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• 1 media/Immigrants Housing.gif 2022-12-03T12:19:54-08:00 Impact of Housing Inequality on Immigrants in the United States 20 plain 2022-12-06T17:10:30-08:00 Martha Cecilia Bottia in her article, “Residential Segregations; Immigrants Outcomes,” examines the experience of immigrants with residential segregation. Bottia draws attention to the impact of housing segregation on the life prospect and academic aspiration of children of immigrants. Using a 2010 census report that details the racial configuration of immigrants and housing challenges, Bottia essay shows that “many immigrants live in urban systems that also tend to have higher level of poverty” (Bottia 16). Housing segregation often translates into unequal educational opportunity and low life prospect for these children of immigrants. As Bottia further explains, immigrant children populate underdeveloped urban areas with high level of social segregation and corresponding poverty rate. It has been established that immigrants exhibit improved housing access with improved income and job opportunities. Similarly, poor housing access often translates into poor life prospect.
  Another major impact of immigrant housing segregation is overcrowding. Overcrowding increases the wide spread of communicable diseases. According to Steven Camarota and Karen Zeigler, overcrowding is common among immigrant workers in the United States. As reported by the Census Bureau of Statistics in 2018, 14.3 percent of immigrant workers live in overpopulated housing. This is four times the 3.5 percent of native-born workers residing in overpopulated housing (Camarota & Zeigler 2020). Immigrants represent the one-third of workers living in overpopulated housing in 24 states across the United States. 
  
  
  Camarota and Zeigler clearly illustrate the possibility of immigrant-crowded housing as a result of low paid jobs. The researchers also detailed the role of overcrowded housing in pandemic outbreak. It was established that overcrowding is more common among underpaid immigrant workers. These immigrant workers are usually factory/production laborers. From the study carried out by Camarota and Zeigler, 16.5 percent of low-paid immigrants live in  overcrowded houses compared to 4.4 percent of native-born low wage workers. Immigrants comprise 18.3 percent of all “production workers” but occupied 45.9 percent of those in overpopulated housing conditions. This statistics also indicates that even with the possibility of equal job earnings among immigrants and native-born, immigrants are more likely to live in overcrowded housing than their native-born counterparts. This implies that income is not the sole predicator of overpopulated housing experience among immigrants.
  
  As also evident in Camarota and Zeigler’s report, it is evident that overpopulated housing is common among immigrant workers. Hence, overpopulated housing by implication may lead to poor health conditions.
  
  Many studies have investigated how immigrants’ lack of access to quality housing impact their health. The poor condition of immigrant's house may be hazardous to their health and that of their children. According to Jaime Ballard et al., immigrants are prone to poor health conditions due to deplorable housing state. These may include lack of basic amenities, exposure to extreme weather conditions due to poor insulation, pest infestation, and mold, among others. Ballard et al. note that often time, some exploitive rental agents or homeowners take it upon the tenants to repair or maintain the building. Unfortunately, there are limited affordable housing alternatives for these immigrants due to some discriminatory policies or housing accessibility. These unsafe houses expose immigrants and their children to health implications such as asthma, diarrhea, and mental health issues.
  More recently, news reporter Ashley Balcerzak reports immigrant housing crisis in New Jersey. According to the news article, a housing insecurity survey was conducted in Elizabeth, Passaic, and Perth Amboy on immigrant apartment renters experience. The Immigrant Advocacy Group Make the Road New Jersey conducted a poll among 400 tenants in the areas to examine the cause of the soaring renter prices in New Jersey.  The result of the survey indicates that one out of every five people interviewed stay in a dangerous unsafe apartment. Particularly, immigrants are conditioned to live in a poor and unsafe housing conditions with no hope for repair or renovation. It is also noteworthy that these tenants sacrifice some of their necessities to afford house rent as they have no access to government housing benefits. The immigrant advocacy group reports 58,000 eviction cases filed by New Jersey homeowners in the first half of the year.
  
                                                        Two tenants in front of their apartment’s door at a complex on Lincoln Avenue in Monterey Park. Credit: Yingjie Wang/LAist
  Another impact of immigrant housing discrimination is that it puts the children of immigrants at a comparative educational disadvantage since immigrants and their children dwell in rural areas with no access to quality education. According to Bottia, Immigrant status shapes children’s school and neighborhood experiences. In fact, studies show that “immigrant children experience school segregation due to race, poverty, and linguistic isolation” (Bottia 10).  Thus “the ethnic, socioeconomic and language segregation has negative effects on the quality of schools immigrant children attend”. This may affect their life aspiration and achievement. Also, research shows that immigrant housing inequality may expose immigrant neighborhoods to a higher risk of crime and poverty.
  Conclusion
  
  The finding in this paper indicates that immigrants are still faced with serious housing discrimination in the United State. The study also shows that such housing discrimination is attributable to many factors including race/ethnicity, religion, education, socioeconomic and immigration status. This poses a big question about the status of America as a free land. It also undermines the idea of the American dream that many immigrants envisage before leaving their home countries. The immigrant advocacy group Make the Road NJ recommends some practical solutions to the immigrant housing crisis. These include the enforcement of rent control laws to address issues of poor housing conditions. This will also enable equal access to government housing funds to assist low-income tenants. Furthermore, immigrants should be granted access to pro bono counsel on any housing issues experienced by tenants. Also, immigrants make up a larger population in the United States. Hence, there is a need to address housing inequality among immigrants to support their education and economic achievement.