The Living Arrangements of Children in Immigrant Families in the United States

Abstract

Little is known about the living arrangements of first- and second-generation immigrant children. Using data from the Current Population Survey and a multivariate approach, I compared living arrangements of immigrant children to U.S.-born white children with U.S.-born parents. Findings show, except for foreign-born black and some Hispanic children, that foreign-born children lived with married parents more frequently than did U.S.-born white children with U.S.-born parents. However, by the third generation, a pattern emerged showing a decline in living with married parents among some immigrant children and a rise in living with single parents. The noticeable “downward assimilation” among some second- and third-generation immigrant children fits a theory of segmented assimilation and is concerning because single-parent families confront more social problems and sociodemographic risks.