Bread for the World believes immigration is a hunger issue. Migrants leave their home countries to escape deep hunger and poverty, but many remain at high risk of hunger and poverty once they arrive in the United States due to our broken immigration system.
While reducing poverty may not be the primary goal of most immigration reform efforts, it should certainly be one of its clear goals.
Studies indicate immigration contributes to U.S. economic growth and higher incomes for most Americans, including those born here.
People who make the decision to leave home and come to the United States generally have few other options. Central America’s “Northern Triangle” countries—Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras—are among the poorest in the world, with very high levels of hunger and malnutrition. Nearly half of Guatemala’s children are chronically malnourished, along with nearly 20 percent of children in Honduras and El Salvador.
Once here, Central American immigrants generally want to work and contribute, but may become isolated by a combination of factors, such as poverty, limited English proficiency, and discrimination. In fact, undocumented immigrants suffer disproportionately from food insecurity. This is true even though they earn more money here than in their home countries.
No group of immigrants is more harmed by hunger and poverty than those without documentation. Lack of legal status contributes to their economic insecurity and exploitation. It also means they have limited access to the social safety net in the United States.
Poverty persists among undocumented immigrants even though they participate in the workforce at higher rates than either citizens or documented immigrants. Our economy depends upon the hard work of undocumented immigrants but does not adequately compensate them.
Bread supports immigration reform because a substantial percentage of undocumented immigrants in the United States live in poverty and because comprehensive immigration reform, with a pathway to citizenship, would help them escape hunger.
We advocate for legislation that ensures a place at the table for everyone in the U.S., regardless of legal status. And we anticipate that hundreds of thousands of people would move out of hunger and poverty almost immediately if they were given a pathway to citizenship.
Bread for the World adds specific value to the immigration reform discussion by focusing on its root causes: hunger and poverty in home countries. We believe any comprehensive immigration reform policy must include poverty-focused assistance to address the root causes of migration.
Bread is working to end hunger in the U.S. and around the world. This can be accomplished by comprehensive immigration reform in the U.S. that includes a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented and poverty-focused development assistance to address the root causes of migration from Central America.
Afghanistan would be considered likely to have high rates of hunger because at least two of the major causes of global hunger affect it—armed conflict and fragile governmental institutions.
Malnutrition is responsible for nearly half of all preventable deaths among children under 5. Every year, the world loses hundreds of thousands of young children and babies to hunger-related causes.
Bread for the World is calling on the Biden-Harris administration and Congress to build a better 1,000-Days infrastructure in the United States.
“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in faith.” These words from Colossians 2:6 remind us of the faith that is active in love for our neighbors.
The Bible on...
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is designed to respond to changes in need, making it well suited to respond to crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bread for the World and its partners are asking Congress to provide $200 million for global nutrition.
In 2017, 11.8 percent of households in the U.S.—40 million people—were food-insecure, meaning that they were unsure at some point during the year about how they would provide for their next meal.