Immigration and the Welfare State: Immigrant and Native Use Rates and Benefit Levels for Means-Tested Welfare and Entitlement Programs

Author: 
Alex Nowrasteh, Robert Orr
Date of Publication: 
May, 2018
Source Organization: 
Cato Institute

Overall, immigrants are less likely to consume welfare benefits and, when they do, they generally consume a lower dollar value of benefits than native-born Americans. This appears contrary to the study conducted by the CIS (Publication 3), but Cato claims its work is more accurate because it examines individuals with immigration status, while CIS measures welfare use by households headed by immigrants (which often contain multiple native-born Americans).

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Citation: 

Nowrasteh, A. & Orr, R. (2018). Immigration and the Welfare State: Immigrant and Native Use Rates and Benefit Levels for Means-Tested Welfare and Entitlement Programs. Immigration Research and Policy Brief, 6. Retrieved from https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/irpb6.pdf

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