Ineligible Parents, Eligible Children: Food Stamps Receipt, Allotments and Food Insecurity among Children of Immigrants

This paper brings attention to the effects of PRWORA on householdlevel Food Stamps recipiency, Food Stamps allotments, and food security among children of immigrants using the Survey of Program Dynamics. This paper further seeks to examine the affect of cutbacks on welfare allotments on “mixed status” families and whether any such changes in Food Stamps receipt and allotments led to higher levels of food insecurity among children of non-citizens. Results indicate that food insecurity was higher for children of non-citizens who never naturalized immediately following welfare reform, but food insecurity levels declined and evened out across all groups by 2001. Reductions in allotments rather than reductions in Food Stamps receipt appear to explain the higher food insecurity levels of children of noncitizen parents. Reductions in unmet need for both receipt and allotments between 1997 and 2000 appear to partially explain the decline in food insecurity.