The Center for Immigration Studies published a new study on Tuesday that shows a majority of all immigrants, legal and illegal, use at least one welfare program – a much higher percentage than native-born Americans.
CIS used the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation from 2012 to show that 51 percent of immigrant-led households had enrolled in at least one welfare program during the year, compared to 30 percent of native households.
The survey included Medicaid and cash, food, and housing programs as forms of welfare.
Welfare was set up as a system to help low-income workers and their children, which describes the economic situation for many immigrant households. The study reported that more than 20 percent of immigrant households live in poverty compared to only nearly 14 percent of native-born American households.
Overall nearly 47 percent of immigrant households are considered low income, compared to only 34 percent for the native-born population.
This is not just the case for newly arrived immigrant households. Welfare use increases as immigrants spend more time in America. It begins to decline once immigrants have lived in the U.S. for over 21 years, but still remains much higher than welfare use among native-born Americans.
The survey found that 30 percent of native-born American households used one or more welfare programs, and immigrants from certain regions actually took far less than that.
Immigrants from the regions of South Asia and Europe used less welfare than natives, and welfare use among immigrants from East Asia was marginally higher than the native-born population at 32 percent.
A majority of immigrants from Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean were enrolled in a welfare program, while 48 percent of African immigrants were on welfare.
The study’s conclusion pointed out that although immigrants are supposed to be a net gain for America, as long the nation’s legal immigration system brings in a large population of low-skilled labor with limited job opportunities, they will continue to depend on the nation’s welfare state.
