Immigrants' welfare use and opportunity for contact with co-ethnics.
In this article we examine the relationship between immigrants' welfare use and their social capital, using the 1990 census. We measure community social capital using contact with co-ethnics and co-ethnics' economic inactivity, and examine the use of AFDC and SSI in two subpopulations: single-mother families and elderly units. Major findings are that the effects of social capital differ between immigrant single-mother families and elderly units; the effects of social capital differ between the young-at-arrival elderly and the old-at-arrival elderly; and the process of AFDC use is similar for immigrants and for natives, whereas the process of SSI use is more complicated for immigrants than for natives.
Hao
L
L
Department of Sociology, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA. hao@jhu.edu
Kawano
Y
Y
D000367:Age Factors; D004641:Emigration and Immigration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011203:Poverty / Q000639:trends; D011632:Public Assistance; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012919:Social Behavior; D012931:Social Environment; D012946:Social Welfare / Q000639:trends*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors