Easy money, lost traditions - concern over increasing numbers of Chinese immigrants on welfare - Demystifying Multiculturalism - Cover Story

National Review, Feb 21, 1994 by Norman Matloff

CHINESE immigrants on welfare? The very idea seems wildly counter to the Model Minority image of the Chinese. Yet in spite of their conservative, self-reliant instincts--Rosemarie Fan, a social-service manager in Oakland's Chinatown, described them as "closet Republicans"--elderly Chinese immigrants are flocking to the welfare rolls in alarmingly high numbers. Census data show that 55 per cent of the elderly Chinese immigrants in California who had come to the U.S. between 1980 and 1987 were on welfare in 1990--a striking contrast to the figure of 9 per cent for native-born seniors.

Equally alarming, the welfare culture is contributing to the destruction of the fabled Chinese extended-family structure. This is a new twist on Daniel Patrick Moynihan's analysis 25 years ago of welfare's destructive effect on black families, with the added irony that in the Chinese case the new welfare recipients are from upscale families, not the underclass.

May Yue, director of a Chinese senior center in San Jose, noted that in many cases the welfare recipient's sons or daughters are well-paid engineers in Silicon Valley. After interviewing one senior who effusively praised the U.S. for its generosity, I learned that his son is a successful physician, a specialist in ob-gyn. In fact, the 1990 Census data indicate that 50 per cent of the recipients' children's households had incomes over $50,000, and 11 per cent were over $100,000--this in comparison to the median household income in California of $33,000.

In other words, they do not fit the picture of financial desperation which we normally associate with those on public assistance. And though they often live in small, simple apartments, many enjoy international vacations. Edna Law, program coordinator at another Chinese senior center in Silicon Valley, said the seniors will typically make a trip home to Asia once a year, especially if they have children there. Some seniors interviewed in Chinatown had even been to Europe. This is a far cry from welfare kids in South-Central Los Angeles who have never even seen the ocean, less than ten miles away.

Given their political conservatism and lack of financial need, why are these people on welfare? The automatic answer given by many social workers and immigrants was that the seniors, most of whom do not speak English, find life boring in the suburbs where their children tend to live. Thus, the parents move to Chinatown, and apply for welfare.

Yet the seniors offering this explanation conceded, for example, that most of them could live with their children and still take public transit into Chinatown for socializing, shopping, and so on. Moreover, the "boring suburbs" rationale completely fails for those who continue to live in Silicon Valley after moving out of their children's homes.

Instead, for some the motivation is simply the irresistible prospect of "free money." Among the Chinese, there is no stigma to being on welfare. On the contrary, it is viewed as a normal benefit of immigration, whose use is actually encouraged, like a library card. A Chinese senior told me a common viewpoint was mh hou sit dai---"don't miss this good opportunity." Edna Law characterized those from Taiwan as being particularly susceptible to this lure, saying that many of them know about U.S. welfare benefits before they immigrate, and that they "are very sophisticated [about welfare] .... They get all the benefits they can." One senior said that in order to satisfy the $2,000 eligibility limit on assets, many elderly Taiwanese "give their money to their children, put title in the children's names, etc., so that they can qualify."

However, the consensus was that it is more typically the children who are to blame. Immigration law requires the children, who typically immigrate first and then petition to bring their parents here, to support their parents only for their first three years in the U.S. (recent legislation changed this temporarily to five years) Most seniors come to the U.S. with the intention of living with their children permanently, but unfortunately, the children themselves have no such intention. Indeed, many seniors are traumatized by the process Miss Yue cited as typical a recent case in which a couple she was helping were shocked because "the son wanted them to move out. They couldn't accept that They felt really hurt." And in spite of the well-appreciated activities offered in the senior centers, loneliness is a common problem. I was touched when a client at one of the senior centers even tried to enlist my help in convincing her children to let her move back in with them

The children's actions are uncomfortably at odds with the efforts of Chinese advocacy groups, who have lobbied against congressional proposals to reduce the scope of familybased immigration, on the grounds that family ties are of special importance to the Chinese.

In an interesting contrast to the Chinese, taking welfare does carry a stigma in Hispanic communities, according to Virgil Kocher, a welfare official in San Francisco. This may partly explain why the 1990 welfare rate among senior Mexican immigrants was 21 per cent, compared to the 55 per cent among the Chinese. When told this, the Chinese social workers found it quite unsettling. They groped for a non-cultural explanation, tending to cite the extensive efforts made in educating Chinese immigrants about welfare benefits (a point Mr. Kocher had made as well).