 The
Challenge of Being an Immigrant Child
By Dimitrina KorchevaIt is estimated that today nearly 14 million
children in the United States are either children of immigrants or
immigrants themselves. Only in 1990 that number was 8 million.
Immigrant children are the fastest growing segment of the U.S.
population. Their presence is especially felt in the big
metropolises. Immigrants and their children are largely concentrated
in five states: California, New York, Texas, Florida and Illinois.
California alone is home to 45% of all immigrant children.
Latino and Asian children represent the largest percentage of
first and second-generation immigrant children. These are the two
fastest growing immigrant groups in the United States. 50% of Latino
children and 90% of Asians children have either born to immigrant
parents or are immigrants themselves.
It is only natural that these children would face a wide range of
challenges. They are faced with the unique stress of immigrating to
a foreign land coupled with the pains inherent in the process of
growing up.
These children are forced to leave their homes, communities,
extended families and friends, which represents a major change for
them. Many of them are fleeing poverty, war, discrimination. When
they come to America they are faced with a different culture. They
need to learn a new language, meet new people, adapt to a new way of
life. All of these experiences mark the beginnings of a new life;
often very different from the one they have known until then.
Immigrant children also have higher rates of poverty than
children born in the United States. Their parents are usually
struggling to learn the language, adapt to life in a foreign
country. They often work several jobs just to make ends meet. In
1996, 20 percent of children in the United States lived in families
that were below the poverty level. In California alone 26 percent of
children lived in conditions of poverty.
Confronted with the pressures of starting a new life a great
number of families disintegrate. Many children end up living in
single-parent households. Over half of all Puerto Rican and
Dominican children for example live with only one of their parents.
That represents twice the rate within any other group.
Upon arriving in the United States the children face their
parents' problems in their own unique way. They are often torn
between their own traditions and American culture. They feel loyalty
towards their parents but also want to conform and be part of their
peer groups at school. They may not have anyone to talk to about
their problems and may feel left out.
Some children face prejudice or racism for the first time. They
may feel isolated or rejected because of their ethnic identity. They
may feel hostility because they do not speak the language well
enough or because of their way of dressing, behaving.
Still, immigrant children of immigrants on the whole do better in
school than American-born children. They have higher grades and
study harder. As they get older, immigrant children have a higher
tendency to remain in school even when they are performing poorly.
American-born kids are more likely to drop out of school when they
fall behind with their studies.
It is widely believed that the model for language acquisition
observed in the beginning of the 20th century is still valid. This
three-generational model suggests that immigrants who came to
America speak the language poorly and rarely learn it well enough.
Their children grow up bilingual, speaking their parents' language
at home and English in the outside world. The third generation
rarely speaks its grandparents' language; it is mainly monolingual
in English.
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