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Even New Immigrants With Degrees Are Swelling Welfare Rolls

Being a preferred immigrant with post-secondary education and job skills doesnt mean you wont find yourself on welfare and Medicaid. As the Washington Examiner reports, the Census Bureau found that three times as many new immigrants — many with degrees — are on welfare as were a decade ago.

Moreover, the Center for Immigration Studies examined how new immigrants are similarly using state-sponsored Medicaid at almost the same rate — more than double what it was 10 years ago.

It means that though new immigrants may be arriving qualified for employment, the jobs are not always available to fill.

Steve Camarota, who is the director of research for the immigration studies center, told the Examiner that new immigrants are also living below the poverty line at twice the rate of American citizens who were born in the United States.

Camarotas report, “Better Educated, But Not Better Off” documents the poverty problem.

Whereas in 2007, 6 percent of new immigrants relied on Medicaid, by 2017 that figure had risen to 17 percent — almost a three-fold spike. Although the number of native-born Americans using government health care also increased, it rose to 13 percent.

But the number of new immigrants dependent on government food stamps went from four percent to 13 percent in the same decade. For people born in the U.S. the percentage receiving this kind of taxpayer-assistance went from six to 10 percent.

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