Blog #9

According to NCCP, 26% of child immigrants are poor. In Sara’s story, she was originally from Ecuador and moved to United States when she found out she was pregnant. She lived with her mother for a while but when they did not get along, she moved back to Ecuador to live with her daughter’s father and his family. She decided that she wanted to have her daughter grow up in the United States and have more opportunities so she came back. Sara left her daughter with a neighbor in her mother’s building who ultimately asked Sara to sign custody over to her. Scared and not knowing much about the legal system, Sara and her daughter left and became homeless. Over time, Sara learned about the system and began school and enrolled her daughter in a center. The NCCP says that 20% of children under 6 live in poor families and 18% older than 6. This can be attributed to the fact that it is difficult for working mothers to get child care support, especially in the early years. Mothers are often working minimum wage jobs with irregular hours, leaving them strategically planning child care arrangements. Sometimes when child care falls through, mothers have no other choice but to quit their job to either take care of their child or to arrange other child care. Another issue that children face is that they do not have healthcare. Most low-income mothers work for companies that do not provide healthcare benefits to their employees or their families. Additionally, mothers are often working sporadic jobs, some part-time and some full-time, and work multiple jobs at once. Another issue is the length of time poor working mothers usually stay at a job continuously, sometimes they are forced to quit to take care of a child and for other reasons and are therefore, unable to receive benefits.