Half of immigrant households, both legal and illegal, received some kind of public assistance in 2012, compared with 30 percent of non-immigrant families enrolled in welfare programs, a new report shows.
According to the
Center for Immigration Studies' 52-page study, which examined the Census Bureaus' Survey of Income and Program Participation data, welfare use rates are "a good deal higher than use rates shown by other Census data."
The study considered welfare as including Medicaid and cash, food and housing programs.
Among the report findings were that:
- In 2012, 51 percent of households headed by an immigrant (legal or illegal) reported that they used at least one welfare program during the year, compared to 30 percent of non-immigrant households.
- Welfare use is high for both new arrivals and well-established immigrants. Of households headed by immigrants who have been in the country for more than two decades, 48 percent access welfare.
- No single program explains immigrants' higher overall welfare use. For example, not counting subsidized school lunch, welfare use is still 46 percent for immigrants and 28 percent for non-immigrants. Not counting Medicaid, welfare use is 44 percent for immigrants and 26 percent for non-immigrants.
- Eighty-seven percent of immigrant households had at least one worker in 2012, higher than the 76 percent rate for non-immigrant households.
- Use of welfare by immigrant households compared with non-immigrant households in four "top immigrant receiving states" were California, at 55 percent compared with 30 percent; New York, with 59 percent versus 33 percent; Texas at 57 percent versus 34 percent; and Florida with 42 percent versus 28 percent.
"The findings of this analysis have important policy implications," the study's executive summary concluded.
"Perhaps most important, the significantly higher welfare use associated with immigrants means that it is very likely immigration is a drain on public coffers, exacerbating the nation's fiscal deficit."