The Immigrant Welfare Effect: Take-Up or Eligibility?

Immigrant Assimilation and Welfare Participation: Do Immigrants Assimilate Into or Out-of Welfare

Welfare Reform and Immigrant Fertility

Welfare Reform and Immigrant Fertility Immigration policy continues to be at the forefront of policy discussions, and the use of welfare benefits by immigrants has been hotly debated. In 1996, Congress enacted welfare reform legislation (PRWORA), which denied the use of most means-tested assistance to noncitizens and lowered immigrant welfare dramatically. While Federal legislation imposed stri...

Immigrant Networks and the Take-Up of Disability Programs: Evidence from US Census Data

Immigrant Networks and the Take-Up of Disability Programs: Evidence from US Census Data This paper examines the role of ethnic networks in disability program take-up among working-age immigrants in the United States. We find that even when controlling for country of origin and area of residence fixed effects, immigrants residing amidst a large number of co-ethnics are more likely to receive dis...

National origin and immigrant welfare recipiency

This paper explores national origin differences in the welfare recipiency of immigrants to the United States. We develop an economic model of immigration which generates implications about how welfare utilization should vary according to characteristics of the country of origin. The empirical analysis reveals that a few source country characteristics explain over two-thirds of the variance of w...

Forthcoming in Journal of Human Resources Immigrant Assimilation and Welfare Participation: Do Immigrants Assimilate Into or Out-of Welfare?

This paper analyzes differences in welfare utilization between immigrants and natives in Sweden using a large panel data set for the years 1990 to 1996. We find that immigrants use welfare to a greater extent than natives and that differences cannot be explained by observable characteristics. Welfare participation decreases with time spent in Sweden. Refugees assimilate out-of welfare at a fast...