In recent years there has been a flurry of legislative activity to exclude immigrants from access to\u00a0social-welfare assistance at the state and national level. These efforts are controversial, with\u00a0opponents denouncing them as \u201cunprecedented,\u201d while supporters claim that today\u2019s newcomers\u00a0are less self-sufficient than earlier generations of immigrants. \u201cOur ancestors,\u201d declared one\u00a0Republican official, did not come \u201cwith their hands out for welfare checks.\u201d Most Americans\u00a0agree that European immigrants \u201cworked their way up without special favors,\u201d and are inclined\u00a0to think that everyone today should do the same.<\/p>\n
What is the truth about access to U.S. public assistance by different groups? To sort out the\u00a0myths and realities, I closely tracked the experiences of white European immigrants, blacks, and\u00a0Mexicans in the first half of the 20th century. My findings will surprise many on all sides.<\/p>\n
Before the New Deal, local communities were responsible for their needy residents. But access\u00a0to relief varied greatly for impoverished whites, blacks, and Mexicans.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Southern and southwestern cities with many blacks and Mexicans spent the least on poor\u00a0relief, while northern cities with many European immigrants spent the most. Differences\u00a0in relief generosity hold even after taking into account city size, local fiscal conditions,\u00a0and degrees of need.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Within particular cities, blacks were typically excluded from relief, relegated to\u00a0segregated and underfunded private charities. European immigrants got more public help,\u00a0and officials believed this assistance could help them become good Americans.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Mexicans did not get the public help for needy widows reserved for Europeans, but they\u00a0got more assistance than blacks. Unlike planters in the South, growers in the Southwest\u00a0encouraged migrant workers to use relief between harvests to keep a labor pool on hand.<\/p>\n
[pullshow\u00a0id=”ex1″]\u00a0Relief for Mexicans led to resentment \u2013 and as hostility grew, many were expelled simply for\u00a0requesting assistance. Cities in the Southwest cooperated with immigration agents to deport\u00a0needy individuals. During the 1920s, officials in Los Angeles allowed federal agents to\u00a0investigate all relief applicants; and encouraged raids during the Depression. Across the country,\u00a0officials used their own funds to hire trains to repatriate as many as forty thousand Mexicans and\u00a0Mexican-Americans who requested assistance. Hundreds of thousands were removed, including\u00a0those who left on their own due to the hostility they experienced.[pullthis\u00a0id=”ex1″\u00a0display=”outside”]Relief for Mexicans led to resentment \u2013 and as hostility grew, many were expelled simply for\u00a0requesting assistance. [\/pullthis]<\/p>\n
In contrast, welfare officials in the Northeast and Midwest were wary of immigration agents and\u00a0did not target Europeans newcomers for repatriation. Unlike in Los Angeles, officials in Chicago\u00a0worried that admitting immigration agents to welfare offices would cause European newcomers to grow \u201csuspicious and frightened\u201d and would not \u201caccomplish enough\u2026to compensate for the\u00a0harassment it would cause.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, launching the modern U.S.\u00a0welfare state. But agricultural and domestic workers were initially excluded, leaving out more\u00a0than half of all blacks and Mexicans. At first, European immigrants were more likely than even\u00a0native-born whites to work in occupations covered by Social Security. Because immigration was\u00a0restricted after 1924, almost half of the European-born were in their later working years when the\u00a0first Social Security checks were issued in 1940. By law 65-year-olds needed only a few quarters\u00a0on the job to be eligible so many European immigrants contributed little but collected almost as\u00a0much as younger people who paid taxes their whole working lives.<\/p>\n
European immigrants also benefitted because there were no federal citizenship or\u00a0legal-residence restrictions for most New Deal programs. Then as now, surveys say that most
\nAmericans oppose relief for aliens. But New Deal reformers ignored public opinion and fought\u00a0for assistance for aliens. Federal officials at the time reassured wary newcomers that immigration\u00a0officials would not have access to Social Security files; officials did not even ask applicants\u00a0whether they were citizens or aliens, or inquire how they had entered the country.<\/p>\n
Not until the 1970s, long after most white European immigrants became U.S. citizens, did the\u00a0federal government start mandating legal residency or citizenship to receive Social Security,\u00a0Medicaid, Food Stamps, assistance to poor families with children, and other welfare benefits.\u00a0Few immigrants, past or present, have come to America with their \u201chands out for welfare\u00a0checks.\u201d But our nation\u2019s laws and practices have changed to make it much harder for needy\u00a0newcomers to get public help. The change has been sharp for many kinds of immigrants,\u00a0although not for Mexican Americans. They have always been treated harshly<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
—–<\/p>\n
Read more in Cybelle Fox, Three Worlds of Relief: Race, Immigration, and the American Welfare State from\u00a0the Progressive Era to the New Deal<\/a> (Princeton University Press, 2012).<\/em><\/p>\n