Welfare Reform and Immigrants: Does the Five-year Ban Matter?

Robert Kaestner and Neeraj Kaushal

A chapter in Immigration, 2007, pp 311-347 from Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Abstract: Welfare reform banned newly arrived immigrants who came to the US after 1996 from receiving federally funded benefits for five years. One assessment of the success of the five-year ban is the effect it has on behaviors that determine economic success and the likelihood of becoming a public charge. In this chapter, we investigate the effect of the five-year ban on the employment, hours of work, and wages of low-income women. Our results indicate that welfare reform in general caused a significant increase in the employment of low-educated, unmarried mothers regardless of citizenship. Among non-citizens, welfare reform was associated with a 10 percentage point (26%) increase in employment, a two-hour (15%) increase in hours worked per week, and a 10 percent decrease in wages. Surprisingly, we find little evidence that the five-year ban had any additional effect on the employment, hours of work, and wages of low-educated and unmarried, non-citizen mothers.

Date: 2007
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:rleczz:s0147-9121(07)00008-8

DOI: 10.1016/S0147-9121(07)00008-8

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