Minnesota: Most Somali Household on Welfare

More than 8-in-10 households headed by Somali refugees in the state of Minnesota are on one or more forms of American taxpayer-funded welfare, new data published by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) reveals.

The data, based on 10 years of data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), shows drastic disparities between native-born American households and Somali-born households in Minnesota, where nearly 80,000 residents have Somali ancestry compared to zero who had Somali ancestry in 1990.

In particular, the data shows that 81 percent of Minnesota households headed by Somali refugees are on one or more forms of welfare, including 27 percent who are on cash welfare, 54 percent who are on food stamps, and 73 percent who are on Medicaid.

Compare this massive welfare use to native-born Americans residing in Minnesota, only 21 percent of whom are on one or more forms of welfare, including just 6 percent who are on cash welfare, 7 percent who are on food stamps, and 18 percent who are on Medicaid.

Welfare use goes even higher for Somali households where children are in the home, the ACS data finds.

For example, 89 percent of Somali-headed households with children in Minnesota are on one or more forms of welfare, as 86 percent are on Medicaid. About 62 percent of Somali households with children in the state are on food stamps, while 23 percent take cash welfare.

“Nearly every Somali household with children … receives some form of welfare,” CIS researcher Jason Richwine writes.

Again, the gap between Somali households with children on welfare and native-born American households with children on welfare in Minnesota is wide.

Only about 3-in-10 native Minnesotan households with children take one or more forms of welfare, including only 6 percent on cash welfare, 10 percent on food stamps, and 28 percent on Medicaid.

Disparities between native-born Americans and Somali refugees in Minnesota go deeper than welfare use, the data shows. Somali refugees who are in or near poverty in Minnesota surpass 66 percent, while fewer than 2-in-10 native-born Minnesotans live in or near poverty.

Similarly, while just 0.7 percent of native-born Americans in Minnesota speak English less than very well, almost 60 percent of Somali refugees say they do not speak English very well, including nearly half of Somali refugees who have lived in Minnesota for more than a decade.

Somali refugees in Minnesota also tend to be vastly less educated than their Minnesotan counterparts.

While only 5 percent of native-born Americans in Minnesota do not have a high school diploma, almost 40 percent of Somali refugees say the same, including more than 28 percent who have lived in Minnesota for more than 10 years.