Safety Net Barriers Add to Child Poverty in Immigrant Families

“We left it all behind, everything,” he said, abandoning house, cars, and savings to seek asylum.

Suddenly poor, the couple spent two years pursuing legal protection, mostly without authorization to work. They did odd jobs, borrowed from family, and “only rarely” ate less to feed Gabriel. Ineligible for most aid while waiting, they were afraid to seek it anyway for fear it would harm their case. “I thought it might be illegal,” Mr. Garcia said.

Without health insurance, Ms. Yepez used expired birth control pills she had brought from Venezuela and learned to her distress that she was pregnant. A second son and legal papers arrived in close succession — she thanks God for each — but economic progress has been slowed by their lack of English.

Until recently, Mr. Garcia drove for Uber, with net earnings of $20,000 a year. Tax forms filed by a paid preparer show they also received about $11,000 in tax credits — benefits they do not understand — but that still leaves them well below the poverty line. They know little about other programs and are wary of government help.

“You have to work for what you want,” Mr. Garcia said. “I wouldn’t use it unless I really need it.”

Gabriel’s teacher recently suggested they apply for food stamps, the first they had heard of the program. They could likely collect about $7,500 a year but hesitate to apply, citing their belief in self-sufficiency and fear the aid would harm their legal status. (Under current law, it would not.)

Mr. Garcia recently found a job in a battery recycling plant at $15 an hour, a step up from Uber driving. With Ms. Yepez driving for Uber while the children are in school, their income may exceed the government poverty line this year — about $33,000 for a Nashville-area family of four. But she may never regain what she had in Venezuela, with a doctorate and a job in a pharmaceutical plant.

Told that children of immigrants are disproportionately poor, Mr. Garcia expressed no surprise.

“The immigrant experience is rough,” he said, adding with a hint of willed optimism: “You have to find ways to feel good about what you do have, knowing that things will get better over time.”