Refugees Cost More Than They Pay

More Misinformation from the Media:

Refugees have been at the center of a political maelstrom, accused of everything from terrorism to being a drain on taxpayers – prompting President Trump, in one of his first official acts, to suspend the country’s four-decade old refugee resettlement program. But a new study shows that refugees end up paying more in taxes than they receive in welfare benefits after just eight years of living in this country. – These Researchers Just Debunked an All-Too-Common Belief About Refugees, The Washington Post, Tracy Jan, 6/13/17. [Link]

Fact Check: President Trump did not suspend the refugee resettlement program. He simply proposed to lower the annual total number of refugees accepted per year, and to delay the arrival of refugees from countries linked to terrorism until they can be properly vetted.

The study mentioned was a “working paper” by Notre Dame economists William Evans and Daniel Fitzgerald. They maintain that over a period of 20 years refugees pay more $21,000 more in taxes to all levels of government than they receive in public benefits.

Jason Richwine, an analyst writing for the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), has written a paper rebutting this conclusion. He outlines four significant flaws in the economists’ study.

The first is that they only consider six social programs to determine refugees’ usage of public benefits, cash welfare, SSI, Social Security, food stamps, Medicare, and Medicaid. Richwine notes that they omit a number of public costs such as housing, infrastructure, education, and law enforcement.

Secord, the researchers use the American Community Survey (ACS) to determine the costs of the social programs it considers. But the ACS seriously undercounts the usage of those programs. For example, Administrative data show that 22 million households were using food stamps in 2012, compared with less than 16 million reported by the ACS.

Third, the researchers do not include most of the public benefits for the children of refugees. “When refugees cannot afford to provide food, housing, or medical care for their children,” he notes, “taxpayers foot the bill.”

Fourth, the study only covered refugees between the ages of 18 to 65. But it is after age 65 when refugees (as well as everyone else) begin to draw on the expensive retirement programs of Medicare and Social Security.

Richwine notes that it is taxpayers in the higher income brackets who typically pay more in taxes than they use in tax-paid services. Most refugees are lower-income people. Consequently, he maintains, it is “simply implausible” that refugees give more than they take.

 

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