One of the main critiques of post-1965 immigration to the U.S. is that it has worsened the problems of poverty, school dropout, and welfare dependency. Allowing in immigrants who struggle with these problems adds to the social burden and makes helping impoverished Americans more difficult.
The burden added by immigration varies widely across the U.S., but there is perhaps no starker case than that of Somalis in Minnesota. As Figure 1 indicates, there were virtually no Somalis in Minnesota in 1990, but over 10,000 appeared over the following decade, largely as refugees from Somalia’s clan wars.1 The Somali-ancestry population in Minnesota would triple by 2010 and continue to grow. In 2024, in the wake of the immigration surge of the preceding four years, people of Somali ancestry in Minnesota numbered over 75,000. The population has become especially visible because of its concentration in Minneapolis, where tension between rival Somali clans is rumored to have influenced the city’s recent mayoral election.2
The contrast between Somalis and native Minnesotans could hardly be greater. The human development index — a composite indicator of health, income, and education — routinely ranks Minnesota among the top states in the U.S., comparable to the Scandinavian countries from which a large share of Minnesotans derive their ancestry.3 Consequently, the arrival of impoverished Somalis has created large disparities. Based on 10 years of data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), the analysis below details those disparities.
...Welfare. The U.S. has an extensive welfare system targeted at low-income families. Somalis in Minnesota are therefore likely to be major consumers of means-tested anti-poverty benefits, which Figure 2 confirms. While just 6 percent of native households in Minnesota receive cash welfare — including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Supplement Security Income, and general assistance — 27 percent of Somali households do. The disparities are even greater for food and medical care, with over half of Somali households receiving food stamps and nearly three-quarters using Medicaid. Altogether, 81 percent of Somali households consume some form of welfare, compared to 21 percent of native households.5 Somalis with 10 years of residency have welfare consumption rates that are only marginally lower than the Somali population as a whole...
And their findings are concise.
More than half (52 percent) of children in Somali immigrant homes in Minnesota live in poverty, while only 8 percent of children in native-headed homes are in poverty.One in eight children in poverty in Minnesota lives in a Somali immigrant home.About 39 percent of working-age Somalis have no high school diploma, compared to just 5 percent of natives.
Among working-age adult Somalis who have lived in the U.S. for more than 10 years, half still cannot speak English “very well”.About 54 percent of Somali-headed households in Minnesota receive food stamps, and 73 percent of Somali households have at least one member on Medicaid. The comparable figures for native households are 7 percent and 18 percent.Nearly every Somali household with children (89 percent) receives some form of welfare.
Although Somalis have recently been implicated in welfare fraud, any population with poverty rates as high as theirs will qualify for extensive means-tested aid. The best way to reduce immigrant consumption of welfare is not simply to crack down on fraud, but to reduce the number of new arrivals who have low earning power.
Unsurprisingly, to CNN's Abby Phillip, it's not fair to pick on the immigrants unless you have figures for the number of poor in Appalachia and Alabama who are also on benefits.
FWIW: Even if true, those are poor Americans — do we really want to throw open our borders to more people and further stretch our limited welfare resources?
