Public assistance receipt among immigrants and natives: how the unit of analysis affects research findings

The extent to which levels of welfare receipt for immigrants and natives are sensitive to the use of household-, family- or individual units of analysis or presentation was studied using data from the 1990 and 1991 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation. Results showed that nativity differences are statistically significant only at the level of larger units. It was also shown that if immigrants and natives had identical living arrangements, immigrants' household-level receipt of Supplemental Security Income would exceed natives' receipt even more than it actually does.