Many immigrant families with children continued to avoid public benefits in 2020, despite facing hardships
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Author(s):
- Haley, Jennifer M., author Haley, Jennifer M., author Kenney, Genevieve M., author Bernstein, Hamutal, author
- Contributor(s):
- Urban Institute, issuing body.
- Publication:
- Washington, DC : Urban Institute, May 2021
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Emigrants and Immigrants -- statistics & numerical data Public Assistance -- statistics & numerical data United States
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- In 2020, immigrant families faced several overlapping crises. Many faced greater risks of exposure to the novel coronavirus because of their jobs and living circumstances (Artiga and Rae 2020; Gelatt 2020). The associated economic recession also affected households with noncitizen family members even more severely than other households (Gonzalez et al. 2020). At the same time, some immigrant families were also excluded from initial relief efforts, such as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security, or CARES, Act. In addition, families with immigrants continued to be affected by the immigration policies and rhetoric of the Trump administration. In 2018, the administration moved to expand the “public charge” rule to consider use of noncash public benefits, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicaid, or housing assistance, in applications for green cards or temporary visas. Research found “chilling effects,” or avoidance of public programs out of fear of immigration-related consequences, even before the new public charge rule was implemented in 2020 (Barofsky et al. 2020; Bernstein et al. 2019, 2020; Haley et al. 2020; Straut-Eppsteiner 2020; Tolbert, Pham, and Artiga 2019) and during the pandemic (Bernstein et al. 2021). Many immigrant families were confused about the details of the rule, and chilling effects extended beyond those who would be directly affected, including to some who reported avoiding children’s benefits even though the new rule would not have considered children’s program enrollment in their parents’ public charge determinations (Haley et al. 2020). Moreover, avoidance of programs by other family members could affect children in both the short and long terms, especially given the extent of the current economic crisis and the importance of parents’ physical and emotional health and family financial stability to children’s wellbeing. This analysis uses data from the Urban Institute’s Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey (WBNS), a nationally representative internet-based survey conducted in December 2020 to assess the chilling effects, hardships, and financial concerns reported by adults in immigrant families living with children under 19. We build on research using WBNS data from December 2019 (Haley et al. 2020), but we more comprehensively identify program avoidance by assessing a wider range of immigration-related reasons for avoiding public benefits. Our analysis also shows how the experiences of adults in immigrant families with children vary by the citizenship and immigration statuses of family members in the household (box 1). The 2020 survey sample included 1,168 nonelderly adults who speak English or Spanish, were born outside the US (foreign born) or live with one or more foreign-born family members, and live with children under age 19 (hereafter called adults in immigrant families with children).
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-DC license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (26 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918316588606676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918316588606676