Study finds higher welfare benets do not attract poor

A recently released study may ease the minds of state legislators who worry that raising welfare benefits in Michigan will attract poor residents from other states.

William Frey, a research scientist at the University's Population Studies Center, recently published a study using 1990 census returns that finds high welfare benefits do not act as a magnet for the poor. The study, published in the September issue of Population and Environment, also found that poor Americans often leave states that are experiencing high immigration.

"The welfare-magnet effect is not really that important," Frey said. "I think that one result of this study is that one shouldn't be concerned about raising (a state's) welfare benefits in fear of bringing in poor immigrants."

Social connections are far more important in determining where poor people move, Frey said.

"For poor folks, clearly family, friends, and social support networks are very important."

Michigan welfare workers have reached similar conclusions through their own observations.

Margarete Gravina, spokesperson for the state of Michigan's Child and Family Services, said that, "in the past we've anecdotally asked clients returning to Michigan about why they came back." She said residents generally return because there is promise of a job, they were looking for work, or they had family and friends in the state.

Gravina said that while Michigan's welfare benefits are far higher than those in the southern states, few poor southern migrants come to Michigan. In Alabama, she said, a family of three gets benefits of $154 a month, whereas in Michigan a family of three in Wayne County receives $459 a month.

Sometimes people do move simply for benefits. Lena White, who pan-handles near Liberty Plaza on Liberty Street in Ann Arbor, said she has known many people on welfare. She said most of them haven't moved much between states, an observation that is consistent with the study. But many homeless people move from Detroit to Ann Arbor for the better shelter system, whether or not they know people in Ann Arbor, she said.

Frey also reported that domestic migrants are responding to the economic push of competition from new immigrants.

"Poor kids that are U.S.-born and that are domestic migrants are moving to different states than poor immigrants are coming into," Frey said.

Since the domestic poor are more at home in the American system, they "can more easily move to other parts of the country if things are going badly where they are," Frey said. But new immigrants are more tied to economic and social networks, tending to stay in a few major metropolitan areas, he said.

The finding that domestic migrants are moving to different places than foreign immigrants should affect the way states run their poverty programs, Frey said.

Varying demographics in different states should prompt state governments to adopt welfare programs that reflect the makeup of the population, he said. States should take into consideration factors such as single-parent households, English proficiency and cultural barriers.

Michigan, for instance, which receives many domestic migrants but few foreign immigrants, ought to have a "more economic focus" where high-immigration states like California ought to be more focused on issues like assimilation and bilingual education, Frey said.

Gravina said Michigan's welfare programs are in line with this theory. "In practice our focus is to get people into jobs as quickly as possible," she said. "And we also offer a lot of employment support resources."

10-02-97