Focuses on the health and well-being of young children under the age of 6 in immigrant families. Among the key themes that emerge from the research are that: (1) children of immigrants are the fastest growing component of the child population; (2) more than 25 percent of young children of immigrants have undocumented parents; (3) many young children of immigrants live in families with low incomes, have parents with low education levels and limited English proficiency, and interact less often with their parents- all factors associated with low performance in school; (4) young children of immigrants have higher levels of economic hardship but lower use of benefits than children of natives; (5) children of immigrants are more likely to have fair or poor health and to lack health insurance or a regular source of health care; and (6) children of immigrants are more often in parental care and less often in center-based child care. These findings underline the importance of ensuring quality child care, whether in a center or in the home, to improve school readiness and of making child-care centers into sites providing referrals to community providers of services and assistance for application to public benefits programs.
