Immigrant and Native Consumption of Means‐​Tested Welfare and Entitlement Benefits in 2016: Evidence from the Survey of Income and Program Participation

The federal government spent more than $2.3 trillion in 2016 on the welfare state, an amount equal to approximately 60 percent of all federal outlays in that year. About $1.6 trillion of those expenditures went to Social Security and Medicare, and the other roughly $700 billion was used to fund means-tested welfare benefits. Based on data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, we find that immigrants consume 21 percent less welfare and entitlement benefits than native-born Americans on a per capita basis. The per capita cost of providing welfare to immigrants is substantially less than the per capita cost of providing welfare to native-born Americans.

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