Patchwork Policies Provide Partial Benefits to Immigrants

By Wendy Zimmermann and Karen Tumlin, the Urban Institute

Despite federal benefit restorations and the many states who do assist immigrants, the social safety net for immigrants remains weaker than before welfare reform, according to Patchwork Policies: State Assistance for Immigrants under Welfare Reform, a new report from the Urban Institute’s Assessing the New Federalism project.

This survey of officials in all 50 states found that few states fully replaced lost federal benefits. Most states that created substitute programs simultaneously placed conditions on eligibility, rendering many immigrants ineligible. Where they exist, state general assistance and health programs are of little help because they often serve only targeted populations and provide lower benefits than their federal counterparts.

Several vulnerable groups remain outside the safety net, including immigrants entering the United States after the passage of welfare reform in August 1996 and the elderly. Citizen children of non-citizen parents who remain ineligible for federal food stamp benefits are also disadvantaged since their households receive reduced benefits.

In the Urban Institute survey, states are placed into four groupings ranging from those that made their safety nets the most available to immigrants to those that made their safety nets least available. The groupings are based on the extent to which states create new, state-funded, substitute programs for immigrants and the access they give immigrants to state-run general assistance and health programs.

For a full copy of the report, visit the Urban Institute’s web site, www.urban.org or call Bonnie Nowak at 202-261-5850.