1. 2013 National Gathering
Immigration as a Poverty and Hunger Issue
Andrew Wainer, Senior Immigration Policy Analyst

2. Immigration, Food Insecurity, and Poverty
• A cause of unauthorized immigration
internationally
• As a consequence of unauthorized status
domestically
• Immigrants heavily engaged in food
production in Latin America and the
United States

3. www.bread.org
Hunger and Poverty in Mexico and
Central America
• Guatemala: 51%; 26% less
than $2 per day
• Honduras: 60%; 30% less
than $2 per day
• El Salvador: 38%; 17% less
than $2 per day
• Mexico: 51%; 5% less than $2
per day

4. www.bread.org
Food Insecurity in Mexico and
Central America
• Guatemala: 4th highest
percentage of chronically
malnourished children in the
world; 48% of children under 5
suffer from stunting – UNICEF
• Honduras: 60% of have high
food security vulnerability –
Feed the Future
• El Salvador: 40% of children
from 6 to 11 months have
anemia – World Food Program

5. www.bread.org
Poverty and food insecurity among
immigrants in the United States
• 91% of Mexican immigrants said they
arrived in the U.S. “with very little
money” – Public Agenda
• Unauthorized immigrant poverty
between 32% of adults; 51%
unauthorized children live in poverty
– MPI
• Latinos have highest food insecurity
rates in the nation (27%); Latino rural
immigrants 45% food insecure – Iowa
State; Wake Forest; NCLR

6. www.bread.org
The U.S. agricultural workforce
• No other sector of U.S. economy
is more dependent on
immigrants than agriculture
• About 3/4 of all hired farm
workers are immigrants, both
authorized and unauthorized,
almost all from Mexico

7. www.bread.org
Poverty and food insecurity
among farm workers
• Average family income
between $17,500 and $19,999
- DOL
• Seasonal farmworkers earn
about $10,000 annually,
below poverty line for
individual - DOL
• About half of immigrant
farm worker families live in
poverty – Wake Forest
University

8. Andrew Wainer, Senior Immigration Policy Analyst