GUEST ESSAY

The ongoing welfare reform debate in Washington, D.C., includes proposed changes in federal policies aimed at immigrants. Any such changes would have a profound effect on Illinois.

Why? With more than a million foreign-born residents, we are an immigrant state. In fact, Illinois is one of a handful of states — including California, Florida, New Jersey, New York and Texas — that together comprise 85 percent of the nation's immigrant population.

In late 1995, Congress twice presented President Bill Clinton with welfare reform legislation that would require states to decide whether to allow legal immigrants continued access to federal means-tested programs, including Medicaid, a program designed to provide health care for low-income persons. State governments would also have the option of barring legal immigrants from using such federally funded social services as homeless shelters or assistance to battered women. While Clinton vetoed the overall welfare reform packages, many observers expect the president to eventually reach agreement with Congress. The administration has not voiced serious opposition to the immigrant provisions of welfare reform.

These proposals would accelerate a trend: As the federal government has steadily reduced financial support to immigrant states, Illinois state government has assumed ever-increasing responsibility for our immigrant population. As an example, the federal government's reimbursements to Illinois for public assistance to refugees declined by 80 percent between 1986 and 1994. Resources for bilingual education also have been reduced — nationally, such payments have declined by about one-third in the last decade.

Who are the Illinois immigrants? There are rampant erroneous stereotypes of immigrants failing to contribute. In reality, a more typical case is the one of Benigno S. He was born in Guerrero, one of the poorest states in southern Mexico, where he began working at the age of 8. After harvesting fruit and vegetables in the American Southwest in the 1950s, he eventually made his way to Chicago. Today he is a 20-year unionized employee of a suburban manufacturing plant. While Benigno never went to school, his oldest daughter is now a paralegal, his son is in trade school and his youngest daughter — after serving in the U.S. Armed Forces — recently received a bachelor's degree from DePaul University. He owns a typical bungalow on the Northwest Side of Chicago.

Illinois immigrants come from throughout the world. According to the most recent census figures, the three top countries of origin for immigrants to this state in 1990 were Mexico (279,000), Poland (83,000) and the Philippines (48,000). Contrary to popular perceptions, most of the large immigrant groups in our state are European, including 41,000 Germans, 34,000 Italians and 22,000 persons from the United Kingdom.

Further, census statistics show that three-quarters of the immigrants in this state speak English well, and that their median household income ($31,000) is close to that of U.S. natives living in Illinois ($32,000). The Washington, D.C.-based Urban Institute estimates that, nationally, immigrants are net tax contributors — that is, they pay as much as $25 billion more in taxes than they use in governmental services.

While immigrants are being incorporated into our society at a respectable rate, a small minority do fall on hard times and require public assistance. About 5 percent of immigrant adults in Illinois receive Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Supplemental Security Income or Transitional Assistance, compared with 6 percent of the native-born population, according to the 1990 census.

Legal immigrants who receive public assistance would be hard hit by welfare reform proposals that deny them government services. More than 7,000 legal immigrants could lose AFDC coverage and 13,000 primarily elderly immigrants could lose SSI benefits. The loss of federal funds for these programs potentially represents a massive cost shift to Illinois state government, which would be expected to care for legal immigrants without federal assistance, even though the federal government has granted entry to these immigrants.

Where do they settle? Immigration in our state has historically been a "Chicago issue," with the majority of the foreign born residing in that city.

However, a 1995 study by the Latino Institute and Northern Illinois University in DeKalb showed that slightly

38 ¦ April 1996 Illinois Issues

more than half of Illinois' immigrants live outside the city. The Chicago suburbs have an immigrant population of 413,000, making immigration a regional phenomenon in Illinois.

Given the shift of state political power from Chicago to suburban areas, it's illustrative to note that immigrants make up large constituencies in suburban legislative districts. Five state senators with suburban constituencies have more than 24,000 immigrants in their districts, including state Senate President James "Pate" Philip, an Elmhurst Republican, and Republicans Walter Dudycz of Chicago, Thomas Walsh of Westchester, Marty Butler of Des Plaines, Kathleen Parker of Northfield and Dan Cronin of Elmhurst. More than 16,000 immigrants reside in the districts of key Senate committee chairpersons Steven Rauschenberger, who heads Appropriations, and Robert Raica, who heads Public Health and Welfare.

Forging "immigrant policy " in Illinois. Among the large immigrant states, Illinois has been a model for a successful system of immigration. Our state has witnessed little of the rancor directed at immigrants in such states as California. Our level of annual immigration is moderate — 47,000 in 1993, compared to 260,000 in California. Indeed, immigrants to Illinois replace a native-born population that has been leaving the state for other parts of the country.

In contrast to federal immigration policy, which is concerned primarily with determining who is able to enter the United States, Illinois should begin to develop immigrant policy to determine the extent of services we are willing to provide to our foreign-born residents.

What makes for good immigrant policy? What are its goals? What are the state's interests in relation to its immigrant population? Following are some broad considerations to guide the creation of Illinois immigrant policy:

• Legal immigrants play by the rules, pay taxes and otherwise contribute to our state. The state should avoid policies that single out legal immigrants and that prohibit them from gaining access to state programs.

• Immigrants are a critical component of the state's economy. As one example of this, immigrants make up one-quarter of the state's manufacturing labor force.

• Decisions affecting immigrants affect the native born. Many households contain a combination of native- and foreign-born persons. Denying an immigrant mother access to Medicaid, for example, can have detrimental effects on her U.S.-born children.

• There is no immigration "crisis" in Illinois. Unlike California, for example, which has received large-scale legal and undocumented immigration, Illinois has successfully incorporated immigrants without significant public tension or negative sentiment.

• Finally, decisions affecting immigrants affect the entire state. More than half of Illinois immigrants live in the Chicago suburbs and downstate. It is erroneous to label immigration a "Chicago issue."

Illinois policy-makers faced with developing immigrant policy must work within a short timetable. President Clinton may well sign a welfare-reform bill this year. Indeed, a bipartisan statement of the nation's governors in February 1996 urged passage of welfare reform.

In considering the effects of welfare reform's immigrant provisions, state government should create an intergovernmental committee to set broad policies and develop a body of information. A citizen's advisory board on Illinois newcomers should be established to help shape the committee's decisions. Careful analysis may well show that implementing special restrictions on legal immigrants may prove more costly than the savings incurred.

Illinois lawmakers and state officials may see setting policies for immigrants as one more task on an already heavy agenda. With a million immigrant residents, however, this task is one that won't go away.

Rob Paral is a senior research associate with the Latino Institute in Chicago.

Illinois Issues April 1996 ¦ 39