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By Steven A. Camarota Methods and Data Definitions and Data Sources. The data in this study come primarily from the 5 percent public use sample of the 1990 Census5, and the March 1998 Current Population Survey (CPS). While the primary emphasis of this study is on the 1990s, a sample drawn from the 1980 Census is also used to provide historical perspective.6 The Census and CPS are used because they are the best sources of information on persons born outside of the United States — referred to as foreign-born by the Census Bureau. Persons not born in the United States, one of its outlying territories or to U.S. parents living abroad are foreign-born. All persons born in the United States, including the children of illegal aliens, are natives. For the purposes of this report, foreign-born and immigrant are used synonymously. As already described above, individual poverty status is determined based on yearly income. The March CPS and Census ask respondents about their income in the preceding year. Therefore, as is the case with statistics published by the government, the poverty figures in this study from the March 1998 CPS are for 1997 and the figures from the 1980 and 1990 Censuses are for 1979 and 1989 respectively. This study examines poverty for persons living in immigrant- and native-headed households. Individuals related to the household head by blood, marriage or adoption, regardless of their own nativity, are considered to be in an immigrant or native household based on whether the household head is an immigrant or a native. Individuals unrelated to the head are considered immigrant or native based on their own nativity. For example, a foreign-born live-in house keeper working in a native-headed household is treated as an immigrant. Households are defined in this way so that they more accurately reflect the kind of sharing of income that likely occurs among members of a household. Its worth noting that individuals unrelated to the household head comprise less than 4 percent of the population for whom poverty status is determined, therefore their allocation to immigrant or native households does not substantially affect the results.7
Composition of Immigrant Households. Defined in this way, 92.2 percent of the people living in immigrant-headed households were immigrants themselves (67.4 percent) or the native-born child under age 21 (24.8 percent) of an immigrant father or mother in 1998. In households headed by immigrants who arrived after 1970, 95.4 percent of the people are either immigrants or their U.S.-born children under 21. Therefore, this approach primarily measures poverty for immigrants and their young children. Since a child's standard of living is a function of his parents' income, this method captures the full effect of immigration on the incidence of poverty in the United States. For the remainder of this study the terms "immigrant-related" and "immigrant-associated" refer to persons living in immigrant households. Country of origin and year of entry for immigrant households are based on the responses of the household head.
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