Do immigrants receive more welfare money than natural born US citizens?
As the debate around immigration, a wall聽along the Mexican border, and migrant amnesty聽spills into the general election,聽聽released Monday by a think tank that aims to reduce immigration聽estimates that immigrant households聽receive 41 percent more聽federal welfare than households headed by native-born citizens.
The Center for Immigration聽Studies' (CIS) analysis聽聽an earlier study the organization published in September.聽
The author of the more recent study, public policy analyst Jason聽Richwine, is no stranger to controversy. In 2013, he was dismissed from his position at the Heritage Foundation after it was revealed that his PhD dissertation at Harvard, titled "IQ and Immigration Policy,"聽whose abstract asserted that "[t]he average IQ of immigrants in the United States is , and the difference is likely to persist over several generations."聽
In its analysis of a 2012 US Census聽Bureau survey,聽the Center for Immigration Studies estimates that average welfare cost of a household headed by a legal or illegal聽immigrant was $6,234 in 2012, and $5,692 for households headed only by illegal immigrants. By comparison, the average welfare cost of a household headed by a聽natural-born citizen聽is聽$4,431, the study estimates. In particular, according to the study, immigrants receive more cash, food, and Medicaid welfare than households headed by natural-born citizens, even though their housing costs are roughly the same,聽the study estimates. 聽
Of all immigrant households, the study found immigrants from Mexico and Central America received the most welfare of all immigrants, with $8,251 in 2012.聽聽
"As long as the US continues to admit large numbers of low-skill immigrants (legal or illegal), then immigrant welfare consumption will remain high," writes Mr. Richwine. "Importing new clients of the welfare state likely makes it even harder to聽roll聽back."聽聽
Immigration policy聽analyst聽Alex聽Nowrasteh聽of the Cato Institute,聽聽previous analysis, tells 海角大神 this recent study is "fatally flawed" in聽the same way.聽聽
"If they actually wanted to count how much welfare immigrants use, they should have just counted聽the immigrants and the welfare they聽use, instead of the households of US citizens 鈥� that is an apples-to-apples comparison," says Mr. Nowrasteh.聽
"If we should count them, shouldn't we also count the welfare use of grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren of immigrants?," wrote聽Nowrasteh, in his criticism of the September study.聽"Such a way of counting would obviously produce a negative result but it would also not be informative."聽
Nowrasteh聽also faulted the study for not including Medicare and Social Security programs in its comparison.聽聽
CIS also touches on a common聽myth about undocumented聽immigrants: Do they receive welfare? The short answer is no.
鲍苍诲辞肠耻尘别苍迟别诲听颈尘尘颈驳谤补苍迟蝉听are not eligible for public benefits, and legal immigrants can receive聽benefits only once they have been a citizen for five years.聽Yet, the study calculates the聽welfare聽costs for聽children of undocumented immigrants. 聽
Yet,聽some argue there聽is an often overlooked聽benefit of supporting these children.聽聽
"These kids who get subsidized school lunches today will go on to graduate high school ... will go on to college ," Linda聽Chavez,聽president of the Becoming American Institute, a conservative group that advocates for higher levels of legal immigration to reduce illegal immigration, told USA Today.聽"Every time we have a nativist backlash in our history, we forget that we see聽immigrants change very rapidly in the second generation."聽
