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The Diversity Council website is hosted by Charter Communications
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Myths & Facts About Migrant Workers & Immigration
Below are 10 statements about migrant workers and immigrants. Guess whether each is a myth or a fact.
Correct!FACT:Under 10% of migrant workers are undocumented immigrants. The vast majority are U.S. citizens from Texas. Report on Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers in MN, October 1995, University of MN Migrant Program. Back to Questionnaire
Sorry!FACT:Under 10% of migrant workers are undocumented immigrants. The vast majority are U.S. citizens from Texas. Report on Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers in MN, October 1995, University of MN Migrant Program. Back to Questionnaire Correct!FACT: "If that were the case, they'd stay for the whole year and the hell with the sugar beets."Armando Cuellar, Migrant Worker Counselor in Crookston, MN. Migrant workers have come to Minnesota to work since the early 1900's before the welfare system even existed. Back to Questionnaire Sorry!FACT: "If that were the case, they'd stay for the whole year and the hell with the sugar beets."Armando Cuellar, Migrant Worker Counselor in Crookston, MN. Migrant workers have come to Minnesota to work since the early 1900's before the welfare system even existed. Back to Questionnaire Correct!FACT: Minnesota's agricultural economy actually depends on the labor of migrant workers. Migrant workers pay taxes. Migrant workers stimulate local ecomonies by buying services and products (e.g. gas, housing, clothing, food, utilities, etc.). Back to Questionnaire Sorry!FACT: Minnesota's agricultural economy actually depends on the labor of migrant workers. Migrant workers pay taxes. Migrant workers stimulate local ecomonies by buying services and products (e.g. gas, housing, clothing, food, utilities, etc.). Back to Questionnaire Correct!FACT: Eighty to 90% of migrant workers in Minnesota are U.S. citizens. Reported on Migrant and Seasonal Farm workers in Minnesota, October 1995. University of Minnesota Migrant Program. Migrant workers do the labor that 90-97% of surveyed U.S. residents say they will not do. "The Ties That Bind". Maryknoll Products, 1996. Back to Questionnaire Sorry!FACT:Eighty to 90% of migrant workers in Minnesota are U.S. citizens. Reported on Migrant and Seasonal Farm workers in Minnesota, October 1995. University of Minnesota Migrant Program. Migrant workers do the labor that 90-97% of surveyed U.S. residents say they will not do. "The Ties That Bind". Maryknoll Products, 1996. Back to Questionnaire Correct!FACT:Migrant workers often work 12-13 hours/day, seven days a week during the harvest season. Migrants poverty is due to low wages, seasonal unemployment, constant job insecurity, and discrimination. Back to Questionnaire Sorry!FACT: Migrant workers often work 12-13 hours/day, seven days a week during the harvest season. Migrants poverty is due to low wages, seasonal unemployment, constant job insecurity, and discrimination.
Correct!FACT: Latino immigrants learn English at approximately the same rate as other immigrants. Latinos appear to have lower levels of English proficiency because such a large proportion of them are recent immigrants. Spanish is the primary language for 72% of first-generation Latinos, 7% of second-generation Latinos, and 0% of the third generation. (Pew Hispanic Center & Kaiser Family Foundation, 2002 National Survey of Latinos, December 2002.) Back to Questionnaire
Sorry!FACT: Latino immigrants learn English at approximately the same rate as other immigrants. Latinos appear to have lower levels of English proficiency because such a large proportion of them are recent immigrants. Spanish is the primary language for 72% of first-generation Latinos, 7% of second-generation Latinos, and 0% of the third generation. (Pew Hispanic Center & Kaiser Family Foundation, 2002 National Survey of Latinos, December 2002.)
Yes and No...FACT: In 2000, foreign born households accounted for 16% of the welfare caseload and 11% of the total population. Those using welfare at the highest rates include refugees, who often have limited English proficiency and little education, and recently arrived elderly immigrants, who have no work history in the U.S. and therefore do not qualify for Social Security. The gap closes significantly among non-asylee immigrants of working age, and some studies show that they are actually less likely to receive welfare than their native-born counterparts. (Fix, Michael & Jeffrey Passel, “Immigration & Immigrants: Setting the Record Straight,” The Urban Institute, May 1994. Tumlin, Karen & Wendy Zimmerman, “Immigrants and TANF: A Look at Immigrant Welfare Recipients in Three Cities,” The Urban Institute, October 2003.) Back to Questionnaire
Yes and No...FACT: In 2000, foreign born households accounted for 16% of the welfare caseload and 11% of the total population. Those using welfare at the highest rates include refugees, who often have limited English proficiency and little education, and recently arrived elderly immigrants, who have no work history in the U.S. and therefore do not qualify for Social Security. The gap closes significantly among non-asylee immigrants of working age, and some studies show that they are actually less likely to receive welfare than their native-born counterparts. (Fix, Michael & Jeffrey Passel, “Immigration & Immigrants: Setting the Record Straight,” The Urban Institute, May 1994. Tumlin, Karen & Wendy Zimmerman, “Immigrants and TANF: A Look at Immigrant Welfare Recipients in Three Cities,” The Urban Institute, October 2003.) Back to Questionnaire
Correct!FACT: Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for public assistance except for emergency medical care under Medicaid, and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) nutrition program benefits. In addition, most legal immigrants are barred from receiving public assistance for a period of five years. Welfare use also makes it more difficult to bring their relatives into the country, which also serves as an effective deterrent. (Tumlin, Karen & Wendy Zimmerman, “Immigrants and TANF: A Look at Immigrant Welfare Recipients in Three Cities,” The Urban Institute, October 2003.) Back to Questionnaire
Sorry!FACT: Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for public assistance except for emergency medical care under Medicaid, and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) nutrition program benefits. In addition, most legal immigrants are barred from receiving public assistance for a period of five years. Welfare use also makes it more difficult to bring their relatives into the country, which also serves as an effective deterrent. (Tumlin, Karen & Wendy Zimmerman, “Immigrants and TANF: A Look at Immigrant Welfare Recipients in Three Cities,” The Urban Institute, October 2003.)
Correct!FACT: Undocumented immigrants pay sales taxes, gasoline taxes, and property taxes. An increasing percentage also pay income taxes and Social Security taxes, using a Taxpayer Identification Number instead of a Social Security Number. Stephen Goss, chief actuary of Social Security, estimates that about three quarters of undocumented immigrants pay payroll taxes. As they are not eligible to collect Social Security benefits, the effect is a net gain for the Social Security system. (Cole, Yoji, "Debunking 10 Myths About Immigrants," Diversity Inc., September 2007) Back to Questionnaire
Sorry!FACT: Undocumented immigrants pay sales taxes, gasoline taxes, and property taxes. An increasing percentage also pay income taxes and Social Security taxes, using a Taxpayer Identification Number instead of a Social Security Number. Stephen Goss, chief actuary of Social Security, estimates that about three quarters of undocumented immigrants pay payroll taxes. As they are not eligible to collect Social Security benefits, the effect is a net gain for the Social Security system. (Cole, Yoji, "Debunking 10 Myths About Immigrants," Diversity Inc., September 2007) Back to Questionnaire
Correct!FACT: Native-born residents have always feared new immigrants. In 1891, a Congressman from Massachusetts warned that “immigration to this country is increasing and…is making its greatest relative increase from races most alien to the body of the American people and from the lowest and most illiterate classes among those races.” He complained that the Italians, “who come to the United States, reduce the rate of wages by ruinous competition, and then take their savings out of the country, are not desirable.” He also described Russians, Poles, and Hungarians as “people whom it is very difficult to assimilate and do not promise well for the standard of civilization in the United States.” (Ewing, Walter and Benjamin Johnson, “Immigrant Success or Stagnation?” Confronting the Claim of Latino Non-Advancement,” American Immigration Law Foundation, 2003.) Back to Questionnaire
Sorry!FACT: Native-born residents have always feared new immigrants. In 1891, a Congressman from Massachusetts warned that “immigration to this country is increasing and…is making its greatest relative increase from races most alien to the body of the American people and from the lowest and most illiterate classes among those races.” He complained that the Italians, “who come to the United States, reduce the rate of wages by ruinous competition, and then take their savings out of the country, are not desirable.” He also described Russians, Poles, and Hungarians as “people whom it is very difficult to assimilate and do not promise well for the standard of civilization in the United States.” (Ewing, Walter and Benjamin Johnson, “Immigrant Success or Stagnation?” Confronting the Claim of Latino Non-Advancement,” American Immigration Law Foundation, 2003.) Back to Questionnaire
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Remember,
remember always, that all of us... are descended from immigrants
and revolutionists.
Remember that when you say "I will have none of this exile
and this stranger for his face is not like my face and his speech
is strange," you have denied America with that word.
Everywhere immigrants have enriched and strengthened the fabric
of American life.
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