Essay about Immigrants Are Americans Too - 1405 Words

The 1996 welfare reform, also known as the Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), was enacted to increase the efficiency of the welfare system but its discriminatory nature has resulted in economic hardship, lack of funds to receive food, and poorer health among new immigrants to the United States. One of the main provisions of the PRWORA was that it repealed Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and replaced it with Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF).Before the enactment of TANF and the appeal of the AFDC, legal immigrants were eligible for the assistance under the same guidelines as citizens. This changed after the welfare reform; the PRWORA and TANF made it more difficult for†¦show more content†¦Consequently, this leads them to facing economic hardships during difficult times due to their limited income. Since Ronald Regan’s presidency, funding for welfare programs has been cut significantly due to the government’s and public’s desire to reduce dependency on the federal government. According to Sharon Parrott, former Director of the Welfare Reform and Income Support Division, and Arloc Sherman, Senior Researcher at the Center Budget and Policy Priorities, in their article â€Å"TANF’s Results are More Mixed than is Often Understood†, The Food Stamp Program experienced $28 dollars in cuts (3). Also, the block grant given to states through TANF has not been adjusted to today’s economy. Therefore, it has lost 22% of its value due to inflation (Parrot and Sherman 7). This means that the money immigrants do receive is worth less than before due to the declining economy. Combined with the typical lower earnings of immigrants, this has led to the prevalence of a condition known as food insecurity where one’s access to food is limited by econo mic circumstances. Although these cuts to the welfare program are a major factor, they are not the sole cause of food insecurity; the reduction of cash aid also plays a vital role (Van Hook and Balistreri 2). These cuts to benefits have resulted in holes in the social safety net the PRWORA tried to create because immigrants’ cash aid can beShow MoreRelatedEssay about When Are Immigrants Americans Too?580 Words   |  3 Pagescame! Is it for freedom or for the idea that America is The Land of Opportunity? In this paper, I am going to look at the reasons Immigrants come to America. I will also discuss both their views of themselves and how Americans view them. The question I pose to answer throughout this paper is When will Immigrants not be Immigrants anymore and become Americans? So why do people come to America from other countries? Hugo Ortega, arrived in Texas in 1982 from Mexico. 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