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Begin New Search Topic Poverty Political Geography United States Content Type Working Paper Publishing Institution Urban Institute

1. Race, Ethnicity, and Health

Author:
Kenneth Finegold and Laura Wherry
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
The creation of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), combined with many states' decisions to expand Medicaid eligibility, increased public coverage of black, white, and Hispanic children between 1997 and 2002. Uninsurance rates fell among children in low-income white, black, and Hispanic families, remained constant among white and black children in higher-income families, and increased among Hispanic children in higher-income families. The health status of children, as reported by their parents, was stable for blacks, whites, and Hispanics, except for a decline in health among higher-income Hispanic children.
Topic:
Demographics, Health, Human Welfare, and Poverty
Political Geography:
United States

2. Race, Ethnicity, and Economic Well-Being

Author:
Kenneth Finegold and Laura Wherry
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
Poverty has decreased among blacks, Hispanics, and whites in recent years. Yet only whites have experienced less hardship in the areas of food and housing. In contrast, blacks have seen an increase in housing hardship, while food hardship has increased among Hispanics.
Topic:
Demographics, Economics, and Poverty
Political Geography:
United States

3. Health Insurance Coverage of Children in Mixed-Status Immigrant Families

Author:
Randy Capps, Genevieve M. Kenney, and Michael E. Fix
Publication Date:
11-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
Public health insurance coverage increased—and rates of uninsurance decreased—between 1999 and 2002 among two groups of low-income, U.S. citizen children: those with parents who are native or naturalized U.S. citizens and those with at least one immigrant parent who is not a U.S. citizen (referred to as mixed-status families). The improvements followed efforts on the part of the states and the federal government to expand coverage of children under Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and the introduction of policies directed at improving Medicaid and SCHIP access for immigrant and non-English-speaking families. Nonetheless, more than one in five citizen children in low-income mixed-status families remained uninsured in 2002—a rate 74 percent higher than that of children with citizen parents.
Topic:
Health, Human Welfare, Migration, and Poverty
Political Geography:
United States

4. The Health and Well-Being of Children in Immigrant Families

Author:
Randy Capps, Michael Fix, and Jame Reardon-Anderson
Publication Date:
11-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
Children of immigrants are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population under age 18 (Van Hook and Fix 2000). One in five children in the United States is the child of an immigrant, evidence of the demographic impact of recent rapid immigration. In addition, one in four low income children is an immigrant's child (Fix, Zimmermann, and Passel 2001). But despite their demographic and policy significance, children of immigrants and their well-being are rarely studied on a national scale. In this brief, we present a number of key indicators—both positive and negative—of child well-being. The measures fall within three areas: (1) family environment, (2) physical and emotional health, and (3) access to needed services.
Topic:
Human Welfare, Migration, and Poverty
Political Geography:
United States

5. Hardship Among Children of Immigrants: Findings From the 1999 National Survey of American Families

Author:
Randy Capps
Publication Date:
02-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
The 1999 National Survey of America's Families (NSAF) reveals that hardship is greater for children of immigrants than for children of U.S. natives in three areas of basic need: food, housing, and health care. The data also indicate that the relative generosity of differing state policies on noncitizens' access to public benefits generally corresponds with hardship levels. Because the NSAF cross-sectional data do not allow assessment of changes over time, these hardship levels cannot necessarily be ascribed to federal welfare reform or state policies. Nonetheless, these findings reinforce observations on the vulnerability of a population whose access to the social safety net has been diminished by recent policy changes. This analysis is one of the first studies based on nationally representative data to examine hardship among immigrant families in the post-welfare-reform era.
Topic:
Human Welfare, Migration, and Poverty
Political Geography:
United States

6. Racial and Ethnic Disparities: Key Findings from the National Survey of America's Families

Author:
Sarah Staveteig and Alyssa Wigton
Publication Date:
02-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
More than 30 years after the passage of civil rights legislation, significant economic and social inequalities persist amongst racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Analysis of well-being by race and ethnicity using data from the 1997 National Survey of America's Families (NSAF) confirms that disparities exist both within and across all racial and ethnic groups. Even at higher incomes, whites and Asians repeatedly fare better than blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans.
Topic:
Human Welfare, Migration, and Poverty
Political Geography:
United States

7. Civil Society, the Public Sector, and Poor Communities

Author:
Kingsley G. Thomas and James Gibson
Publication Date:
08-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
The current devolution debate has focused on shifting responsibilities from the federal level to the states. A byproduct of this shift has been renewed attention to an often neglected element of the policy mix—the costs and benefits of different local institutionalarrangement—and to the potential roles of civil society and community-based initiatives in that mix. The local tableau has recently been rediscovered as a vital leg on which the performance of the public sector is dependent. Students of government are only beginning to understand this play between civil society and the public sector. Here we focus especially on the dynamics within poor communities, where simple assistance is no longer considered adequate to solve problems without the necessary institutional infrastructure that is sometimes included under the label “civil society.”
Topic:
Civil Society, Human Welfare, and Poverty
Political Geography:
United States