Immigrants, welfare reform, and the economy

Abstract

The welfare reform bill adopted in the United States in 1996 limited the eligibility of immigrants for several government assistance programs, and early projections estimated that nearly half of the savings associated with the reforms would come from these immigrant restrictions. Several studies have found that subsequent program participation declined more for immigrants relative to natives, seemingly verifying the early projections. However, many of these restrictions were either rescinded by the federal government or superceded by state and local policies. In this paper, we first reproduce earlier findings that show the relative declines in program use among immigrants. We then show that much, but not all, of the relative decline in program use among immigrants can be explained by changing macroeconomic conditions. © 2004 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

Fear and the Safety Net: Evidence from Secure Communities

“…Thomas and Collette (2017) argue that immigrants reduced their take-up because they were confused regarding eligibility and immigrants may have been concerned about being labeled a "public charge," which can reduce the likelihood of obtaining legal permanent resident status (see Online Appendix for details). In contrast, Lofstrom and Bean (2002) and Haider et. al (2004) suggest that economic and labor market conditions were at least partly responsible for reductions in welfare use among immigrants following the passage of PRWORA (see also Kaestner and Kaushal 2005;Bitler and Hoynes 2011).…”

Welfare Use Among Older Hispanic Immigrants: The Effect of State and Federal Policy

“…Borjas 2004;Fix and Passel 1999;Haider et al 2004;Lofstrom and Bean 2002). Although several studies (e.g.…”

“…Although several studies (e.g. Haider et al 2004;Lofstrom and Bean 2002) examined the impact of state-level economic environments on changes in welfare use, very few research studies have included state variation in policy generosity in their studies and no study of which we are aware focuses specifically on older Hispanic immigrants. Borjas (2003) examined the impact of welfare changes on public health insurance coverage (Medicaid) in one of the few studies that considers immigrant welfare use within the context of state welfare policy.…”

US Food and Nutrition Programs

“…Welfare reform and reductions in SNAP certification periods led to reductions in SNAP caseloads in the 1990s (Currie and Grogger 2001, Kabbani and Wilde 2003, Figlio et al 2000. Additionally, changes in immigrant access to safety net during the welfare reform period also led to reductions in SNAP participation (Borjas 2004, Haider et al 2004, Kaestner and Kaushal 2005, Bitler and Hoynes 2013. Ganong and Liebman (2013) examine the large increase in SNAP caseloads in the Great Recession and find that local economic conditions explain about two-thirds of the increase in SNAP with a much smaller role for SNAP policy changes (e.g., expansions for broad based categorical eligibility).…”