Update: Washington Times has more on the study here.
Conclusion: Immigrant households represent a larger percentage of those people living in poverty than native households.
The Center for Immigration Studies is a great source for background information on the legal and illegal immigrant population in the US. Today they have announced the availability of their latest study based on Census Bureau data collected in 2010 and 2011.
They estimate that about a little over one quarter of the immigrants in the US and their children are here illegally. But, these stats apply to both legal and illegal immigrants.
I’ve just picked a few summary points from the study (see below), but urge you to read the whole report here.
Overall Numbers
*The number of immigrants (legal and illegal) in the country hit a new record of 40 million in 2010, a 28 percent increase over the total in 2000.
*Of top sending countries, the largest percentage increase in the last decade was for those from Honduras (85 percent), India (74 percent), Guatemala (73 percent), Peru (54 percent), El Salvador (49 percent), Ecuador (48 percent), and China (43 percent).
Poverty
*In 2010, 23 percent of immigrants and their U.S.-born children (under 18) lived in poverty, compared to 13.5 percent of natives and their children. Immigrants and their children accounted for one-fourth of all persons in poverty.
*The children of immigrants account for one-third of all children in poverty.
*Among the top sending countries, poverty is highest for immigrants and their young children from Mexico (35 percent), Honduras (34 percent), and Guatemala (31 percent); and lowest for those from Germany (7 percent), India (6 percent), and the Philippines (6 percent).
Welfare Use
*In 2010, 36 percent of immigrant-headed households used at least one major welfare program (primarily food assistance and Medicaid) compared to 23 percent of native households.
*Among the top sending countries, welfare use is highest for households headed by immigrants from Mexico (57 percent), Guatemala (55 percent), and the Dominican Republic (54 percent); and lowest for those from Canada (13 percent), Germany (10 percent), and the United Kingdom (6 percent).
Read it all. You might find especially interesting the “state numbers” which shows (no surprise) that financially struggling California tops the list with an almost 28% share of its population made up of immigrants.