Hispanic Childhood Poverty in the United States

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary
Problem History
Theoretical Perspective
Problem Definition
Alternative Solutions/Policies
Recommendations
Reference List

Executive Summary

The topic of childhood poverty in Hispanic children and their families has been a mystery in America for a long time. The Hispanics refer to the Americans who are otherwise known as the Latinos. The Hispanic Americans have their roots in the western hemisphere where people speak the Spanish language. These people immigrated to the United States in the 17^th century.

The population of the Hispanic Americans is above 42.9 million today. In fact, the American Census Bureau projects that the population of Hispanics will rise to 50 million by year 2025. Hispanic Americans comprise the fastest growing population in the United States of America.

The Hispanic Americans are composed of several sub groups, which have roots in Latin America, Puerto Rico, Cuba, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, and Nicaragua. All these groups are referred to as the Hispanic Americans in America especially in official documents

. The communities have advocated for specific terms such as Mexican Americans and Cuban Americans rather than having them referred to by using general term such as Hispanics. Most of the Hispanic Americans are immigrants who escaped from political wars in their mother countries.

For example, the Mexican Hispanics who make up more than 21.5 million of the American population became part of the United States of America after the Mexican war of 1848. Mexico signed a war ending treaty with United States of America in which it gave out large parts of its territory especially in the Southwest. Later on, all the Mexicans that lived in this section were granted United States citizenship.

Although these Hispanic Mexicans became part of the U.S, their background was wanting. The Mexican families were very poor. Most of them were uneducated and practiced subsistence farming. Today, the problem of poverty, low education, unemployment, drugs and substance abuse, and early pregnancies are yet to be alleviated from the Mexican Americans.

These Hispanics live in the southwestern part of the United States. These include California, Texas, New Mexico, Los Angeles, Arizona, and Colorado. Mexicans make the largest Hispanic group in the U.S. Similarly, the Puerto Ricans who are the second largest Hispanics in America originated from poor rural folks in Puerto Rico.

This group of immigrants moved to America in 1960s. However, the Puerto Ricans enjoy more federal benefits than other Hispanics since Puerto Rico is an American commonwealth. According to Kaiser and Baumann (2010, p. 528), the major problem facing these Hispanics is poverty, discrimination by Americans and other Hispanics, unemployment, and poor health.

The increased number of welfare problems meant to help the Puerto Ricans has proved futile. The Cuban Hispanics are also immigrants to the United States. They migrated after the 1959 Cuban revolution through which Fidel Castrol took over governance. The Cuban Americans are well-educated and middle-income earners. However, they also faced the problem of discrimination and lack of resources.

They occupy most part of Florida and Miami. Other Hispanics such as the Salvador, Nicaraguans, and Dominicans are immigrants of civil wars.

Most of the Hispanics faced the problem of assets and Wealth, childhood poverty, educational attainment, discrimination and racism, employment, immigration, teen pregnancy, substance use and abuse, health care, mental health care, hunger and food insecurity, transportation, mental health, housing, and aging.

This paper discusses the Hispanic childhood poverty in the United States in an effort to make the necessary recommendations.

Problem History

Background

The problem of childhood poverty in Hispanic American communities is long overdue. Poverty in most of the Hispanic American families resulted from poor family backgrounds. Most of the fore fathers of these Hispanic communities were subsistence farmers. For example, the Mexicans were poor peasant farmers.

Therefore, even after they became part of the western American territory through the 1849 treaty, poverty continued to be part of their lives. Regardless of them being granted the American citizenship, they continued to be different from the indigenous Americans. The Hispanics were also uneducated. When a community is uneducated, it is likely to miss out in job opportunities.

The only jobs that these people can access are low paying manual jobs. Zlotnick, Wright, Sanchez, Kusnir, and Te’o-Bennett (2010, p. 9) confirm that the cycle of childhood poverty therefore continues to flourish in Hispanic American communities due to lack of resources and parents are not able to offer quality education to their children due to their low income. The original American citizens also segregate the Hispanics.

They are therefore classified as second-class citizens. The indigenous Americans employ the Hispanics as manual laborers. When children are not educated, they grow up to become unemployed since they lack the academic qualifications and skills necessary for them to perform certain jobs. For example, the Puerto Ricans lacked education since their families were not able to provide enabling environments.

Unemployment and idleness make both the young Hispanics plunge into early sexual relationships and drug abuse. When girls get into early pregnancies, they are barred from achieving academic goals. Young mothers who have low education have to rely on dependants to provide for their families. The succession of childhood poverty therefore continues. Drug abuse saps energy from the youths.

Hence, they cannot be able to work. The Hispanics were also a result of internal wrangles and hence immigration. When countries experience wars, children cannot go to school, businesses are disrupted, and health facilities are destroyed.

In most of the areas that the Hispanics came from, war was the order of the day for example the guerilla war in El Salvador, the Mexican war, and the Cuban Revolution war, which provided an environment that is conducive for childhood poverty to flourish.

Current Context

Currently, the problem of childhood poverty in Hispanic Americans continues to go untamed. Although there have been various welfare programs to elevate the Hispanics from poverty, social programs seem not to bear any useful fruits.

The Hispanics continue to experience lack of assets, poor education, unemployment, discrimination by other races, immigration problems, teenage pregnancies, poor health care, food insecurity, poor means of transport, insecurity, poor housing, and aging in poverty.

Although some Hispanic communities have come together to strengthen their political solidarity and voice, most of them still remain divided. Their voices are therefore hardly heard in the congress and the House of Representatives. Therefore, they are not highly regarded in resource allocation and hence the current alarming poverty that is being associated with them.

Importance of the Problem

The problem of childhood poverty in Hispanic groups in America is important to this study and to the social studies in America. The study will reveal the problems that the Hispanics at large have been experiencing since they migrated to America and the reasons for the persistence of childhood poverty cycle amongst them.

The study will also enable the providers of social programs to know the reason why their efforts to elevate poverty have not succeeded over the years.

Theoretical Perspective

Feminist theory

The feminist theory is a school of thought that aims at researching, analyzing and revealing the question of gender inequality in the society. This theory is useful in shedding light on the question of Hispanic childhood poverty. Men overlook the roles that women play in the society is in most cases.

Women are at the helm of the social sphere of life. It is women that are likely to determine the population, poverty, level of education early pregnancies, service provision and wellness of the society. Women have various social roles, economic roles, and mentorship in the society.

Feminist theory focuses on the condition of women in the Hispanic society since women are charged with the higher responsibility of child rearing and childhood development. The feminist theory directs that studies should focus on subordination of women in societies. In Hispanic American societies, poverty levels can be alleviated largely by educating women and empowering them to be self-reliant.

Women are discriminated by their men folk in allocation of positions of leadership in the government, in allocation of resources and even in allocation of opportunities to study and mange their property. The problem of early teenage pregnancies may have resulted from lack of reproduction education on girls that are above the puberty age.

Out of ignorance and predisposition to men that also lack education and are in substance abuse, they indulge into sexual relationships and hence early pregnancies. This case translates to young fathers and mothers who are not economically stable since they are not employed. Poverty cycle continues to expand. Women should be accorded equal opportunities to those of men in order to enable them develop themselves.

Some of the Hispanic communities, for example the Nicaragua women, are overly discriminated in social, economic, and political matters. In most of these groups, women and men object fellow women. Women are not supposed to make the decision on the number of children that the family should have. This notion has been there over the years in some of the Hispanic communities in America.

Consequently, the Hispanic American population is the fastest rising population in America. Women use most of their time bringing up children instead of engaging in economic, social, and political work. Man is therefore left to do manual work and/or take care of the family needs.

As a result, poverty continues to deepen in these societies. The Hispanic societies are therefore not able to develop their children in drug free zones since most of the idlers abuse drugs and substances as a method of escaping the reality. With increased poverty levels and low social standards, drugs and substance abuse flourishes.

Surprisingly, women are also the marketers and distributors of alcohol and drugs that end up destroying their children. They are the most affected by the problem of racism, classism, and ageing in the American society. Since women are overly expressionists, most of the times, women from Hispanic groups find themselves sidelined by the indigenous Americans.

Jargowsky (2009, p. 1159) observes that due to poverty and low education, young girls from the Hispanic communities are employed as house girls or laborers in indigenous Americans farms. In such farms, these children are discriminated and maltreated due to their race, poverty, appearance, language, and social class. These girls grow up with a sense of low self-esteem believing that they are second-class citizens of America.

In fact, most of the Hispanics will age while still working as house helps and farm attendants in Americans farms. As they age, the women and their men folks retire without having saved enough money to sustain them after retirement. Due to poverty and frustration after retirement age, the Hispanic American may not live long after aging. Poverty and suffering make most of them age very fast.

It is also worth noting that Hispanic women are not supposed to join trade unions that would enlighten them and/or give them insights on the mistreatments that they go through. In some instances, pregnant girls die in the process of delivering children due to lack of well equipped hospitals and birth attendants in places where they live. Sometimes, the mother dies on her way to hospital due to poor transport.

Cases of Hispanic Americans being flogged by their indigenous Americans in the firms have been repeatedly reported. When these women deliver children while still working in the farms, they bring them up within the farms. These children are bought up in poverty, which inculcates the servant mentality in them. Children are exposed to a poor upbringing environment.

The environment predisposes them to sexual perversion, substance abuse, poor health and sanitation, discrimination, low education, poor housing, and unemployment. The girl child is the worst hit by this impact. Since women take up the role of childhood mentoring and upbringing, lack of resources and predisposition of children to a negative environment make them grow up believing that they are second-class people.

Problem Definition

Statement of the Problem

The research problem that will be addressed by this study will be Hispanic childhood poverty in the United States. The study takes the feminist theory perspective in unveiling the issue of childhood poverty that has been belittling Hispanic communities in the United States of America. The problem of poverty has far reaching effects on the society but the most affected gender is girls and women.

Women are raped when men indulge in drugs and substance abuse in poverty stricken areas. Girls are impregnated when they are not educated on sexuality and are predisposed to working as house helps and farm attendants. Women suffer most when there are poor health facilities in the environment in which they bring up their children. It is women who die during childbirth due to lack of proper health facilities.

Since most of the Hispanic Americans are immigrants who fled their countries due to wars and political turmoil, women suffered most during such wars. The problem of poverty may as well be rooted on such foundations and hence the need to research on this problem.

Lawson, Jarosz, and Bonds (2010, p. 666) observe that, today, Hispanic communities are still fighting immigration rules, stereotypic names, and being regarded as second-class citizens in America. The researcher perceives that the study findings will be integral in solving the problem in question.

The study will also bridge the knowledge gap that currently exists in this field in an effort to come up with strategies that would improve performance of various programs that are developed to advance the current situation.

Key Stakeholders

This question has several major stakeholders. These include the Hispanic Americans themselves, for example the Cuban Americans, the Mexican Americans, the Maraguan, the El savador, and the Puerto Ricans. These are the immediate victims of childhood poverty in Hispanic America. The other stakeholders are the indigenous American or the Native Americans.

These are the greatest contributors to the circumstances that are facing the immigrants. They are the ones who employ them in farms and houses. They discriminate them on racial grounds besides stereotyping the Hispanic Americans. They therefore become a major stakeholder in eliminating the question of poverty in Hispanics. The other stakeholder is the government of the United States of America.

It is the government that is charged with the role of alleviating poverty from its citizens. Most of the Hispanics have acquired American citizenship and therefore are entitled to equal rights with the Native Americans. The government should be the provider of justice and an enabling environment for the children of the Hispanic Americans to develop themselves into responsible people.

Rastogi, Massey-Hastings, and Wieling (2012, p. 1) point out to the fact that the problem of drugs and substance abuse, poor health facilities, and mental health also lies on the hands of the government. Government has a responsibility of providing its citizens with good housing, education, and health facilities.

The government should promote social cohesion in the country in order to promote peace and equality among citizens. Lawson, Jarosz, and Bonds (2010, p. 655) reveal that the issue of stereotyping by race and skin color can result in ethnic tension especially during political campaigns. The government is charged with the responsibility of ensuring social cohesion and stability of America.

In addition, the government should provide schemes for retirement benefits to people of all social status. This implies that the government is also charged with the responsibility of caring for the aged for example by providing them with incentives. Government is therefore a major stakeholder in alleviating poverty in Hispanic childhood development.

The other stakeholder is the governments and the countries from which these immigrants came. Most of these immigrants run away from their nations, or were given away by their nations because of war. Foulkes and Schafft (2010, p.90) argue that, with relative peace and good environment, the immigrants would be free to move back to their countries.

For example, the Hispanic Americans from Cuba are always on the lookout for political stability in their motherland. The governments of these mother countries are also stakeholders in eliminating the problem of childhood poverty that the Hispanic children are facing today.

In fact, due to poor economic stability in some of their motherland nations, some Hispanic Americans would not want to go back or even be associated with them.

For example, Foulkes and Schafft (2010, p. 90) confirm that the Hispanic Mexicans have refused to be attached to their motherland (Mexico) due to low economic opportunities compared to America. Such immigrants have therefore forgotten their heritage due to the problems in their motherlands.

Impact of Problem

Hispanic childhood poverty has had far-reaching impacts on Hispanic societies especially on women. The most visible impact of poverty among the Hispanic communities in America is lack of education. Since most families do not have money to pay school fees, they do not educate their children to levels that can enable them acquire gainful employment.

Education is important in imparting skills that are necessary in the performance of certain duties. Most of the Hispanics do not have proper education. Jargowsky (2009, p. 1159) observes that education is also important in the process of poverty eradication since educated people can use the skills gained to improve on their lives and hence those of their children. Such people are also empowered to become entrepreneurs.

In fact, educating children is also a mechanism of population control. As women acquire more education, they learn the necessary measures such as family planning that enables them to have manageable families. Poverty has also led to a rise in population since most of the Hispanics do not access family planning devices and information.

Idleness that results from unemployment is also a cause of their quick rising population. Out of lack of education, the American Hispanics cannot unite to compete in political races. Childhood poverty continues to widen the gap between various Hispanic groups.

Poverty in childhood has ended up denying Hispanic children the right to good and quality health care, housing, food, and education. Parents have no money. Hence, they cannot afford to provide their children with the necessary skills to enable them acquire gainful employment in the future.

Poverty has also predisposed the youths to drugs and substance abuse. Since most of the young people are unemployed or underemployed, they are easily attracted to drugs and substance abuse. Others get into substance abuse as a mechanism to escape from the reality of poverty and lack of basic needs. Others plunge into substance abuse in order to get money from their neighbors. Drug abuse results in poor mental health.

With poor health education and facilities, these youths end up becoming drug dependants and addicts. When they get to such a stage, it becomes hard for them to manage themselves and their families. As a result, cases of divorce and separation have increased tremendously in Hispanic America. All these have been linked to poverty in childhood.

According to Zlotnick, Wright, Sanchez, Kusnir, and Te’o-Bennett (2010, p. 9), when parents separate or divorce, children suffer most and in some cases, the separating parents end up neglecting the children due to drugs and substance abuse. Such children grow in complete lack of some necessities that make them all-round citizens. The cycle of deficiency continues to burgeon in such cases.

Teenage pregnancies are also common in Hispanic communities. These are associated with idleness, lack of sex education, poor housing, and predisposing environment. Hispanic children are predisposed to environments that facilitate sexual perversion. For example, due to poor housing, parents and their children live in single roomed house. In such houses, no privacy is guaranteed.

Hence, children end up being predisposed to acts of sex while still young. Such predisposition makes them want to experiment what they have seen their parents or neighbors do. As teenagers try, they end up becoming pregnant. According to Shaw and Pickett (2013, p. 2), teenage pregnancy also results from their predisposition to an environment that has women that use sex as trade.

Such a society is therefore too pervasive for the little teens. Since the teenagers are at an age of exploration and discovery, they end up practicing what they see and hence get pregnant. Early pregnancies make the girls result in depending on others for their livelihood. Sometimes, young mothers turn to prostitution in order to provide for their children. Prostitution demeans the character and person of women.

Sometimes prostitution humiliates the women who practice it when clients refuse to pay or turn violent to women. In fact, sometimes, these women are arrested for not paying tax from their illegal business. The worst impact of this deliberative of poverty is that their male counterparts are not arrested or blamed for their acts.

The society is so much one-sided. It favors men to their female counterparts. Women have to indulge in indecent acts in order to provide for their children. Due to poverty, women end up living in desperation.

Poverty has made the Hispanic Americans live in hunger and food insecurity. Most of the Hispanics lack good education to earn them quality employment. Lack of employment results in lack of income and hence hunger and food insecurity. Immigrants do not have huge tracks of land to farm.

Since some of these immigrants run to America as refugees of war in their countries such as the Cuban Hispanics, they depend on others for food and other necessities. Poverty has led to continuous hunger and suffering to the Hispanic groups. The dignity of the Hispanic Americans has also been lowered by poverty. Poverty has made the Hispanics depend on donations and help from the other Americans and the government.

This case lowers their level of self-esteem. Their bid to fight for self determinism has not taken root since these communities lack sufficient resources to sponsor their appeal.

The indigenous Americans have also undermined the Hispanic Americans and even referred to them using a single term. This has not gone well with some of the Hispanic Americans who prefer more specific terms such as Cuban American to a general term like Hispanics.

Poverty has also led to some of the Hispanic Americans preferring to be associated with America to their own countries. For example, the Mexican Americans have refused to be associated with Mexico due to its low economic position in comparison with the United States. The Hispanic Americans argue that America provides more economic opportunities to them than Mexico would do.

Poverty has made these Mexicans forget their heritage. Since American economy is better than that of Mexico, and that it offers a better economic life, these Hispanics prefer being associated with Mexico. Poverty can make people forget their heritage. Hispanic children are brought up knowing that their motherland countries forsake them and hence why they are immigrants or refugees in America.

When such beliefs and facts are instilled in children at their early age, they grow believing that America is their country. The Hispanics depends on the United States government for aids. Due to poverty, these children never travel to their home countries. Hispanic children undergo their childhood without much exposure to the culture and the ideologies of their motherland nations.

For example, the Cuban Americans who are brought up in America are not exposed to the autocratic ideologies of their homeland regimes. The children are therefore brought up in sheer disregard and opposition to the dictatorial leadership of Fidel Castrol. Hispanics Americans from Cuba are therefore opposed to the leadership and ideologies of Fidel Castrol.

In fact, they closely monitor and influence the position of government in their home nation. Since these immigrants are educated, and that they provide foreign income to their homeland, they are in position to influence the decisions of the government. Poverty influences social, economic and political positions of a nation.

Alternative Solutions/Policies

List of Alternatives

The government of the United States of America should enact the following policies on inclusion of Hispanics to its economic programs:
1. Government policies on social development and housing among the Hispanic groups living in America
2. Government policies on inclusion of the Hispanics in political developments in America
3. Government policy on drug and substance abuse among the Hispanic communities
4. Community initiative to eliminate poverty through small business investments and loan acquisition
The government should work with these communities in provision of sex education to prevent teenage pregnancies
Government and the parents should support the education of the Hispanic children in a bid to alleviate poverty and/or increase employment
Provision of health facilities and health education by the government and social workers will be also be a key alternative solution

Comparison of Alternatives

All the above alternative solutions can help the Hispanic Americans to come out of poverty that has affected families and children over the years. However, these alternatives carry different weight and impacts.

Some solutions will wholly depend on the government while others will require collaboration of both the government and the Hispanics groups. In addition, some solutions will take the initiative and dedication of the Hispanic communities themselves without the intervention of the government.

The government can eliminate the problem of poverty among the Hispanic Americans through including them in their economic policy programs. This will ensure that the economic needs of these Hispanic communities are taken care of just like those of the indigenous Americans. The Hispanic communities will therefore be able to carry out business in America among themselves and with other Americans.

Economic policies will create an enabling environment to the Hispanics to run their businesses. Such policies will also enable the Hispanics to acquire business loans at reduced interest rates. Provision of low interest loans through budgetary allocation will enable the Hispanics to borrow funds to make investments. This move will enable the Hispanics become self-reliant.

Economic policies should also provide mechanisms of licensing small business so that the Hispanics can engage in legal trade. Such steps will provide an environment in which carrying out trade becomes easy and comfortable for the poor. Economic policies should also regulate competition among businesses of various levels.

For example, the government should caution the small enterprises from price competition from the large business enterprises. Foulkes and Schafft (2010, p. 90) recommend that government policies on social development and housing among the Hispanic groups living in America will also speed up the process of alleviating childhood poverty.

The government can enact social policies that will regulate the social fabric of the Hispanic groups. Most of the problems that the Hispanics face have a social grounding. For example, the increase in teen’s pregnancies results from weak social fabric. Teenagers are not advised on morality and social ills of sexual permissiveness.

Policies should be enacted to ensure that social workers are charged with the duty of counseling and advising children. Childhood poverty is a predisposing factor to teenage pregnancies. Shaw and Pickett (2013, p. 6) argue that some of the teenage girls indulge in sexual permissiveness in a bid to acquire some income, to buy food, clothing, and even pay rent. These children end up being exploited sexually by older men.

In some instances, the poor houses facilitate sexual perversion. Young girls are raped. When they complain about it, the sex pests give them money in order to withdraw the charges, or worse still keep silent about it. Such cases are never prosecuted in courts of law.

Justice is obstructed by poverty. Social policies will also strengthen the parental responsibility that Hispanics have on their children. In most cases, children are brought up by single parents. Due to social problems, divorce and separation are common in Hispanic communities.

Childhood poverty in Hispanic Americans can also be eliminated through political intervention. Government can enact policies on inclusion of the Hispanics in political developments of America. Over the years, the greatest drawback in enjoining the Hispanics in politics has been uniting the different groups of Hispanics in America. The Hispanics have diverse ideologies on political and ideological differences.

They also have different backgrounds. For example, the Cuban Americans are well educated and sophisticated. Hence, they understand the political progress of America. In contrast the Nicaraguan Americans have a poor economic and political background. The Mexicans also have a poor political background.

Uniting various Hispanic groups that live in America has been a big challenge. Although the Hispanics are the majority in numbers disunity among them does not allow them access political positions in the land. Some of the Hispanic groups such as the Mexicans have also found it easier to collaborate and associate with the indigenous Americans than their fellow Hispanics.

The Cuban Americans are also closely linked with their motherland than America. In fact, the Cuban Americans channel a great part of their income to their mother nation. There have also been complains from various quotas of the Hispanics that the media and the government should not refer to them under one general term. Some of the Hispanics have pressed for specific names like Mexican Americans and Cuban Americans.

The Hispanics have therefore voted in disunity hence allowing other groups and races to take over leadership positions in Congress and House of representatives. The other groups have taken advantage of this disunity. In fact, some of the groups have worked hard to ensure that the Hispanics are not united. Disunity in Hispanic communities has weakened them politically.

The government can therefore come in and empower the Hispanics in order to enable them access political leadership positions. Such empowerment can be done through ensuring that there is enough representation on the ground. The government can also ensure that the Hispanic children are well educated. Education will empower the community as a whole. Leadership requires various skills that are acquired through education.

Educating the children and women in the Hispanic groups will ensure that they have future representatives in politics. The government should also enact some policies that will promote equality in political representation among various groups living in America.

The government can also empower women among Hispanic groups. Empowering women can be done through educating the girls and women. Educated women will impart the right attitude towards life in their children. Women can also take leadership positions in the country.

The problem of childhood poverty can also be alleviated through policies on drug and substance abuse control. Government policy on drug and substance abuse can enable the Hispanic communities get out of childhood poverty.

Drugs and substance abuse plays a big role in enhancing poverty among the Hispanic communities. Since there are little or no administrative bodies among the Hispanics, substance abuse has prospered. The government should therefore enact antidrug abuse laws.

There should also be well-planned administrative campaigns to ensure that these policies are well implemented. Human resource is important in implementing policies. Drug abuse can be eliminated through elimination of enabling environment. Anti-drugs policies should also eliminate the drug peddlers and barons. Government should enact policies that clearly spell out the punishment for drug abuse.

Drug abuse makes the addicts unable to work and to provide for their families. When men and women cannot labor for their children, children grow in poverty and desperation. The government shall be providing an avenue that will make men work instead of wasting a lot of time in search of drugs or even abusing substances. Sale of drugs to children should be met with the full force of the law.

Children should be protected from drug peddlers. There should be laws to inspect vehicles and other transport mechanisms that can be used to transfer drugs from one point to the other. On the other hand, the Hispanics also have a responsibility to eliminate childhood poverty among the Hispanics.

The Hispanic American community can also make an initiative to eliminate poverty through small business investments and loan acquisition. The Hispanics can also take initiatives in borrowing small loans from banks and from the government and investing them in gainful businesses. The process of poverty eradication should begin with them.

The Hispanics should be responsible enough to ensure that they play their rightful role in acquisition of assets and wealth. The government may take its initiatives to provide low interest loans and even a business-enabling environment. However, success will be easily achieved if the victims of poverty are directly involved.

For the process to be sustainable, the Hispanic Americans must be involved directly in every step towards poverty eradication. Small investments will enable them get profits and/or develop business acumen. With time, they can then borrow higher loans to make huge investments. This will enable the whole society get out of poverty. Elimination of teen’s pregnancies and illicit sex will alleviate poverty among the Hispanic Americans.

Government should work with these communities in provision of sex education to prevent teenage pregnancies. Although the government may provide social workers and even offer sex education in schools and social places, the society has a role to play. As the government sets up institutions, the Hispanic Americans should take the role of ensuring strong family unions.

The family is the most important institution in ensuring sexual discipline in teenagers. Parents should be good role models to their children in matters of sex. The problem of wife buttering and irresponsible parenting that result in separation and divorce can also be eliminated through good family background. Children are likely to emulate what they have seen their parents, friends, and neighbors do on issues of sex.

If the family is well set up, the whole society will be morally upright. Children are also likely to be morally right. The society should provide for the basic needs of their children. For example, children should be provided with an enabling environment that supports their schooling. The government may provide free education and education facilities.

However, policies to supervise the programs must be adhered to by the parents and guardians. When children are busy at school, they are less likely to indulge in illicit sexual activities. Childhood poverty in Hispanic Americans can also be eradicated through education. Government and the parents should support the education of the Hispanic children in a bid to alleviate poverty and increase employment.

The government should provide the required facilities like institutions, teachers, and programs. On the other hand, parents should offer moral support and guidance to their children towards achieving academic goals. Education can serve to eliminate poverty since it liberates the mind from reliance on others to self-dependence. Education will also enable children to have an open mind towards entrepreneurship.

Hence, they can succeed in self-employment too. This will enable the Hispanic community living in America to reduce on the rate of unemployment amongst their people. Quality education should also be ensured through proper inspection in schools and curriculum development.

Education should enable children to acquire skills that can allow them acquire gainful employment. Parents and society are a solution to most of the problems that the Hispanic society living in America is facing.

Provision of health facilities and health education by the government and social workers can also eradicate poverty among the Hispanic Americans. Most of the children from Hispanic American communities do not have access to good health care systems. It is out of poor healthcare systems that these children end up experiencing poor health.

Health education has not also been prioritized by the government among the Hispanic communities. Government should therefore establish adequate health facilities that will enable the Hispanic Americans access health facilities with ease. Health education professionals should also be employed and deployed in these regions in order to educate the people about various health issues.

On the other hand, the Hispanic Americans should be ready to learn and follow health education guidelines in order to live a healthy life. When the society is healthy, working becomes easy. Hence, parents can be able to provide for their children. Women will also benefit by learning about reproductive health hence gaining the ability to manage their families.

Constraints

Various constraints are likely to face the process of implementing solutions to childhood poverty in Hispanic American societies. Negligence of various stakeholders in social, economic and political policy implementation in eradicating childhood poverty in Hispanic Americans societies can hinder the success of the process. The other constraint is the ability to make all stakeholders work together towards a single goal.

It will therefore take a combined effort of all the key stakeholders to eliminate poverty. Making the individual parents have an initiative to eliminate poverty in their families is also hard. The Hispanic Americans themselves must be ready to take personal, family, and societal initiatives towards poverty eradication.

Government policy implementation requires funds. In most cases, government decisions are influence by political forces hence it may be difficult to pass such motions in the House of Representatives or Congress.

Government officers should also take their rightful roles to enact policies to eradicate poverty. Proper implementation, monitoring, and reinforcement measures also take time, dedication, and persistence on all the stakeholders involved.

Recommendations

Description

This study recommends that various initiatives be made in order to eradicate childhood poverty from Hispanic Americans. The government of the United States should enact policies to eradicate poverty. These policies should include policies on establishment of educational institutions to provide education to the children of Hispanic Americans.

Government policies should also provide proper academic curriculum to enable the children acquire skillful education that prepare them for the job market. Rastogi, Massey-Hastings, and Wieling (2012, p. 1) argue that government policies should provide mechanisms to ensure that community and mental health are developed, monitored, and implemented.

The Hispanic Americans should also have the initiative to eradicate poverty from their lives and that of their children. The Hispanics should ensure that their family life is upright. Families should reduce cases of separation and divorce.

Parents should also take the initiative of advising and counseling their children on sexuality. The government should also ensure that there is the provision of adequate housing for the Hispanic Americans through social housing programs.

Rationale

Over the years, women and children have been the victims of childhood poverty in Hispanic America. Empowering children through education will enable them acquire the necessary skills that will facilitate them to acquire employment in the future. According to the feminist theory, women and children are neglected in the society.

By ensuring that families are stable and that the rate of divorce is reduced, women and children are provided with an enabling environment to fight poverty. Education will also empower the girl child to be self-reliant in the future. Education will also take more of the time that the girl has. Hence, girls will not be involved in illicit sex. This will ensure that the rate of teenage pregnancies is reduced.

When women are empowered, they are also able to support their families even in the absence of their male counterparts in case of separation or divorce. Enactment of government policies to provide health education that will ensure that girls and women get the right education on family planning will also help to control the size of families among the Hispanic Americans.

With the right families, childhood poverty will be reduced since parents will only have the number of children that they can provide for and bring up comfortably. As the feminist theory observes, women are undermined in the society due to the lack of necessary skills that would enable them compete at equal levels with their male counterparts. Educating the girl child will empower her to compete at the same level with the boy.

Since women play a greater role in the society empowering them both socially and economically will ease the process of poverty eradication among the Hispanic Americans. Provision of low interest loans will also empower the society especially the Hispanic American women.

With low-interest loans from the government women can borrow money and use it to establish small businesses that will enable them provide for their families. The returns that they get from such businesses can also enable them support their husbands in providing for their children. This will enable women to take their rightful roles in the society.

Implementation

The recommendations of this study can be implemented fully in a progressive manner. Government policies that are geared towards poverty eradication can be implemented through enactments of policy guidelines on how the process should be administered.

Policies on the provision of subsidized and quality education to children of Hispanic origin can be implemented by having qualified educationist plan, implement it, and supervise the process of implementation. The government can also use qualified curriculum developers and educationists in the process of coming up with the right education curriculum for the Hispanic children.

This bid will ensure that the education that the Hispanic children receive in schools and learning institutions will enable them gain employment, or better still, become self-employed. For this to happen, the right skills and knowledge must be transferred from teachers to children from an early age.

Health programs can be implemented through policy enactment and partnerships between the government and nongovernmental actors. The government should develop policy guidelines to ensure that health education reaches every Hispanic American. When people are healthy, they are able to work and provide for their families. Hence, poverty is reduced to low levels.

The government should also implement the policy through employment and deployment of qualified health workers who understand and appreciate the need for healthy people in eradicating poverty. Nongovernmental actors will also play an active role in reducing poverty among the Hispanic Americans.

These actors will help the Hispanic society in fighting health problems like diseases, mental health, and overall wellness of the society. According to Kaiser and Baumann (2010, p. 528), health problems result from stress and depression that may result from the problem of poverty and lack.

The society will also work in collaboration with the nongovernmental organization and the government in order to ensure that health is restored. Counseling centers shall be opened to provide the Hispanic Americans with an opportunity to express their worries and to receive guidance on various issues that may have resulted from poverty.

To reduce the problem of teen pregnancies, parents shall take their rightful roles in advising their sons and daughters against fornication. Close monitoring and mentoring from parents will enable teenagers to grow in respect to sex and sexual purity. Parents should also be right role models to their children especially girls on matters of sex.

Children should learn to respect and monitor their sex life by having parents living honorable marriage lives. Reduction of cases of separation and divorce will also teach the children about the need to have respectable families in the future. Children will learn to honor marriage hence avoiding any acts that may bar them from attaining it in the future. Government should also provide funds to build houses to the Hispanic Americans.

Good houses will ensure that parents have privacy from their children. Therefore, children will not be exposed to matters of sex at an early age. This can be done through setting up a special fund for housing. Drugs and substance abuse can be eliminated through implementation of government policy on anti drugs and substance abuse.

The government should search the society to ensure that drug barons, peddlers, and abusers are arrested, prosecuted and taken for rehabilitation. Drugs abuse can be eradicated through close monitoring of the three major stakeholders. The Hispanic community also has a role to report cases of drugs and substance abuse among them.

Parents should also protect their children from bad company that may be abusing drugs and substances. The youths should be kept busy in useful businesses to prevent them from idleness, which is a predisposing factor to drugs and substance abuse.

Evaluation

The process of implementation of childhood poverty eradication programs in the Hispanic American communities can be evaluated for validity. The government should develop a mechanism to monitor the success of each policy that is implemented in a given period of time.

For example, after the provision of low-interest loans, there should be entrepreneurs and evaluators to monitor the kind of businesses in which the borrowers have invested the money. People of all races should be educated on peaceful coexistence among societies. Policies on drugs and substance abuse elimination can be evaluated through checking on the prevalence of drugs, drug addicts, and peddlers among the Hispanic Americans.

The arrested victims should also be monitored closely during counseling and even after finishing their therapy. The parents should develop a keen interest in the affairs and behavior of their children especially the girl child to monitor her sexual life. Children should be monitored closely to prevent them from joining bad company that may ruin their future.

Teenage pregnancies can also be monitored by ensuring that children that are above puberty are not idle. Their social way of life such as dressing and speech should be evaluated concessionary to know their predisposition. Observation of the behavior and nature of women and children after the implementation of the recommendation should be a good parameter to indicate whether they have changed or not.

The reaction of other races towards the Hispanics after the implementation of the recommendations shall also indicate the fruits of the efforts used in eradicating poverty.

The government and individual Hispanic Americans shall adopt various methods of evaluation in monitoring the progress of the implemented childhood poverty eradication programs. As such, the problem of childhood poverty will be fully addressed based on its causes thus improving the lives of the Hispanic Americans who have suffered poverty since time immemorial.

Reference List

Foulkes, M., & Schafft, A. (2010). The Impact of Migration on Poverty Concentrations in the United States, 1995-2000. Rural Sociology, 75(1), 90-110.

Jargowsky, A. (2009). Immigrants and Neighborhoods of Concentrated Poverty: Assimilation or Stagnation? Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies, 35(7), 1129-1151.

Kaiser, L., & Baumann, C. (2010). Perspectives on Healthy Behaviors Among Low-Income Latino and Non-Latino Adults in Two Rural Counties. Public Health Nursing, 27(6), 528-536.

Lawson, V., Jarosz, L., & Bonds, A. (2010). Articulations of Place, Poverty, and Race: Dumping Grounds and Unseen Grounds in the Rural American Northwest. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 100(3), 655-677.

Rastogi, M., Massey-Hastings, N., & Wieling, E. (2012). Barriers to Seeking Mental Health Services in the Latino/a Community: A Qualitative Analysis. Journal of Systemic Therapies, 31(4), 1-17.

Shaw, J., & Pickett, E. (2013). The Health Benefits of Hispanic Communities for Non-Hispanic Mothers and Infants: Another Hispanic Paradox. American Journal of Public Health, 103(6), e1-e6.

Zlotnick, C., Wright, M., Sanchez, R., Kusnir, R., & Te’o-Bennett, I. (2010). Adaptation of a Community-Based Participatory Research Model to Gain Community Input on Identifying Indicators of Successful Parenting. Child Welfare, 89(4), 9-27.

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