Public Assistance, Private Support, and the Adaptation of Immigrants

最近涌入美国的移民令人担忧，他们的教育和技能水平较低，对公共援助的使用不成比例。与移民不成比例地使用公共援助有关的重要问题包括参与公共方案对私人支持和生产活动的影响，以及最终对移民适应的影响。该项目融合了人力资本理论和社会资本理论，特别关注社会资本理论在移民中的应用。通过在经济模型中引入社会资本的概念，我们提出了三个可供选择的假设，以在拟议的研究中进行检验。(1)更大的社会资本降低了公共援助取代私人支持的程度。(2)较大的社会资本降低了公共援助的工作积极性。(3)公共援助对移民适应有积极作用，条件是社会资本较强，公共援助成本较低。分析将使用收入和方案参与调查(SIPP)最近的两个小组(1992和1993)，这两个小组一起提供了一个充分的、具有全国代表性的新移民样本(大约5000名15岁以上的个人移民)。利用严格的小组数据分析技术，拟议的研究将增进我们对公共援助和私人支持之间的关系以及公共援助对移民的影响的了解。它还将为政策制定者和公众在持续激烈的移民辩论中提供信息。

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.