An Understanding of Latino Poverty: The Role of Declining Immigration

Rogelio Saenz, University of Texas at San Antonio
Christina Quintanilla-Muñoz, University of Texas at San Antonio

Over the last two decades, the US poverty rate has remained fairly stable with a 11.8% poverty rate in 2003 and 2023. Yet, during this period, the poverty rate of Latinos fell by 24%. We use data from the 2003 to 2023 American Community Survey (ACS) for Latino householders to examine the link between the decline of Latino immigration and the fall in the poverty rate during this period. The results show that the shift in the composition of the Latino population by nativity and citizenship is related to the declining poverty rate. The analysis also shows that if the nativity-citizenship composition of the Latino population would have remained the same as in 2003, the poverty rate from 2008 to 2023 would have been higher.

Keywords: Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Human Capital, Education, and Work, Families, Unions and Households, Population, Shocks and Pandemics

See extended abstract.

  Presented in Session P3. Gender Dynamic; Human Capital, Education, & Work,; Inequality, Disadvantage & Discrimination, the Demography of Indigenous Populations