IMMIGRANT CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILIES - ISSUES FOR RESEARCH AND POLICY

Discussions about immigration, focused on such policy issues as labor force participation and use of welfare programs, frequently fail to in clude considerations of children's well-being. Even those debates whic h center on programs that benefit children-such as schools, public ass istance, and social welfare programs-are often based on issues related to short-term costs and societal impacts, neglecting considerations o f the well-being and future contributions of immigrant children. Hence , immigrant children have been rendered largely invisible in policy sp heres. Yet first- and second-generation immigrant children are the fas test-growing segment of the U.S. population under age 15. In this cont ext, the Board on Children and Families of the National Research Counc il and the Institute of Medicine convened a workshop on immigrant chil dren and families to review what is known about this population and to identify issues that warrant further examination. This article is bas ed on the discussions at the workshop. Several themes emerged from the workshop, including the value of looking at immigrant children in the context of their families; the importance of understanding public con cerns over the costs of immigrants, coupled with the difficulty of pin pointing just what those costs are; and the need for policymakers to a ddress such policy issues as education and health care. The article co ncludes by identifying a number of areas in which research is warrante d as immigrant children and families grow to become a core part of Ame rican communities, schools, and society.