Donald J. Hernandez

Demographic Change and the Life Circumstances of Immigrant Families.

SUMMARY Several major demographic shifts over the past half-century have transformed who we are and how we live in this country in many ways. Most striking, however, is the fact that children today are much more likely to be members of ethnic or racial minority groups. Racial/ethnic minorities are destined, in aggregate, to become the numerical majority within the next few decades. This article presents a wide range of statistics reflecting cultural, family, social, economic, and housing circumstances across various racial/ethnic and country-of-origin groups. Key observations include: * Children in immigrant families are much less likely than children in native-born families to have only one parent in the home, and they are nearly twice as likely as those in native-born families to be living with grandparents, other relatives, and non-relatives. * Parental educational attainment is perhaps the most central feature of family circumstances relevant to overall child well-being and development, regardless of race/ethnicity or immigrant origins. * Children in immigrant families were only slightly less likely than children in native-born families to have a father who worked during the past year, but many of their fathers worked less than full-time year-round. * Official poverty rates for children in immigrant families are substantially higher than for children in native-born families (21% versus 14%). The author concludes that these results point to a growing need for policies and programs to assure the health, educational success, and well-being of all children across the varied racial/ethnic and immigrant-origin groups who now live in this country. ********** Over the past half-century, our nation has experienced major demographic shifts that have transformed who we are and how we live. This is especially true for children. To start, proportionately, there are fewer of them. Children today make up only 25% of the U.S. population, compared with 36% in 1960. And children today are being reared differently. They are more likely to have a working mother, 67% compared to only 15% in 1950, and most spend significant amounts of time in out-of-home care. Many are also likely to live in or near poverty (26%), and to spend at least part of their childhood living with fewer than two parents (nearly 50%). At the same time, children today are healthier and have better-educated parents. Most striking, however, children today are much more likely to be a member of an ethnic or racial minority group, and the diversity of our nations children is increasing at a dramatic rate. Children in the United States are leading the way toward the creation of a new American majority. This transformation does not, however, reflect the emergence of a singular, numerically dominant group. Instead, it is characterized by a mosaic of diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural groups from around the world. Historically, racial/ethnic minorities, including Hispanics, African Americans, Asians, and American Indians, have accounted for substantially less than one-half of the American population. But taken as a whole, because they are growing much more rapidly than the non-Hispanic white population, they are destined, in aggregate, to become the numerical majority within the next few decades. (See Figure 1.) These new demographic realities pose enormous opportunities and challenges for public policies and programs aimed at assuring that the next generation of children reach their potential to become economically productive adults, nurturing parents, and engaged citizens. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] This article presents a wide range of statistics (calculated from the Public Use Microdata Sample, or PUMS, file of Census 2000, (1) unless noted otherwise) reflecting cultural, family, social, economic, and housing circumstances of children in native-born and immigrant families--statistics that merit the attention of policymakers and service providers who are responsible for initiating, designing, and implementing programs that will fully meet the developmental needs of Americas children. …

Children of Immigrants

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Realizing the potential of immigrant youth

The well-being and productivity of immigrant youth have become one of the most important global issues of our times as a result of mass migration and resettlement. In this unique volume, leading scholars from multiple nations and disciplines provide a state-of-the-art overview of contemporary research on immigrant youth and delineate the most promising future directions for research on their success, suggesting implications for policy and interventions that will benefit host societies as well as immigrant youth. The contributors to Realizing the Potential of Immigrant Youth include many of the leading international experts on migration, acculturation, intergroup issues, and immigrant youth development, with contributions from the fields of child development, demography, economics, education, immigrant mental health, social psychology, and sociology.

Changing Demographics: Past and Future Demands for Early Childhood Programs

This article provides a historical analysis of how demographic changes in the organization of American family life from the mid-1800s to the present have shaped the demand for programs to complement the efforts of families to educate and care for their children. The author asserts that the United States is in the midst of a second child care revolution. The first occurred in the late 1800s, when families left farming to enable fathers to take jobs in urban areas and when compulsory free public schooling was established for children age six and above. The second has developed over the past 55 years as the proportion of children under six living in families with two wage earners or a single working parent has escalated and propelled more and more young children into the early childhood care and education programs discussed throughout this journal issue. Looking to the future, the author sees indications that the demand for early childhood care and education programs will continue to grow while the needs of the children to be served will become increasingly diverse. To meet these dual pressures, the author argues that public funding for early childhood programs--like funding for public schools--is justified by the value such programs have for the broader society.

A note on measuring the independent impact of family planning programs on fertility Declines

This note critically evaluates recent cross-national studies that estimate the independent effect of family planning programs on the fertility of the developing world. The evaluation demonstrates that past research is biased to produce overestimates of net program impact. A new estimate is derived to account more completely for the effects of the social context and socioeconomic development on fertility. This estimate indicates that 5 percent of the variation in crude birth rate decline for 89 developing countries is due to family planning programs. This is substantially less than past estimates.

Children in the United States of America: A Statistical Portrait by Race-Ethnicity, Immigrant Origins, and Language

The rights that the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) enumerates include the rights to (1) an adequate standard of living, (2) an education directed toward the development of the child’s fullest potential, (3) the highest attainable standard of health, and (4) the child’s own cultural identity and use of his or her own language. The CRC states that these rights shall be ensured regardless of various statuses of children, including race, ethnic origin, national origin, and language. This article presents a statistical baseline for assessing the diversity of children in the United States with regard to these statuses, presents results for statistical indicators of well-being for children distinguished by these statuses, and discusses public policies to reduce inequalities relevant to these rights.

Married-couple families with step adopted and biological children.

National estimates of the numbers of families with step, adopted, and biological children have not previously been developed. In this work, parent types for children in married-couple families were indirectly identified by using marriage and birth dates. Families were then classified by the types of children present. A large majority (79 percent) had only biological children; however, a significant minority (16 percent) had at least one stepchild and 4 percent had at least one adopted child. This analysis provides national estimates of the numbers and characteristics of married-couple families with step, adopted, and biological children.

Young Hispanic Children in the 21st Century

This article presents a demographic portrait of young Hispanic children compared to young non-Hispanic Whites. New results from Census 2000 describe family and economic circumstances of children aged 08, as well as pre-K/nursery school and kindergarten enrollment for the United States, and for the 9 states with the largest number of young Hispanic children (Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, and Texas). Most results in this article are presented in Tables 1 and 2, and these results along with many additional topics are available at, the website of the Center for Social and Demographic Analysis, University at Albany, State University of New York: www.albany.edu/CSDA/children. We are indebted to Jessica Singer for research assistance and Hui-Shien Tsao for computer assistance. We also wish to thank the National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for supporting research that provided a basis for this analysis, as well as the Russell Sage Foundation and the Population Reference Bureau.

The impact of family planning programs on fertility in developing countries: A critical evaluation

Abstract Controversy surrounds the question: do organized family planning programs produce fertility decline in developing countries that is independent of other causes? Two major conclusions emerge from this critical evaluation of 26 past studies on this question. First, the disparate results are associated with the differential validity of the studies. Second, the fertility declines or variations analyzed were generated mainly be indigenous causes, that is, they would have occurred and the means for bringing them about would have been available without family planning programs. Hence, the programs had little net effect on fertility.

Fertility reduction policies and poverty in Third World countries: ethical issues.

This article discusses motivation for fertility reduction and related population policies. It identifies the 2 major approaches to evaluating these policies in the population ethics literature: the individualistic approach and the international approach. Each approach is then characterized according to the kinds of policies evaluated the ethical principles that are most prominent and the major conclusions drawn. Major empirical gaps in the population ethics literature are identified and pertinent social science issues concerning the effectiveness of family planning programs the socioeconomic determinants of fertility and the interpersonal or community determinants of fertility are discussed. Finally these issues are linked with the United Nations World Population Plan of Action to identify ethical questions that warrant detailed scrutiny. Estimates indicate that about 1/2 billion people around the world are malnourished and that more than 1 billion people lack access to clean water sanitary sewage disposal and trained health care. Additionally perhaps 1/3 of the worlds labor force is unemployed or earning too little to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. 4 general types of policies are discussed: voluntarist policies incentive and welfare programs shifts in social conditions and involuntary governmental controls. Inquiries within the individualistic approach rely on freedom justice security and survival but especially freedom. The international approach to population ethics consists of 2 opposing schools of thought: the lifeboat ethics school and the spaceship earth school. The 1st views each nation as a lifeboat with limited carrying capacity and emphasizes the need to ensure welfare of future generations rather than that of people in poor countries today. The 2nd school emphasizes global cooperation to reduce consumption military spending and the waste of energy and other resources. The following broad types of fertility reduction policies could be implemented to deal with the serious threat to welfare security and survival in the 3rd World: socioeconomic development policies positive incentives negative incentives and sociopolitical pressures and coercion. Without major new policy initiatives in 3rd World countries and without changes in international policies the number of deprived 3rd World people will continually increase.