Yesterday the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) released a report entitled, "Illegitimate Nation: An Examination of Out of Wedlock Births Among Immigrants and Natives." The Alternatives to Marriage Project (AtMP) disputes the report's assumptions, and protests its repetitive use of the term "illegitimate."

CIS assumes that unmarried immigrant families are inadequate, without analyzing the conditions in which the children of immigrants actually live. Contrary to the assumptions of the CIS report, a marriage certificate is not a reliable predictor of the kind of family relations and resources a child will experience.

"Research clearly shows that it is the financial resources available to families – not the marital status of parents – that is the best indicator of a child's well being and future success," argues AtMP board member Jennifer Gaboury.

Those who care about children should direct their efforts to helping all families, including immigrants, with genuine solutions to poverty. Efforts should focus on ensuring nurturing environments, low levels of family conflict, and access to social support, education, and financial resources. Such outcomes are not caused by marital status.

In contrast, discrimination on the basis of marital status can cause negative outcomes. Unmarried parents – both native and immigrant – can legally be denied access to tangible necessities such as affordable housing and health care, and can suffer from the negative social stigma perpetuated by the CIS report. Meanwhile: tax policies and welfare policies penalize low-income parents who marry; immigration policies prevent unmarried families from reuniting; and poverty reduces people's confidence in their own (or their partners') "marriageability". These are more appropriate targets for public policy action if the true goal is to strengthen families.

Illegitimacy is not only a red herring, distracting the public from the real challenges that families face; it is also an insult.

Nicky Grist, Executive Director of AtMP, says that "all reasonable people agreed long ago that calling a child (or nation) "illegitimate" is mean-spirited and detrimental to public discourse."

Illegitimacy is an outmoded concept that should be dropped from the political vocabulary. Decades ago, illegitimacy was eliminated as a formal legal category because child advocates and policy makers agreed that children of unmarried parents should not suffer discrimination. It is time for those who claim to care about children to stop branding children with ancient insults.

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