Border KIDS COUNT

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Border KIDS COUNT

• Child and Family Well-Being on the U.S./Mexico
  Border

Presentation by Dayna Finet, Ph.D., on behalf of
the Border KIDS COUNT Project Ana Marie
Argilagos, Project Director William OHare,
Ph.D., KIDS COUNT Director Annie E. Casey
Foundation
International Conference on Community
Indicators Burlington, Vermont December 1 3,
2005
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Border Paradox and Promise

• Political boundary separates U.S. and Mexico, yet
  border communities on both sides historically
  interconnected
• Regional sense of place, yet distinct communities
  defy single-dimensional understanding and action
• Longstanding and severe problems (extreme
  poverty, infrastructural deficits) co-exist with
  significant strengths (integration of extended
  families, bilingual and bicultural traditions)

3
Border Demographics

• 6.5 million people
• 1.8 million children
• Border population the vanguard of a massive
  demographic shift, transforming the racial and
  ethnic makeup of the United States within the
  next century, when White population will no
  longer comprise the nations majority group
• Children, especially, more likely to belong to
  non-White racial and ethnic groups, and
  especially, to identify as Hispanic or Latino
• Border states, and especially border counties,
  younger and more diverse than non-Border states
  and counties

4
Border Geography

• Border extends 2,000 miles, from Pacific Ocean at
  the west to Gulf of Mexico at the east
• Border region crosses political jurisdictions but
  is not defined by them, so can be difficult to
  specify
• Border KIDS COUNT report includes 32
  countiestwenty-four directly border Mexico, and
  eight (five in Texas, three in New Mexico) are
  adjacent, with strong socioeconomic resemblance

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Border Geography

• Twenty counties in Texas, six in New Mexico, four
  in Arizona, and two in California
• Special case of San Diego and Los Angeles
  counties
• Caution interpreting data from sparsely-populated
  counties

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Border KIDS COUNT Indicators U.S. Census

• Total population
• Child population
• Latino population
• Immigration
• English language fluency

• Family structure
• Parental employment
• Child poverty
• High school dropouts
• Teens not in school and not working

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Border KIDS COUNT Indicators Vital Statistics

• Teen births
• Low birth-weight births
• Infant mortality

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Data Analysis Geographic Comparison

• Entire border region compared to U.S. and to
  non-border states as a whole
• Comparisons among border states
• Comparisons among border and non-border counties
  within border states

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Data Analysis Selected Indicators

• Demographic
• Latino population, especially children
• Immigration origin, recency, and citizenship
  status
• Economic
• Child poverty for all children, Latino, and
  non-Latino White children

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Selected Findings

• Magnitude of intuitive results
• Example In Texas border counties, nine out of
  10 children identify as Latino
• Example In border states, half the
  foreign-born population comes from Mexico, while
  in the U.S., three percent, and in non-border
  states, one percent, of immigrants were born in
  Mexico
• Example At every geographic level, the
  percentage of Latino children in poverty is
  between three and four times higher than the
  proportion of poor non-Latino White children

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Selected Findings

• Counterintuitive results
• Example In California, the highest percentage
  of foreign-born residents occurs in non-border
  counties
• Example In all four border states, about
  one-third of immigrants arrived in the U.S. since
  1990, with two-thirds arriving earlier
• Example Within border states, a larger share of
  border county immigrants, compared to
  foreign-born residents of non-border counties,
  have become U.S. citizens

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Selected Findings

• Texas (and New Mexico) and California (and
  Arizona) influence and contrast in the border
  region

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Continuing Research

• Examination of remaining Border KIDS COUNT
  indicators
• Example Teen births and high school dropouts
• Additional analyses within states and at county
  level
• Example Rural and urban counties, cities and
  sister cities
• Extended set of variables
• Example Environmental, housing, and health
• Extended variety of data
• Example Ethnographic research
• Comparable data from northern Mexico

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Implications for Practice

• Strategic communication with policy-makers,
  journalists, advocates, community stakeholders
• Local partnerships to leverage public and private
  resources and investments