Food insecurity in the United States of America: An examination of race/ethnicity and nativity

Food insecurity is a persistent problem in the United States and is disproportionately distributed across racial/ethnic groups, with some evidence that non-Latino blacks and Latinos experience higher rates than non-Latino whites. But no nationally-representative study examines how race/ethnicity affects food insecurity for immigrants in the United States. Using new assimilation theory and the 1999–2010 waves (N = 32,464) of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), this study investigated the relationship between food insecurity and both race/ethnicity and nativity status. Results, when socioeconomic status is held constant, provide evidence for a nonwhite/white divide in food insecurity for both immigrants and the native-born. That is, blacks and Latinos – regardless of nativity status – are significantly more food insecure than both foreign- and native-born whites. These results provide insight into a continuing pattern of racial/ethnic inequality in the United States.