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Immigrants In Massachusetts Have Incomes Below The Poverty Level

14 percent of immigrants in Massachusetts have incomes below the poverty level. Among non-citizens, the rate climbs to 19 percent.17
The majority of working-age immigrants in Massachusetts have only a high school degree or less. Immigrant families account for 36 percent of all poor families in the state even though they are only 14 percent of the households. Immigrant families are also growing poorer relative to native families. In 1989, the median income for immigrant families in Massachusetts was 70 percent of the median income for native families; by 1997, it had dropped to 60 percent. 40 percent of the children in immigrant families live in poverty (compared to 11 percent for natives).18

Education: Between 1990 and 2000, Massachusetts’s elementary and high school enrollment increased 20 percent.19 “The thing that’s been impacted the most by the increase in population is our school system, which is now overcrowded,” said James Nihan, clerk of Bridgewater’s Board of Selectmen. Bridgewater is trying to raise $76 million to build an additional high school and is considering enlarging its middle and elementary schools to accommodate the rising student population—despite having just built a new elementary school in 1999.20

In Westborough, where the population increased 27 percent in the 1990s, school enrollment rose by 59 percent in the last ten years and is expected to increase 83 percent more in the next decade. More students has meant higher taxes; the average single-family property tax bill has increased 31 percent since 1995.21

In Holden, some high school students are bused to another school for study hall to ease the high school enrollment crunch.22

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