WELFARE POLICY RESEARCH PROJECT

RFP 1999: IMMIGRANTS QUESTIONS

1. What percentage of California households include one or more adults born outside the United States and what are those immigrants’ citizenship status? What percentage of these immigrant households in California receives public assistance (AFDC/CalWORKs, SSI/SSP, Refugee Assistance, food stamps, Medi-Cal)?

2. What are the longer-term and more recent socio-economic trends for immigrant households (including undocumented immigrants whose citizen-children’s births were funded by Medi-Cal) who are receiving or who have received public assistance (including AFDC/ CalWORKs, SSI/SSP, Refugee Assistance, food stamps, Medi-Cal)? Such analyses might include, but need not be limited to: their geographic distribution in California, marital status, educational attainment, household income, work history (both on and off welfare), and use of public assistance programs (including, if possible, General Assistance). To the extent possible, disaggregate data by immigrants’ ethnicity/country of origin, year of arrival in this country, and citizenship status.

$ Controlling for labor-market conditions, are immigrant households applying for and receiving public assistance at rates comparable to the pre-1996 federal welfare and immigration reforms? If not, why? If they are receiving less public assistance than before, are immigrant households able to compensate for the loss of income? If so, how? How are family and child well being affected? How are the recent changes in federal “public charge” (INS) regulations affecting immigrants’ receipt of public assistance and health benefits?

3. How are immigrant “child-only” cases (children aided/parent(s) not receiving aid) affected by welfare reform (including CalWORKs and food stamps)? Have changes in other federal and state laws (for example, federal immigration law and regulations and California’s Healthy Families Program) affected such children’s access to and receipt of nutrition, health care, and other services for which they are eligible?

4. What happens to immigrant households, particularly those who do not speak or write English, who are unable to find employment prior to reaching their 18/24 month time limits? Do outcomes vary by citizenship status, ethnicity/country of origin and/or length of time in the US? How do these outcomes compare with those of non-immigrant CalWORKs recipients?

5. How are immigrant households affected by food stamp and SSI restrictions? To what extent are the state’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI) and California Food Assistance Program (CFAP) programs compensating for the loss of federal benefits?

6. What particular barriers prevent immigrants from successfully entering the labor force, and what are the special needs of immigrant CalWORKs applicants and recipients who cannot read and write English? What CalWORKs activities do they participate in? How do these CalWORKs activities differ from those used by non-immigrants? What type(s) of employment do immigrants obtain? How do these differ from the types of employment obtained by non-immigrants? What are the characteristics of immigrants that do succeed in leaving welfare for work and how do they differ from those who are unable to make the transition? (Such characteristics should include, but need not be limited to: ethnicity/country of origin, immigrant/citizenship status, length of time in the U.S., language barriers, cultural barriers, educational attainment, family size, age of youngest child, work history, etc.).

$ Do answers to the questions noted above vary by single-parent and two-parent immigrant households?

$ Of two-parent immigrant households that do work, which of the parents is most likely to be employed? Why?

7. What are the policy implications of these findings?