As if there isn’t enough to worry about these days. Now there’s this new report by the Center for Immigration Studies documenting welfare use by immigrants, both legal and illegal, in the United States. It’s utterly depressing and frustrating. No wonder so many people stop paying attention. But burying our heads in the sand isn’t going to help matters.
A few of the findings:
- In 2009 (based on data collected in 2010), 57 percent of households headed by an immigrant (legal and illegal) with children (under 18) used at least one welfare program, compared to 39 percent for native households with children.
- Immigrant households’ use of welfare tends to be much higher than natives for food assistance programs and Medicaid. Their use of cash and housing programs tends to be similar to native households.
- A large share of the welfare used by immigrant households with children is received on behalf of their U.S.-born children, who are American citizens. But even households with children comprised entirely of immigrants (no U.S.-born children) still had a welfare use rate of 56 percent in 2009.
- Immigrant households with children used welfare programs at consistently higher rates than natives, even before the current recession. In 2001, 50 percent of all immigrant households with children used at least one welfare program, compared to 32 percent for natives.
- Households with children with the highest welfare use rates are those headed by immigrants from the Dominican Republic (82 percent), Mexico and Guatemala (75 percent), and Ecuador (70 percent). Those with the lowest use rates are from the United Kingdom (7 percent), India (19 percent), Canada (23 percent), and Korea (25 percent).
- The states where immigrant households with children have the highest welfare use rates are Arizona (62 percent); Texas, California, and New York (61 percent); Pennsylvania (59 percent); Minnesota and Oregon (56 percent); and Colorado (55 percent).
We constantly hear stories of productive immigrants being deported for various reasons. Why is that? Because they aren’t dependent on the government, and therefore aren’t useful to politicians? I’m all for helping those in need, but isn’t that why we have private charity? I often read about refugees who come to our community that are helped by local churches. They help them get set up and then the immigrants go out and get jobs. At least that’s the way it’s supposed to work. But even after the study removed refugees from the statistics, 57% still are on welfare. And this is a self-reporting study, so the statistics are probably even worse than reported.
Heritage estimates that welfare spending will cost us $10.3 trillion (with a T) over the next ten years. And National Review points out that we now have US cities with lower per capita income than Mexico! How much longer can we keep this up? And how many of the immigrants on welfare are working under the table, earning income while crying poverty and receiving benefits?
Well, I guess this is to be expected when you have politicians who’ve created a massive welfare state. Who wouldn’t want to come here and ride the gravy train? But as Margaret Thatcher wisely noted, sooner or later you run out of other people’s money. Then what?
Via memeorandum
And there is a worry for the government shutting down? This doesn’t make me feel any better about the massive check I cut to the IRS this week. Frustrating to say the least.
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I suppose it is an improvement over Burning Down the South Bronx, but I am not sure. Everything to do with immigration is totally out of control. Americans knock themselves out to make a decent place, and then millions of jerks arrive and create a disaster that nobody can cope with. Look at Newark.
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I am making a documentary about various government subsidized programs and people who apply for them and make their living from these services.
I am currently unemployed (since August) and had an income of $45,000. My wife makes about $130,000. We own our own home (not upside down, but lost some equity due to the mortgage debacle). We also own a rental property that we break even on when the renter pays on time. I currently have no income – but we’re both frugal. Neither of us has received social services of any kind. I worked for about 20 years in social services but NOT on the social work side – more on the clinical side. I would have to say that I’ve never met an actual homeless person in all the years I worked with people who received housing, social security, welfare, food stamps, etc. Many of my clients panhandled and held up “homeless” cardboard signs – collected about $50-100 per day, then came home to their group home (paid by the government) where they received 100% medicaid/medicare services, food, had a team of therapists, case workers, free transportation, special holiday meals and gifts, clothing, food stamps, etc. All told, their net annual income exceeded mine. I was salaried and sometimes worked 60-80 hours per week.
Here is my idea:
I want to learn how to LEGALLY tap into every government handout there is available to me under the law. I will do some “hidden camera” aka 60 minutes type investigation into whether that is easy or hard – if it is a flawed system or not. I will follow all the rules for compliance – but my goal will be to see how much support on any level I can get and document (I’ll report income and benefits, etc. online to be completely transparent).
My goal will be to make more money NOT working than if I worked; investigate the good, bad and ugly of social programs and publish the documentary in a public forum after I’ve finished.
I don’t have any skills in the area of malingering, bumming money, etc.,
I’m interested in learning how from people who deliberately exploit the system as well as people who work hard to make the system work. The results – in favor or against – of the current system will be truthfully reported. So, whether I am successful and this reveals serious flaws that need to be reformed – or it is a humbling experience that results in a need for every one of these efforts to survive, I will report it as such.
Thanks, Tregix
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Good luck!
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