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By Steven A. Camarota Why Care About Poverty Caused by Immigration? Impact on the Poor Already Here. One may reasonably ask whether it matters what proportion of persons in immigrant households, or even in native households, live in poverty. What effect, if any, does a higher national or local poverty rate have on the quality of life in a community or the country as a whole, especially for the majority of the population who are not poor? In addition to altruism, there are a number of very practical reasons to be concerned about poverty in America and the role that immigration policy may be playing in its perpetuation and growth. Probably the most obvious reason for concern is the impact on the poor already here, both native and immigrant. The cost of anti-poverty programs depends in large part on the number of people who are eligible to receive benefits and services. If immigration increases the number of people who are in need of assistance, then the total cost of means-tested programs must grow accordingly. Increasing the total cost of anti-poverty programs can only reduce political support for programs that are often already unpopular. Alternately, if government outlays on programs for the poor are kept constant, then the benefit level or services provided to each recipient must be reduced so that overall costs remain the same. This too is clearly not in the interest of American's poor. In addition to means-tested programs, other services may also be strained by increasing the size of the poor population. Many school systems that serve large numbers of low-income or at-risk students may be overwhelmed by the arrival of large numbers of children from poor immigrant families. A large increase in the size of the poor population may also strain the resources of non-governmental institutions, such as charities which serve low-income populations. Therefore, if one is concerned about the poor already here, increasing the number of people below or near poverty through immigration is clearly counter-productive. Effect on the Tax Base. Probably the most self-interested reason to be concerned about increasing poverty through immigration is its effect on public coffers. As is the case in all Western industrial democracies, each individual on average must be able to pay a good deal in taxes to cover his use of public services. In the United States, expenditures by federal, state, and local governments now account for roughly one-third of GDP. Because of the progressive nature of most income taxes, families with incomes below the poverty line pay very little in federal, state, and local income taxes. Of course, the poor do pay some taxes such as real-estate (directly as owners or indirectly through their rent) and sales taxes. However, commensurate with their very low income, the amount of non-income taxes generated by persons living in poverty is also very low. In addition to very low tax contributions, the poor are the primary beneficiaries of means-tested programs such as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, Supplemental Security Income, Food Stamps, and subsidized housing. In short, there is no question that persons living in poverty, almost without exception, are a net fiscal drain.4 Therefore, if immigration increases the size of the poor population, then it is very likely that there will be a negative effect on public coffers. This is especially true in cities and states where large number of poor immigrant households are concentrated.
Impact on Societal Stability. In addition to the effect on the poor already here and taxpayers, there are more subtle but perhaps equally important reasons to be concerned about the size of the poor population. While many factors contribute to the general stability of society, the distribution of income clearly matters. As the well-known political scientist Seymour Martin Lipset (1959) has pointed out, democracy can only really work in societies that are not beset by widespread poverty and deprivation. Not surprisingly, recent scholarship has found a strong correlation between the level of wealth and income enjoyed by society's members and democratic stability (Rueschmeyer, Stevens, and Stevens, 1992; Gasiorowski and Power, 1998). Uslaner (1999) has found that the level of income inequality has an impact on how people view one another: with more poverty comes less trust and a greater suspicion of others. In addition to social science research, common sense suggests that greater disparities in income create greater social distance between society's members and thus will have a negative impact on political and social harmony.
Exacerbation of Social and Economic Problems. A variety of societal problems are closely linked to poverty. It is well established that children who grow up in poverty are more likely to be involved in illicit activity, have higher teenage pregnancy rates, exhibit lower academic achievement, and suffer from a host of other social problems than are children who do not grow up in poverty (Devine and White, 1993). The size of the poor population may also have important implications for the overall competitiveness of the American economy. Not only because of the added tax burden it brings, but also because immigrants earning poverty level wages clearly do not have the kind of skills necessary to compete in an increasingly global marketplace.
Implications for Immigrant and Immigration Policy. In addition to the impact on American society in general, looking at poverty among immigrants is also important because it is one way of evaluating the consequences of current immigration policy. It also gives us a good idea of how immigrants admitted in the future are likely to do in the United States if immigration policy remains unchanged. Very high poverty rates imply that a significant proportion of immigrants are unable to succeed in the modern American economy. This is particularly important because without a change in immigration policy, 10 million new immigrants will likely settle permanently in the country in just the next decade. Of course, the poverty rate for immigrant households does not tell us exactly how those admitted in the future will fare. However, looking at past immigrants is probably the best means we have of predicting how tomorrow's immigrants will do if the same selection criteria continue to be used. In
addition to immigration policy, which is concerned
with who may come and how many, there is immigrant policy,
which deals with how we treat the foreign-born living
in United States. Looking at poverty among immigrants is
helpful because if a large percentage of immigrants and their
children already here are in poverty we need to deal with
this problem in a constructive manner, whatever immigration
policy is adopted in the future. Such things as English language
instruction, income transfer programs, and job training specifically
targeted at immigrants represent the kinds of immigrant policies
that may be needed in order to lift immigrants out of poverty.
At the very least, if immigrants and their children comprise
a large share of the poor, our anti-poverty efforts as well
as research on poverty must take this new reality into account. |