Abstract
We offer a detailed descriptive portrait of multidimensional poverty among native- and foreign-born residents of the U.S. Examining data from the American Community Surveys for the 2008–2018 period, we consider variation in the determinants of multidimensional poverty across native- and foreign-born cohorts. We find that, even after controlling for cohort-specific variation in all determinants, the estimated probability that the typical foreign-born individual in the U.S. will be multidimensionally poor is significantly higher than that of a comparable native-born individual. We extend our analysis to estimate Multidimensional Poverty Index, headcount ratios, and average deprivation intensity values for each home country of America’s foreign-born population. Still further, we extend our analysis to consider variation in the determinants of multidimensional deprivation across groupings of immigrants’ home countries that are based on relative headcount ratio and average deprivation intensity values.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
White and Yamasaki (2017) provides a similar examination and, thus, serves as the basic structure/framework for the work that is presented in this chapter; however, their study considered two additional indicators that we forgo (i.e., access to a private vehicle for transportation and receipt of benefits via the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). Their study was also limited to a shorter reference period (i.e., 2010 through 2014) than the 2008 through 2018 period that we examine.
- 3.
To facilitate examination at the home country level of detail and to allow for more accurate categorization of home countries based on relative headcount ratio and average deprivation intensity values, we exclude from our analysis all observations that indicate a foreign place of birth but do not identify a particular foreign country as the place of birth (e.g., observations for which the place of birth is listed as “Other Europe, Not Specified” or “South America”). The effect on our sample composition is the exclusion of 102,108 observations which results in a sample size of 34,189,492 observations. An additional consequence is that summary values in this chapter differ slightly from the values that are provided in Chap. 4 where the full sample is examined.
- 4.
The choice of 25 percent to segment the headcount ratio series is chosen as there is a break in the series between 24.36 percent and 26.61 percent.
- 5.
The 2018 immigrant population estimates and the estimate of the total U.S. population have been made using ACS data.
- 6.
These values are calculated as the weighted value of the category frequencies that are presented in panel B of Table 9.1.
References
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White, Roger, and Stacy Yamasaki. 2017. Multidimensional Poverty among the Native- and Foreign-born in the United States: Evidence from the 2010–2014 American Community Surveys. In Measuring Multidimensional Poverty and Deprivation: Incidence and Determinants in Developed Countries, ed. Roger White. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
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White, R. (2020). Nativity, Immigrant Home Countries, and Multidimensional Poverty. In: Multidimensional Poverty in America. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45916-1_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45916-1_9
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