The unfolding Minnesota scandal in which Somali immigrants defrauded social services of billions of dollars has received a lot of attention, but it points to an even larger issue surrounding immigrants and the social safety net: the high percentage who use our welfare system legally.
Analysis of the U.S. government’s Survey of Income and Program Participation shows that more than half of immigrant-headed households use at least one welfare program today. The reason is simply that a large share of immigrants have modest levels of education, and their resulting low incomes allow them to qualify for aid.
As the Minnesota welfare scandal highlighted, there are vast amounts of American taxpayer dollars involved, a limited resource that should be spent prudently. By their consumption of scarce public resources, immigrants make it more difficult to assist the poor who were born here, which raises key questions about immigration’s impact on the U.S. labor market and especially on blue collar workers.
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