-By Warner Todd Huston
A new study on the use of welfare benefits by illegal and legal immigrants in the U.S. finds that households headed by immigrants use an average of $6,200 in benefits annually, fully 41 percent higher than the rate used by native born welfare recipients.
This study comes on the heels of another study finding that 51 percent of immigrant households are signed up for at least one welfare program.
“Immigrants are such heavy users of welfare not because they don’t work, but because, on average, they have little education and thus earn low wages,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). “If we continue to permit large numbers of less-educated people to move here from abroad, we have to accept that there will be huge and ongoing costs to taxpayers.”
The study, based on the Census Bureau’s 2012 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), notes that the higher use of welfare benefits because by and large the current wave of immigrants are less educated and have fewer needed job skills and are therefore more apt to apply for welfare benefits.
The study found the average immigrant household receives 33 percent more cash welfare, 57 percent more food assistance, and 44 percent more Medicaid dollars than the average native-born applicants.
Additionally, the highest amount of welfare is taken by immigrants from Central America and Mexico at $8,251 per household, a rate 86 percent higher than native citizens.
“The greater consumption of welfare dollars by immigrants can be explained in large part by their lower level of education and larger number of children compared to natives,” CIS said in a press release. “Over 24 percent of immigrant households are headed by a high school dropout, compared to just 8 percent of native households. In addition, 13 percent of immigrant households have three or more children, vs. just 6 percent of native households.”
“While it is important for Americans to understand the rate of welfare use among immigrants, expressing that use in dollar terms offers a more tangible metric that is tied to current debates over fiscal policy. With the nation facing a long-term budgetary deficit, this study helps illuminate immigration’s impact on the problem,” said the report’s author, Jason Richwine.
Richwine also noted that even as illegal immigrants are supposed to be barred from receiving welfare they receive it anyway by applying for benefits for their American-born children, often called “anchor babies.”
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing news, opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that wrote articles on U.S. history for several American history magazines. Huston is a featured writer for Andrew Breitbart’s Breitbart News, and he appears on such sites as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, Federalist Papers, and many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.
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