Examines the economic status of refugees who arrived in the United States as children and who were living in California and Florida as adults. The study sample included refugees from Southeast Asia, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua, and focused on 7 key economic indicators: employment status, earnings, public assistance use, employment history, poverty, education, and school enrollment. Findings revealed that the economic status of refugees who had arrived in the U.S. during childhood differed by refugee group; for example, Cuban and Soviet/East European childhood refugee arrivals in Florida were found to be faring well economically, surpassing both refugees who arrived as adults and their U.S.-born peers on most indicators. Meanwhile, Southeast Asian childhood refugee arrivals in California are in a transitional stage, having surpassed adult arrivals but not yet achieving economic parity with their U.S.-born peers. Across most indicators, the Haitian childhood refugee arrivals were faring the worst. Among the likely explanations for these differences are length of residence in the U.S., cultural and racial differences among the groups as an adjustment factor to their new life, and immigration policies that give preferential treatment to refugees from Communist countries.
