UNH Research Finds Rural Immigrants Twice as Likely to Be Poor than Workers Born in the U.S.

Rural immigrants are more likely to be of working age (18-64), are more racially and ethnically diverse, are less educated and are more likely to have children than the rural population born in the U.S., an analysis of data by researchers at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey School of Public Policy found. The researchers found that working rural immigrants are nearly twice as likely as rural U.S. born workers to be poor, and they are poorer and have less education than their urban counterparts. “Our findings on the working poor suggest that economic stability is out of reach for many rural immigrants, particularly those without U.S. citizenship,” said the researchers. “A more complex analysis is necessary to better understand why so many rural immigrants currently working full time are poor. Such widespread poverty of full-time workers in a first-world country is cause for alarm, especially considering how poorly the U.S. safety net performs compared to that of other wealthy nations.” The data also revealed that citizens are far less likely to be poor and are almost twice as likely to have a college degree. More than 97 percent of rural immigrants who are citizens speak at least some English compared to just over 84 percent of rural immigrants who are not citizens.