Roughly half of immigrant households in the United States
receive at least one form of welfare, with that number rising to
73 percent for immigrant households from Central America and
Mexico, a new report released Wednesday said.
The report, released by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS)
– a group that calls for lower levels of immigration – falls in
the middle of a fiery political debate on the presidential
campaign trail over immigration policies. The report says
immigrant households use welfare at much higher rates than the
American-born population. The study used Census Bureau Survey of
Income and Program Participation data.
CLICK HERE FOR THE REPORT
http://cis.org/Welfare-Use-Immigrant-Native-Households
“In 2012, 51 percent of households headed by an [illegal or
legal] immigrant reported that they used at least one welfare
program during the year, compared to 30 percent of native
households,” the report said.
The report found starkly different welfare rates among different
groups, with 73 percent of immigrant households from Central
America and Mexico and 51 percent of households from the
Caribbean receiving welfare. Meanwhile, only 26 percent of
immigrant households from Europe and 17 percent from South Asia
received welfare in that period.
The types of welfare examined in the study included Medicaid as
well as cash, food and housing programs.
However, the report came under immediate criticism in some
corners, with the libertarian Cato Institute’s Alex Nowrasteh
telling FoxNews.com “there’s virtually nothing redeemable about
this report.”
“When you compare households to households, they’re all of
different sizes and so it’s hard to compare them in a way that
reveals anything interesting,” Nowrasteh said. “Statisticians
spend their lives trying to compare apples to apples and CIS
didn’t even bother.”
Nowrasteh also said that by measuring households -- not
individuals -- the CIS report ignores the possibility that some
immigrant-led households will include native-born Americans
using welfare.
Rather, Nowrasteh argued in a lengthy blog post that poor
immigrant individuals are less likely to receive welfare than
others at their income level, and the problem is a welfare
problem, not an immigration problem. “It’s easier to build a
wall around the welfare state rather than a wall around the
country,” Nowrasteh said. “I use immigration as an argument
against welfare, they use welfare as an argument against
immigration.”
Steven Camarota, director of research at the CIS and author of
the report, said the fact remains that many immigrant households
“struggle to feed their own children.”
Camarota noted that immigrants often are receiving welfare not
due to unemployment, but because they are not earning enough to
be ineligible.
“Most people think either you work, or you are on welfare – but
that’s just wrong,” Camarota said. “A mom with two kids working
full-time earning $12 an hour is still eligible for most welfare
programs.”
The report also found that education, or a lack thereof, was an
important factor. “In 2012, 76 percent of households headed by
an immigrant who had not graduated high school used one or more
welfare programs, as did 63 percent of households headed by an
immigrant with only a high school education,” the report said.
Camarota told FoxNews.com the high welfare use can also be
explained in part by strong ethnic social networks that help
fellow immigrants both get a job and navigate complex welfare
programs.
The report received some heavyweight backing, with the office of
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., drawing attention to it via email.
“In all the recycled, power-washed talk about our “broken
immigration system,” (which inevitably centers on how to help
corporations) the exploitation of the welfare system remains one
of the most endemic and overlooked problems,” the statement said.
Asked about how he hoped the report would contribute to the
immigration debate, Camarota said he hoped it would lead to a
sober discourse.
“[Collecting welfare] shouldn’t be seen as a moral failing on
the part of immigrants, but reflective of what happens when you
let lots of people who have modest levels of education in a
modern society,” Camarota said. “Either you select immigrants
who aren’t going to need programs or accept that they’re going
to take up a lot of welfare. You can’t try and solve it once
they’re here.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/09/02/half-immigrant-
households-on-welfare-report-says/