Some Truth About Immigration

“We need to control immigration, immigrants make up the majority of people on public aid,” Okay, so many of you out there really believe this? I’m truly sorry if you do, because it is one of the many myths about Pilipino immigrants as well as other immigrants that need to be exposed. There’s a lot of ill-informed people out there when it comes to immigration and its our job to educate them.

It’s true, some people do believe that the majority of people on the welfare system and other public aid programs are immigrants. However, this completely wrong. Just in California alone, 4.1 percent of American citizens receive welfare or social security, compared to only 3.8 percent of California’s long-time immigrants. Also, a much higher amountof immigrants are of working age, compared to the native-born population. This results in less immigrants depending upon social services. Only 1.5 percent of immigrants who entered between 1980 and 1990 received social security. This is such a reltively small amount compared to 13 percent of native born residents of California.

Some people even think that immigrants come to the U.S. just to take advantage of the public programs and assistance. Wrong again. People immigrate here because they have relatives and they want jobs. Prospective immigrants are screened before they even enter the U.S.; they have to prove that they aren’t likely to receive public assistance. If they can’t, then they are disqualified.

Unfortunately, these are only a few of the many false myths people believe about immigrants.
by Theresa Coronel, May 1996