Study: New Immigrants Twice as Likely to Live in Poverty as Americans

New immigrants to the United States are twice as likely to live in poverty as native-born Americans, a new study by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) finds.

Analysis by CIS Director of Research Steven Camarota found that despite new immigrants having higher education rates than the native-born population, they remain twice as likely to be impoverished in the U.S.

Camarota’s research reports:

• The median income of new arrivals was $18,402 in 2017, slightly lower than in 2007. Native income also fell slightly, so the gap between new immigrants and natives stayed about the same, with natives’ income still about twice that of new immigrants. [Emphasis added]

• The share of new immigrants in poverty was slightly higher in 2017 than in 2007, and the gap with natives widened slightly. Overall, new immigrants remained twice as likely to live in poverty as natives despite immigrants’ much greater increase in education. [Emphasis added]

This week, Breitbart News reported how Camarota’s research additionally discovered that food stamp usage by new immigrants to the U.S. has more than tripled from four percent in 2007 to 13 percent in 2017.

Native-born Americans’ food stamp usage increased as well, but not as much as new immigrants. For Americans, about six percent were on food stamps in 2007. In 2017, the number of native-born American households taking food stamps has ticked up to about ten percent.

The research means that new immigrants are now more likely than native-born Americans to use food stamps.