Immigrant Life-Course Welfare Access in New York City

Rocio Calvo, Boston College; Harvard Pop Center
Mary Waters, Harvard University

The perception that immigrants raise their children to rely on public assistance directly motivated the 1996 welfare reform. We test this assumption employing a retrospective survey of 2,500 residents of New York City. We study whether family access to public assistance during childhood is linked to current welfare dependence for 1.5 and second generation immigrants from Latin America, Dominican Republic, China, Russia and West India as compared to native whites, blacks and Puerto Rican. We find that most inter-group differences in current welfare participation are explained by whether the person grew up in a household where someone received public aid and that almost all immigration groups are assimilated to native counterparts concerning welfare use. Traditionally disadvantaged immigrant groups do not rely on public aid more than other immigrant groups. Our results suggest that circular poverty and not a culture of dependence is behind immigrants’ welfare dependency throughout the life course.