Being an Immigrant With Disabilities

A new Urban Institute report (Being an Immigrant with Disabilities) offers information about immigrants with disabilities, a group often ignored in the discussion of immigrants and immigration.

Drawing on five-year estimates from the 2015–19 American Community Survey, this Urban Institute brief provides a snapshot of select characteristics of nonelderly immigrants with disabilities, ages 18 to 64, to underscore the structural challenges this population faces. 

Immigrants with disabilities face multiple structural challenges, including discrimination, socioeconomic disadvantage, and barriers to safety net access.  

Overall, 5.6 percent of nonelderly immigrants have a disability. Disaggregation by race and ethnicity shows us that this prevalence is highest among nonelderly Black Latinx immigrants at 10.2 percent and lowest for non-Latinx Asian immigrants at 4.2 percent.

KJ