant families.

Integrating racial/ethnic equity into policy assessments to improve child health.

The US child population is rapidly becoming more racially and ethnically diverse, yet there are persistent racial/ethnic gaps in child health. Improving and expanding policies to reduce these gaps is increasingly a mandate of government agencies. Identifying effective policies requires a rigorous approach, yet there is a lack of information about which policies improve equity. This article introduces the Policy Equity Assessment, a framework that combines policy assessment and rigorous equity methods to both synthesize existing research and identify and conduct new analyses of policies' ability to reduce racial/ethnic inequities. We applied the Policy Equity Assessment to three policies: Head Start, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and a federal housing assistance program known as Section 8. Our results show racial/ethnic inequities in access to benefits and substantial data and evidence gaps regarding the impact of policies in improving racial/ethnic equity. These results should motivate policy makers to strengthen equity analysis.