Comprehensive, authoritative reference with chapters on 23 major federal programs, and tables outlining who is eligible for which state replacement programs. Overview chapter and tables explain changes to immigrant eligibility enacted by 1996 welfare and immigration laws. Text describes immigration statuses, gives pictures of typical immigration documents, with keys to understanding the INS codes. Glossary defines over 250 immigration and public benefit terms.

"Contains basic information to help immigrants settle in the United States. Provides a general summary of rights, responsibilities, and procedures related to permanent residents. Summarizes important information about legal status and agencies and organizations that provide documents or essential services."--

The lore of the immigrant who comes to the United States to take advantage of our welfare system has a long history in America's collective mythology, but it has little basis in fact. The so-called problem of immigrants on the dole was nonetheless a major concern of the 1996 welfare reform law, the impact of which is still playing out today. While legal immigrants continue to pay taxes and are eligible for the draft, welfare reform has severely limited their access to government supports in times of crisis. Edited by Michael Fix, Immigrants and Welfare rigorously assesses the welfare reform law, questions whether its immigrant provisions were ever really necessary, and examines its impact on legal immigrants' ability to integrate into American society. Immigrants and Welfare draws on fields from demography and law to developmental psychology. The first part of the volume probes the politics behind the welfare reform law, its legal underpinnings, and what it may mean for integration policy. Contributor Ron Haskins makes a case for welfare reform's ultimate success but cautions that excluding noncitizen children (future workers) from benefits today will inevitably have serious repercussions for the American economy down the road. Michael Wishnie describes the implications of the law for equal protection of immigrants under the U.S. Constitution. The second part of the book focuses on empirical research regarding immigrants' propensity to use benefits before the law passed, and immigrants' use and hardship levels afterwards. Jennifer Van Hook and Frank Bean analyze immigrants' benefit use before the law was passed in order to address the contested sociological theories that immigrants are inclined to welfare use and that it slows their assimilation. Randy Capps, Michael Fix, and Everett Henderson track trends before and after welfare reform in legal immigrants' use of the major federal benefit programs affected by the law. Leighton Ku looks specifically at trends in food stamps and Medicaid use among noncitizen children and adults and documents the declining health insurance coverage of noncitizen parents and children. Finally, Ariel Kalil and Danielle Crosby use longitudinal data from Chicago to examine the health of children in immigrant families that left welfare. Even though few states took the federal government's invitation with the 1996 welfare reform law to completely freeze legal immigrants out of the social safety net, many of the law's most far-reaching provisions remain in place and have significant implications for immigrants. Immigrants and Welfare takes a balanced look at the politics and history of immigrant access to safety-net supports and the ongoing impacts of welfare. Copublished with the Migration Policy Institute

This handbook contains five research papers and extensive reference materials on general immigration, immigrant policy, and related federal and state programs. "Immigration and Immigrant Policy" (Jonathan C. Dunlap) presents an historical overview of U.S. immigration, 1820s-1980s; defines various immigrant statuses and eligibility of each for federal programs; and describes the roles and responsibilities of federal, state and local governments, and the courts. "Health Care Issues for New Americans (Jonathan C. Dunlap, Fay Hutchinson) discusses immigrants' access to health care, public health issues related to immigration, mental health of refugees, and language and culture issues in service delivery. "Employment and Training Programs for Immigrants and Refugees" (Ann Morse) describes the Job Training Partnership Act and other federally funded training programs for disadvantaged adults and youth, training programs targeted at specific immigrant populations, licensing of foreign-born professionals, and unmet needs for English classes and other educational services. "Community Relations and Ethnic Diversity" (Ann Morse, Jonathan Dunlap) discusses public opinion about immigration, cultural diversity, and assimilation; language issues; community coalitions; incentives for citizenship; multilingual outreach programs; and mass media effects. "Federal Retrenchment, State Burden: Delivering Targeted Assistance to Immigrants" (Wendy Zimmerman) examines concentrations of immigrants and refugees in certain states; state costs; reductions in public assistance, language and job training, and health and social services; and implications for policy reform. Appendices contain a chronology of federal immigration legislation and a directory of immigrant policy contacts by state. This handbook contains 70 selected references, additional references in each chapter, and an index. (SV)

"The United States Code is the official codification of the general and permanent laws of the United States of America. The Code was first published in 1926, and a new edition of the code has been published every six years since 1934. The 2012 edition of the Code incorporates laws enacted through the One Hundred Twelfth Congress, Second Session, the last of which was signed by the President on January 15, 2013. It does not include laws of the One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, First Session, enacted between January 2, 2013, the date it convened, and January 15, 2013. By statutory authority this edition may be cited "U.S.C. 2012 ed." As adopted in 1926, the Code established prima facie the general and permanent laws of the United States. The underlying statutes reprinted in the Code remained in effect and controlled over the Code in case of any discrepancy. In 1947, Congress began enacting individual titles of the Code into positive law. When a title is enacted into positive law, the underlying statutes are repealed and the title then becomes legal evidence of the law. Currently, 26 of the 51 titles in the Code have been so enacted. These are identified in the table of titles near the beginning of each volume. The Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives continues to prepare legislation pursuant to 2 U.S.C. 285b to enact the remainder of the Code, on a title-by-title basis, into positive law. The 2012 edition of the Code was prepared and published under the supervision of Ralph V. Seep, Law Revision Counsel. Grateful acknowledgment is made of the contributions by all who helped in this work, particularly the staffs of the Office of the Law Revision Counsel and the Government Printing Office"--Preface.