Welfare Use by Legal
and
Illegal Immigrant
Households
An Analysis of Medicaid, cash,
food, and housing programs
By Steven A.
Camarota
This report is a companion to a recent report
published by the Center for Immigration Studies looking at welfare use by all
immigrant households, based on Census Bureau data. This report separates legal
and illegal immigrant households and estimates welfare use using the same
Census Bureau data as that study. This analysis shows that legal immigrant
households make extensive use of most welfare programs, while illegal immigrant
households primarily benefit from food programs and Medicaid through their U.S.-born
children. Low levels of education — not legal status — is the main reason
immigrant welfare use is high.
Among the findings:
• An estimated 49
percent of households headed by legal immigrants used one or more welfare
programs in 2012, compared to 30 percent of households headed by natives.
• Households headed
by legal immigrants have higher use rates than native households overall and
for cash programs (14 percent vs. 10 percent), food programs (36 percent vs. 22
percent), and Medicaid (39 percent vs. 23 percent). Use of housing programs is similar.
• Legal immigrant
households account for three-quarters of all immigrant households accessing one
or more welfare programs.
• Of legal immigrant
households with children, 72 percent access one or more welfare programs,
compared to 52 percent of native households.
• Turning to
households headed by immigrants in the country illegally, we estimate that 62
percent used one or more welfare programs in 2012, compared to 30 percent of
native households.
• Households headed
by immigrants illegally in the country have higher use rates than native
households overall and for food programs (57 percent vs. 22 percent) and
Medicaid (51 percent vs. 23 percent). Use of cash programs by illegal
immigrants is lower than use by natives (5 percent vs. 10 percent), as is use
of housing programs (4 percent vs. 6 percent).
• There is a child
present in 86 percent of illegal immigrant households using welfare, and this
is the primary way that these households access programs.
• Of illegal
immigrant households with children, 87 percent access one or more welfare
programs compared to 52 percent of native households.
• There is a worker
present in 85 percent of legal immigrant-headed households and 95 percent of
illegal immigrant-headed households. But while most immigrant households have
a worker, many are less-educated, earn low wages, and are eligible for welfare.
Steven
A. Camarota is the director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies.
1629 K Street,
NW, Suite 600 • Washington, DC 20006 • (202) 466-8185 • center@cis.org • www.cis.org
Read full text
at: http://cis.org/sites/cis.org/files/camarota-welfare-illegals_1.pdf