Public Assistance, Private Support, and the Adaptation of Immigrants

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The recent resurgence of immigrants to the United States has raised concerns over their lower educational and skill levels and their disproportional use of public assistance. Important issues related to the disproportional use of public assistance among immigrants include the impact of public program participation on private support and productive activities, and, ultimately, on the adaptation of immigrants. The project integrates human capital theory and social capital theory, with special attention to the application of social capital theory in immigration. By introducing the concept of social capital in the economic models, we develop three alternative hypotheses to be tested in the proposed study. (1) Greater social capital reduces the degree to which public assistance displaces private support. (2) Greater social capital decreases the work disincentives of public assistance. (3) Public assistance has a positive effect on the adaptation of immigrants, conditional on strong social capital and low costs of public assistance. The analysis will use two recent panels (1992 and 1993) of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), which together provide a sufficient, nationally representative sample of recent immigrants (about 5,000 individual immigrants over age 15). Using rigorous panel data analysis techniques, the proposed research will advance our knowledge of the relationship between public assistance and private support as well as the consequences of public assistance for immigrants. It will also provide information for policy makers and the public in the continuous heated debate over immigration.