The Link Between Immigration and Hunger

As Vox Culture’s trimester on “Immigration Stories” gives way to its next trimester on “Hunger Stories” it is important to understand how social issues such as these can be interconnected and influence each other.  Our primary goal is to continue to help our audience grasp a better understanding of the connections that exist between social issues, such as those pertaining to Migration and Nutritional Poverty.

The issue of immigration shares an important link with the issue of hunger. Currently in the United States, about 35 percent of children born to immigrant mothers experience hunger, in comparison to just under 15 percent for the children of native-born mothers. By the standards of rich democracies, this statistic clearly shows that the U.S. has a high incidence of food insecurity, with a large part of it driven by the fact that more than 1 in 4 children born to immigrant parents go hungry. This is not to exclude the bigger domestic issue however, given that the rate of children of native-born mothers going hungry is also significantly high for a first world nation.

While there are programs in existence to help address the issue of hunger or food insecurity in immigrant households, such as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits, eligibility is limited to only those classified as recent immigrants. More importantly, these benefits are only given to those residing legally within the United States. Therefore, in theory, the food security situation for immigrants residing in the United States illegally is on average direr than compared to a legal immigrant or a native-born individual. This picture becomes more clear when you take into account that altogether, there are approximately 38 million immigrants living in the United States, making up 12.5 percent of the U.S. population. Of those 38 million, about one-third (11 to 12 million) is residing illegally.

Without delving too deeply in the politics behind both the issue of immigration as well as who is entitled to what, the question we should be asking ourselves is, how can we change this food insecurity issue facing many immigrants in the United States?

The answer possibly (and partially) lies in immigration reform. By potentially creating a path to obtaining citizenship for less-skilled illegal immigrants this could, with time, help begin to resolve the issues of hunger that may exist and create food security in the process. By creating a channel to obtain legal citizenship with possibly less bureaucracy, this could in turn increase the number of SNAP-eligible households. Furthermore, by creating immigration reform policies such as the DREAM Act and more, there could be a positive long-term effect on the immigrant community in the U.S. that goes beyond solving the issues of hunger plenty of them face today.