<p><em><strong></strong></em><em><strong>A look at the ways immigrant Solo Moms are united and how we can all be inspired by their strength</strong></em></p><p>She knows who she is, but others may not.</p><p>She just dropped her son off at day care, kissing him goodbye on both cheeks and sending him in with a tight squeeze. </p><p>She just welcomed the same boy into the classroom, greeting him in Chinese and smiled brightly when he gave her the response he had learned from his playmate, her daughter. </p><p>She studies at night to pass the Indiana state medical licensing exams, again, though she was a practicing obstetrician in her home city of Mumbai. She struggles intently to understand the doctor’s instructions and wonders if there is a translator. </p><p>She teaches English to undocumented workers at the Haitian community center in Washington, D.C., and ensures that, like her, they know their basic rights under the law. </p><p>Her daughter’s quinceañera featured an amazing spread of home-cooked delicacies, and her daughter breathed a sigh of relief to see her American friends gobble them down. </p><p>She came to Los Angeles ten years ago, leaving the violence of her marriage, determined to do better for her three children and herself. </p><p>She arrived last night and tries to put on a brave face for her two darlings as she wraps them in the thin blanket at the U.S. Border Patrol’s family detention center. </p><p>She dances beautifully. She swears softly in her mother tongue. Some nights she misses her family and friends across the ocean so much it hurts; some days, she revels in the solidarity and love of the new ties she has built, one leap of faith at a time.</p><p>She has so many questions that other Solo Moms can help her answer; she has so much knowledge that some may never imagine. </p><p>She is you. She is your neighbor, your cleaner, your sister, your boss. </p><p>She is making a new home for her family, on her own, in a country that welcomes her diversity and challenges her to fit in. We are here to welcome her, to celebrate her, to support her.</p><hr><p><span style="font-size: 12px;">Photo credit Shutterstock.com</span><br></p>
<p><em><strong>Tan Le talks about leaving Vietnam with her sister, <a href="https://esme.com/voices/perspectives/whats-a-solo-mom" target="_blank" class="wordlink">Solo Mom</a>, and grandmother</strong></em></p><p>Tan Le is a scientist, entrepreneur, and activist<span class="redactor-invisible-space">. </span>In 2011 she told her story at TEDxWomen, <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/tan_le_my_immigration_story?language=en" target="_blank">Tan Le: My Immigration Story</a>. A refugee at age four, Le recounts how three generations of women in her family—she and her younger sister, her Solo Mom, and her grandmother—fled Vietnam, joining millions of “boat people” to seek a new start in Australia. Le’s immigrant story reminds us of the strength children can draw from the courage and determination of an immigrant Solo Mom.</p><p>Here’s an excerpt from her TED talk:</p><p><em>“How can I speak in 10 minutes about the bonds of women over three generations, about how the astonishing strength of those bonds took hold in the life of a four-year-old girl huddled with her young sister, her mother, and her grandmother for five days and nights in a small boat in the China Sea more than 30 years ago, bonds that took hold in the life of that small girl and never let go—that small girl now living in San Francisco and speaking to you today? This is not a finished story. It is a jigsaw puzzle still being put together.” —Tan Le, 2011</em></p><p><em><br></em></p><iframe src="https://embed-ssl.ted.com/talks/tan_le_my_immigration_story.html" scrolling="no" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" width="640"></iframe><p><strong><br></strong></p><hr><p><span style="font-size: 11px;">Photo credit: Screen shot from Ted Talks "Tan Le: My <a href="https://esme.com/resources/c/immigration" target="_blank" class="wordlink">Immigration</a> Story"</span><br></p>
<p><em><strong>Learn more about how many immigrants are raising children in the United States</strong></em></p><p>The following Q&amp;A is from <a href="http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/frequently-requested-statistics-immigrants-and-immigration-united-states">“Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States,”</a> published by the Migration Policy Institute, February 26, 2015.</p><p><strong>How many children in the United States live with immigrant parents?</strong></p><p>In 2012, 17.4 million children under age 18 lived at home with at least one immigrant parent. They accounted for 25 percent of the 70.2 million children under age 18 in the United States.</p><p>The 15.2 million second-generation children—those who were born in the United States to at least one foreign-born parent—accounted for 88 percent of all children with immigrant parents. The remaining 12 percent (2.2 million) were children living in the United States in 2012 who were born outside the United States to foreign-born parents.</p><p><strong>How has the number of children living with immigrant parents changed?</strong></p><p>Between 1990 and 2000, the number of children ages 17 and under with immigrant parents grew 60 percent, from 8.2 million to 13.1 million. Between 2000 and 2012, the number grew 33 percent from 13.1 million to 17.4 million.</p><p>For first-generation immigrant children (those born outside the United States), population growth was sizeable between 1990 and 2000, when the population grew by 43 percent (from 1.9 million to 2.7 million), but declined 20 percent between 2000 and 2012, from 2.7 million to 2.2 million.</p><p>The number of second-generation immigrant children (born in the United States to foreign-born parents) has grown steadily since 1990. Between 1990 and 2000, the number of second-generation immigrant children grew 65 percent (from 6.3 million to 10.4 million). Between 2000 and 2012, this population grew by 46 percent (from 10.4 million to 15.2 million).</p><p>In 1990, 13 percent of all children in the United States were living with immigrant parents, rising to 19 percent in 2000, and 25 percent in 2012. The share of second-generation children among all children with immigrant parents has grown from 77 percent in 1990 to 80 percent in 2000 and to 88 percent in 2012.</p><p><strong>How many children living with immigrant parents are in low-income families?</strong></p><p>There were 31.1 million children under 18 living in poor families (i.e., with family incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty threshold) in the United States. Of them, almost 9.6 million (or 31 percent) were children of immigrants.</p><p><strong>What are the top five states in terms of the number of children living with immigrant parents?</strong></p><p><strong></strong> In 2012, the top five states by the total number of children living with immigrant parents were California (4.4 million), Texas (2.3 million), New York (1.5 million), Florida (1.2 million), and Illinois (777,000). These five states accounted for 59 percent of all children with immigrant parents.</p><p><strong>What are the top five states by share of children living with immigrant parents in the state’s total child population?</strong></p><p>In terms of the share of children with immigrant parents, the top five states in 2012 were California (50 percent of all children in the state), Nevada (39 percent), New Jersey and New York (36 percent each), and Texas (34 percent).</p><hr><p><span style="font-size: 11px;">Photo Credit: LEE SNIDER PHOTO IMAGES / Shutterstock.com</span></p>
