Fifty-seven percent of Mexican immigrants on welfare

A report by the Center for Immigration Studies (www.cis.org) reveals some startling figures about welfare use by families headed by immigrants.

“In 2010, 36 percent of immigrant-headed households used at least one major welfare program (primarily food assistance and Medicaid) compared to 23 percent of native households,” summarizes the document which was published by the Center for Immigration Studies and examines a wide variety of topics relating to immigration. Click HERE to read the full report.

The document breaks down the immigrant families by country of origin and gives specific types of welfare and percentages of the families that used it in 2010. An average fewer than 23 percent of native households use some type of “welfare” which is specifically defined in the study. 36 percent of households headed by immigrants use some type of welfare. Families headed by immigrants from specific countries or areas of the world range from just over 6 percent for those immigrants from Great Britain to more than 57 percent of those from Mexico using some type of welfare.

This comprehensive study suggests there are approximately 40 million immigrants in the United States of which more than a 25 percent of that number, and the largest overall group, originate from Mexico. The study estimates that approximately 28 percent of immigrants, or just over 11 million, are within the United States illegally. The study also suggests that nearly 50 percent of those immigrants originating from Mexico and Central America are here illegally.

This report is very comprehensive and examines various statistics of immigrants currently residing in the United States. Overall, state and federal aid use by immigrant families is much higher than that used by families headed by citizens of the United States.

The large population of immigrants, both legal and illegal in Eastern Washington and even Spokane affects the states budget dramatically.

The approaching fiscal cliff is forcing congress and the current administration to contemplate cuts to services. Welfare use by immigrants, both illegally and legally within the United States, should be thoroughly examined and considered while making cuts.

SOURCE






Immigration rate into Britain sees biggest fall in 20 years following clampdown on language colleges

Immigration into Britain saw the biggest fall in 20 years last year, official figures showed today.  There were 536,000 people who came from abroad to live in this country, down by 42,000 in a year.

The drop was the biggest recorded since immigration went down by 61,000 during the recession of 1991 and the numbers coming in were the lowest since 2004, the year that marked the beginning of the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Polish and Eastern European workers.

Ministers hailed the figures as a major step towards achieving the Government’s aim of reducing immigration to the levels of the 1990s.

The key net migration figure - the number of people added to the population after both immigration and emigration have been counted - dropped by nearly a quarter from 242,000 to 183,000 in the latest count, which covers the 12 months up to the end of March.

The main reason for the fall was a dramatic reduction in numbers of migrants arriving on student visas. Students coming in to join courses at further education colleges went down by 67 per cent, those going to English language schools by 76 per cent.

However students going into the high end of the education system, the universities, went up by one per cent.

David Cameron has promised to reduce net immigration to below 100,000 and yesterday’s figures mean he is close to half way towards achieving the goal.

The drop is a relief to Home Secretary Theresa May who has needed evidence to demonstrate to Tory voters that she is meeting success in reducing immigration.

It may help ease pressure on ministers at a time when the effects of rapid increases in population mainly thanks to immigration have been stoking demand for services like water, power, transport and education.

This week Planning Minister Nick Boles called for an increase of a third in the amount of green land being used for development in order to provide enough housing.

Student numbers have come down following new limits on study visas for people living outside the European Union and a crackdown on bogus colleges used as routes to cheat the immigration system.

New methods, such as interviews in which the English language skills of prospective students can be checked, began to be introduced last year.

Numbers of student visas issued were 26 per cent down on the previous year.

There have also been tighter controls on the issue of work visas for low-skilled workers from outside the EU.

Immigration Minister Mark Harper said: ‘This is a significant fall in net migration and the total number of visas issued is at its lowest since 2005. This shows we are bringing immigration back under control. Our tough policies are taking effect and this marks a significant step towards bringing net migration down from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands by the end of this Parliament.

‘At the same time, we continue to attract the brightest and best: these figures show that there has been a small increase in the number of sponsored student visa applications for the university sector - and a further increase in student visit visas. It’s clear that international students continue to come to the UK’s world renowned universities.’

Tory Party chairman Grant Shapps said: ‘Conservatives in Government are committed to getting immigration under control. This big fall in net migration show that the tough steps we have taken to reduce the uncontrolled immigration that Labour presided over are working.

‘It beggars belief that Labour still oppose every single one of these steps, including our cap on immigration.’

The results won approval from Migrationwatch, the think tank which has led criticism of high immigration.

Its chairman Sir Andrew Green said: ‘At last we can see some light at the end of the tunnel. We can now see the first effects of the Government’s measures to reduce immigration. There is a distance to go but they are on the right track.’

But Sarah Mulley of the left-leaning think tank, the Institute of Public Policy Research, said: ‘This fall in net migration has been driven by a significant fall in the number of foreign students coming to the UK.

Steps to reduce abuse of the student visa system are welcome, but if the Government’s net migration target is to be met, they also need there to be a dramatic fall in the numbers of genuine foreign students.

The 24 per cent fall in net migration for the 12 months to April followed a recorded fall in the calendar year 2011.

But the 2011 net migration drop, from 252,000 from 210,000, was dismissed by the Office for National Statistics as ‘not statistically significant’ because of the vagaries of the survey used to gather the figures.

This time, Paul Vickers of the ONS said: ‘We think this is a real change.’ Emigration from Britain helped drive down the net migration total.

Some 353,000 people left to live abroad in the year to the end of March, compared with 336,000 in the previous year. The increase was mainly driven by more people taking jobs abroad.

Study was the main reason for immigration, but there was an eight per cent drop in the number of people coming here for formal study, with 213,000 students arriving this year compared to a peak of 232,000 in the year to March 2011.

Home Office figures released yesterday showed that in the 12 months up to the end of September student visas issued went down by 26 per cent, from 284,649, to 210,921.

SOURCE