Johnny
2011-04-05 09:26:29 UTC
•The latest data available from 2009 show that in Texas 61 percent of households with children (under 18) headed by an immigrant (legal and illegal) used at least one welfare program, compared to 42 percent for native households with children in the state.
•The overall use rate for welfare by Texas immigrant households with children (61 percent), is one of the highest in the nation.
•In Texas, immigrant households with children tend to use food assistance programs and Medicaid at much higher rates than native households with children. Use of cash and housing programs tends to be similar to natives.
•The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that in Texas, 54 percent of households with children headed by legal immigrants used at least one welfare program, compared to 70 percent for illegal immigrant households with children. Illegal immigrants generally receive benefits on behalf of their U.S.-born children.
•Illegal immigrant households with children primarily use food assistance and Medicaid, making little cash or housing assistance. In contrast, legal immigrant households tend to have relatively high use rates for every type of program.
•The states where overall welfare use by immigrant households with children (legal and illegal) have the highest welfare use rates are Arizona (62 percent); Texas, California, and New York (61 percent); Pennsylvania (59 percent); Minnesota and Oregon (56 percent); and Colorado (55 percent).
•For United States as a whole, 57 percent of households headed by an immigrant (legal and illegal) with children (under 18) used at least one welfare program, compared to 39 percent for native households with children.
•The vast majority (95 percent) of immigrant households with children in the United States had at least one worker in 2009. But the low education levels of a large share of immigrant and their resulting low incomes mean that more than half of these working immigrant households with children still accessed the welfare system during 2009.
•Most new legal immigrants are barred from using some welfare for the first five years. But, this provision has only a modest impact on household use rates because most immigrants have been in the country longer than five years; the ban applies only to some programs; some states provide welfare to new immigrants on their own; by naturalizing, immigrants become eligible for all programs; and most important, the U.S.-born children of immigrants (including those of illegal immigrants) are American citizens, and are eligible for all programs at birth.
Policy Discussion: Most immigrants come to the United States to work. In fact, immigrant households with children in the United States are somewhat more likely to have at least one worker than native households with children. However, the relatively low education level of many immigrants means that a majority of working immigrant households still access the welfare system, particularly non-cash programs. About one-third of immigrant households with children are headed by someone who has not graduated high school, compared to one out of ten native households. This means giving businesses access to large numbers of less-educated workers can come at a significant cost to taxpayers.
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tx-study-finds-high-welfare-use-by-immigrants-119242939.html