Census: Many foreign-born residents live in poverty

Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter Posted May 05, 2003

APPLETON — More than 18 percent of foreign-born Fox Valley area residents live in poverty, which is more than three times the 5.5 percent rate of poverty for the overall population, census figure show.

“People move up north for a better chance,” said Federico Sotillo, a native of Venezuela who lives in Green Bay. “Because too many people are coming, the job situation gets harder. The competition gets harder.”

Figures from the 2000 census released recently, and reviewed by The Post-Crescent in Appleton, indicate that 18.4 percent of the approximately 19,444 foreign-born residents in the five-county area live in poverty. Nationwide, the immigrant poverty rate is 15.4 percent.

The counties the newspaper looked at were Brown, Calumet, Outagamie, Winnebago and Waupaca.

The federal poverty threshold varies depending on the size of the family. In 1999, the threshold was $16,895 for a family of four with two kids. The median family income in Wisconsin that year was $52,911.

The census numbers also showed:

nThe area’s most recent immigrants struggle much more than those who arrived in the country before 1980. More than four times as many of the newer arrivals are poor.

nThe largest percentage of poor immigrants (25.6 percent) are among those who arrived between 1995 and 2000.