Children of Immigrants in the Child Welfare System: Findings From the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being

Immigration patterns over the last decade have contributed significantly to changing the demographic profile of the United States. Not only have the numbers of foreign-born immigrants living in the United States increased, but also a larger proportion of this population consists of families and children. During the 1990s, more than 15 million immigrants entered the United States, an increase of 50% since the 1980s and over 100% since the 1970s (Capps & Fortuny, 2006). As of 2008, foreign-born immigrants comprised 12.5% of the total U.S. population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2008), while children of immigrants represented more than one fifth of all children under 18 (Fortuny, Capps, Simms, & Chaudry, 2009). The number of children with at least one immigrant parent has more than doubled since 1990, from 8 million to 16.4 million in 2007, and their share of all children has increased from 13% to 23% during this period (Fortuny et al., 2009).