Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T07:11:36.729Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Immigrant Social Policy in the American States: Race Politics and State TANF and Medicaid Eligibility Rules for Legal Permanent Residents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Alexandra Filindra
Alexandra Filindra*
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Chicago, USA
*
Alexandra Filindra, Department of Political Science (M/C 276), 1007 West Harrison Street, Chicago, IL 60607-7137 Email: aleka@uic.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines differences in the drivers of state Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Medicaid immigrant eligibility policies, determined in the wake of the 1996 Welfare Reform. The findings show that differences in the incentive structures of the two programs may affect the way race politics influence each. Specifically, race is a strong negative correlate for TANF inclusion of immigrants as states with large African American populations were more likely to exclude legal permanent residents from the program. In the case of Medicaid, the size of the immigrant population is a strong positive correlate for inclusion. The effect of the size of the black population, although negative, is small and not significant. The study confirms extant research findings that ideological factors play an important role in the formation of both policies.

Keywords

federalismimmigrationwelfareTANFMedicaid
Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , March 2013 , pp. 26 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. 2009. National Health Disparities Report. http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/qrdr09.htm (Accessed October 10, 2010).Google Scholar
Alpert, Leo M. 1939. “The Alien and the Public Charge Clauses.” The Yale Law Journal 49(1): 18–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Kim R., and Gifford, David A.. 1978. “Consular Discretion in the Immigrant Visa-Issuing Process.” San Diego Law Review 16:87–114.Google Scholar
Bell, Winifred. 1965. Aid to Families with Dependent Children. New York: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Berg, Justin Allen. 2009. “White Public Opinion toward Undocumented Immigrants: Threat and Interpersonal Environment.” Sociological Perspectives 52(1): 39–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blalock, Hubert M. 1967. Toward a Theory of Minority-Group Relations. New York: Wiley Publishers.Google Scholar
Blumer, Herbert. 1958. “Race Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position.” Pacific Sociological Review 1(1): 3–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence, and Massagli, Michael. 2001. “Stereotyping and Urban Inequality.” In Urban Inequality, eds. O'Connor, A., Tilly, C., and Bobo, L.. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 89–162.Google Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence, and Hutchings, Vincent. 1996. “Perceptions of Racial Group Competition: Extending Blumer's Theory of Group Position to a Multiracial Social Context.” American Sociological Review 61(6): 951–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borjas, George. 1999. “Immigration and Welfare Magnets.” Journal of Labor Economics 17(4): 607–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brader, Ted, Valentino, Nicholas A., and Suhay, Elizabeth. 2008. “What Triggers Public Opposition to Immigration? Anxiety, Group Cues, and Immigration Threat.” American Journal of Political Science 52(4): 959–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Michael. 1999. Race, Money and the American Welfare State. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, Andrea Louise, Wong, Cara, and Citrin, Jack. 2006. “‘Racial Threat’, Partisan Climate, and Direct Democracy: Contextual Effects in Three California Initiatives.” Political Behavior 28(2): 129–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Capps, Randy, Rosenblum, Marc R., and Fix, Michael. 2009. “Immigrants and Health Care Reform: What's Really at Stake?” New York: Migration Policy Institute. http://www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/healthcare-Oct09.pdf (accessed December 26, 2010).Google Scholar
Chin, Gabriel. 1998. “Segregation's Last Stronghold: Racial Discrimination and the Constitutional Law of Immigration.” UCLA Law Review 46(1): 1–74.Google Scholar
Committee on the Future of Emergency Care in the U.S. Health System. 2007. Hospital-Based Emergency Care: At a Breaking Point. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.Google Scholar
Congressional Budget Office. 1995. Immigration and Welfare Reform. Washington, DC: Congressional Budget Office.Google Scholar
Currie, Janet. 1998. “Do Children of Immigrants Make Differential Use of Public Health Insurance?” In Issues in the Economics of Immigration, ed. Borjas, G.. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 271–308.Google Scholar
Daniels, Roger. 2004. Guarding the Golden Door: American Immigration Policy and Immigrants since 1882. New York: Hill and Wang.Google Scholar
Dixon, Jeffrey, and Rosenbaum, Michael. 2004. “Nice to Know You? Contact, Cultural and Group Threat Theories of Anti-Black and Anti-Hispanic Stereotypes.” Social Science Quarterly 85(3): 257–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erikson, Robert S., Wright, Gerald C. and McIver, John P.. 1993. Statehouse Democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fellowes, Matthew C., and Rowe, Gretchen. 2004. “Politics and the New American Welfare States.” American Journal of Political Science 48(2): 362–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fennelly, Katherine. 2006. “Listening to the Experts: Provider Recommendations on the Health Needs of Immigrants and Refugees.” Journal of Cultural Diversity 13(4): 190–201.Google ScholarPubMed
Fix, Michael, and Tumlin, Karen. 1996. Welfare Reform and the Devolution of Immigration Policy. Washington, DC: Urban Institute.Google Scholar
Fording, Richard C. 2003. “‘Laboratories of Democracy’ or Symbolic Politics? The Racial Origins of Welfare Reform.” In Race and the Politics of Welfare Reform, eds. Soss, J., Schram, S., and Fording, R. C.. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 72–100.Google Scholar
Fox, Cybelle. 2004. “The Changing Color of Welfare? How Whites' Attitudes toward Latinos Influence Support for Welfare.” American Journal of Sociology 110(3): 580–625.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox-Piven, Frances, and Cloward, Richard. 1971. Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Fraga, Luis Ricardo, Garcia, John A., Hero, Rodney E., Jones-Correa, Michael, Martinez-Ebers, Valerie, and Segura, Gary M.. 2010. Latino Lives in America: Making it Home. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Gay, Claudine. 2006. “Seeing Difference: The Effect of Economic Disparity on Black Attitudes toward Latinos.” American Journal of Political Science 50(4): 982–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilens, Martin. 1999. Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media and the Politics of Antipoverty Policy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glaser, James M. 1994. “Back to the Black Belt: Racial Environment and White Racial Attitudes in the South.” Journal of Politics 56:21–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gooden, Susan T. 1999. “All Things Not Being Equal: Difference in Caseworker Support toward Black and White Welfare Clients.” Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy 4:23–33.Google Scholar
Graefe, Deborah R., De Jong, Gordon F., Hall, Matthew, Sturgeon, Samuel, and VanEerden, Julie. 2008. “Immigrants' TANF Eligibility, 1996–2003: What Explains the New Across State Inequalities?” International Migration Review 42(1): 89–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hagan, Jacqueline, Rodriguez, Nestor, Capps, Randy, and Kabiri, Nika. 2003. “The Effects of Recent Welfare and Immigration Reforms on Immigrants' Access to Health Care.” International Migration Review 37(2): 444–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haney-Lopez, Ian. 2006. White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Hero, Rodney E. 1998. Faces of Inequality: Social Diversity in American Politics. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hero, Rodney E., and Tolbert, Caroline J.. 1996. “A Racial/Ethnic Diversity Interpretation of Politics and Policy in the States of the U.S.” American Journal of Political Science 40(3): 851–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hero, Rodney E., and Preuhs, Robert. 2007. “Immigration and the Evolving American Welfare State: Examining Policies in the U.S. States.” American Journal of Political Science 51(3): 498–517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopkins, Daniel J. 2010. “Politicized Places: Explaining Where and When Immigrants Provoke Local Opposition.” American Political Science Review 104(1): 40–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howard, Christopher. 1999. “The American Welfare State, or States?” Political Research Quarterly 52(2): 421–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Immigration Policy Center. 2011. Alabama's Dangerous New Anti-Immigrant Law. Washington, DC: IPC.Google Scholar
Irvin Painter, Nell. 2010. The History of White People. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Johnson, Kevin R. 1998. “Race, the Immigration Laws and Domestic Race Relations: A ‘Magic Mirror’ into the Heart of Darkness.” Indiana Law Journal 73:1111–59.Google Scholar
Johnson, Martin. 2001. “The Impact of Social Diversity and Racial Attitudes on Social Welfare Policy.” State Politics & Policy Quarterly 1(1): 27–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Martin. 2003. “Racial Context, Public Attitudes and Welfare Effort in the American States.” In Race and the Politics of Welfare Reform, eds. Soss, J., Schram, S., and Fording, R. C.. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 151–170.Google Scholar
Kandula, Namartha R., Grogan, Colleen M., Rathouz, Paul J., and Lauterdale, Diane. 2004. “The Unintended Impact of Welfare Reform on the Medicaid Enrollment of Eligible Immigrants.” Health Services Research 39(5): 1509–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Katz, Michael B. 1986. In the Shadow of the Poorhouse: A Social History of Welfare in America. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Katz, Michael B. 1989. The Undeserving Poor: From the War on Poverty to the War on Welfare. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Katz-Olson, Laura. 2010. The Politics of Medicaid. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keiser, Lael R., Mueser, Peter R., and Choi, Seung-Whan. 2004. “Race, Bureaucratic Discretion, and the Implementation of Welfare Reform.” American Journal of Political Science 48(2): 314–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Key, V. O. 1949. Southern Politics in State and Nation. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
King, Desmond. 2002. Making Americans: Immigration, Race and the Origins of the Diverse Democracy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Ku, Leighton, and Kessler, Bethany. 1997. Number and Cost of Immigrants on Medicaid: The National and State Estimates. Washington, DC: Urban Institute.Google Scholar
Mettler, Suzanne. 2000. “States' Rights, Women's Obligations: Contemporary Welfare Reform in Historical Perspective.” Women and Politics 21(1): 1–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ngai, Mae M. 2004. Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of America. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Provine, D. Marie, and Chavez, Jorge M.. 2009. “Race and the Response of State Legislatures to Unauthorized Immigrants.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 623(1): 78–92.Google Scholar
Quadagno, Jill. 1994. The Color of Welfare: How Racism Undermined the War on Poverty. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schildkraut, Deborah J. 2001. “Official-English and the States: Influences on Declaring English the Official Language in the United States.” Political Research Quarterly 54(2): 445–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, Saundra K. 1998. “The Impact of Welfare Reform on Medicaid.” Publius 28(3): 161–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simon, Jonathan. 2007. Governing through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Simon, Rita J., and Alexander, Susan S.. 1993. The Ambivalent Welcome: Print Media, Public Opinion and Immigration. Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Sommers, Benjamin. 2010. “Targeting in Medicaid: The Costs and Enrollment Effects of Medicaid's Citizenship Documentation Requirement.” Journal of Public Economics 94(1–2): 174–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soss, Joe, Fording, Richard C., and Schram, Sanford F.. 2008. “The Color of Devolution: Race, Federalism, and the Politics of Social Control.” American Journal of Political Science 52(3): 536–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soss, Joe, Schram, Sanford F., and Fording, Richard C.. 2003. Race and the Politics of Welfare Reform. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Soss, Joe, Schram, Sanford F., Vartanian, Thomas P., and O'Brien, Erin. 2001. “Setting the Terms of Relief: Explaining State Policy Choices in the Devolution Revolution.” American Journal of Political Science 45(2): 378–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevens, Robert, and Stevens, Rosemary. 2004. Welfare Medicine in America: A Case Study of Medicaid. New York: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
Taylor, Marylee C. 1998. “How White Attitudes Vary with the Racial Composition of Local Populations: Numbers Count.” American Sociological Review 63(4): 512–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomasson, Melissa A. 2006. “Racial Differences in Health Insurance Coverage and Health Expenditures in the United States: A Historical Perspective.” Social Science History 30(4): 529–50.Google Scholar
Tichenor, Daniel. 2002. Dividing Lines: The Politics of Immigration Control in America. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tienda, Marta, and Jensen, Leif. 1986. “Immigration and Public Assistance Participation: Dispelling the Myth of Dependency.” Social Science Research 15:372–400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tolbert, Caroline J., and Hero, Rodney E.. 1996. “Race/Ethnicity and Direct Democracy: An Analysis of California's Illegal Immigration Initiative.” Journal of Politics 58(3): 806–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tolbert, Caroline J., and Hero, Rodney E.. 2001. “Dealing with Diversity: Racial/Ethnic Context and Social Policy Change.” Political Research Quarterly 54(3): 571–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2000. Fact Sheet: The Childhood Immunization Initiative. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.Google Scholar
Vaca, Nicolas C. 2003. The Presumed Alliance: The Unspoken Conflict between Latinos and Blacks and What it Means for America. New York: Rayo.Google Scholar
Vilardich, Anahi. “From Entitlement to Undeservedness: The Legacy of Welfare Reform.” Paper presented at the Conference on Undocumented Hispanic Migration, Connecticut College, October 16–18, 2009.Google Scholar
Weir, Margaret. 1997. The Uncertain Future of Welfare Reform in the Cities. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Wright, Gerald C. 1976. “Racism and Welfare Policy in America.” Social Science Quarterly 57:718–30.Google Scholar
Yoo, Grace. 2008. “Immigrants and Welfare: Policy Constructions and Deservingness.” Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies 6(4): 490–507.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zimmerman, Wendy, Tumlin, Karen C., and Ost, J.. 1999. Patchwork Policies: State Assistance for Immigrants under Welfare Reform. Washington, DC: Urban Institute.Google Scholar
Zylan, Yvonne, and Soule, Sarah A.. 2000. “Ending Welfare as We Know It (Again): Welfare State Retrenchment, 1989–1995.” Social Forces 79(2): 623–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar