R U B I N S T E I N
IMMIGRANT groups are lobbying vigorously to undo welfare reform -- and understandably: foreign-born residents are nearly 50 per cent more likely to receive welfare than are native Americans. Economists George Borjas and Lynette Hilton found that 20 per cent of immigrant households received some form of welfare in the early 1990s, compared to 14.1 per cent of native households.Earlier studies, focusing on cash benefits only, had shown a much smaller gap. But the traditional cash program -- AFDC -- isn't nearly as popular, or as expensive, as noncash transfers such as Medicaid, food stamps, and rent subsidies -- which are also far more frequently received by immigrants.
Nearly 1 in 10 people living in the U.S. is foreign born, the highest percentage since the 1930s, according to a 1996 Census Bureau survey. And Borjas and Hilton's analysis (see chart) shows a widening ``welfare gap'' between the immigrant and native-born populations. As a result, the foreign-born, 9.3 per cent of the population, account for approximately 14.6 per cent of the costs of means-tested entitlement.
This isn't to say they come here solely for welfare. Immigrant unemployment is just under 5 per cent. Yet that jobless rate is significantly above the rate for natives, which was slightly under 4 per cent as of the Census Survey in 1996.
Most immigrants who can't find work go home within a year. Unfortunately, those who do find work don't do terribly well: median annual income of immigrant workers who came to the U.S. since 1990 is just $10,875, compared to $17,835 for natives. More than one-fifth -- 22.2 per cent -- of all immigrants live in poverty, against 12.9 per cent of American-born residents.
For many elderly immigrants, welfare is clearly the draw. Just look at Supplemental Security Income, a program that provides cash payments to the elderly, blind, and disabled. Within the ``elderly'' (65 or older) part of the program, immigrants account for 29 per cent of all recipients. Among aged recipients not qualifying for Social Security, immigrants make up a whopping 63 per cent. In effect, SSI enables immigrants to enjoy the benefits of Social Security without contributing a cent to the system.
Certain programs are favored by specific ethnic groups. Mexican immigrants, for example, are 50 per cent more likely to receive energy assistance than Cuban immigrants, while Cuban immigrants are more likely to receive housing subsidies. SSI is heavily favored by Chinese. These variations can't be explained by demographic, economic, or regional differences among ethnic groups. The key variable, say Borjas and Hilton, is history: the more ``exposed'' an ethnic group has been to a particular program in the past, the more likely that new arrivals from the same group will participate in that program. The lesson? In earlier years ethnic groups gave new arrivals job tips. Now they instruct them on welfare..
