Daniel Lichter (Cornell University)
13 June 2013 @ 14:00
- Past event
“At the Starting Line: Rural Poverty and Inequality among Hispanic Newborns”
Abstract
The recent movement of Hispanics into rural immigrant destinations has sometimes deflected attention from another major source of rural population growth – fertility. High rates of Hispanic fertility raise an important question: Do Hispanic newborn babies start life’s race behind the starting line, poor and disadvantaged? To address this question, we link the new fertility question in the 2006-2010 American Community Survey (ACS) to the poverty status of mothers at birth. Our results document high rates of fertility among U.S. Hispanics, especially in comparison to other historically disadvantaged populations. Hispanic fertility is exceptionally high in rural areas, where a disproportionately large share (40 percent) of Hispanic babies are born into poverty. Even when well-known “risk factors” (e.g., immigration status, teen unmarried mothers) are taken into account, poverty among Hispanic newborns in new rural destinations are still 10-15 percent higher than their non-Hispanic white counterparts. For Hispanic newborn babies, poverty cannot be reduced to explanations that typically emphasize maladaptive behavioral decision-making of parents, i.e., nonmarital or teen childbearing, low educational attainment, acquisition of English language skills, or other dimensions of human capital. Hispanic fertility is giving impetus to new rural diversity (“from young to old”), but it may also be contributing to greater racial inequality and poverty.