So, with the city of Detroit being basically forced into bankruptcy, and the difficulties that California has faced in the past, I had a random thought. I know that random thoughts can be dangerous and lead one on a path that really ends up leading nowhere, but here goes anyways.
We all know that immigrants tend to send money home to the family, that is one of the reasons that immigrants move here, is to get better paying jobs than they could back home and to then use that to support their families back home. This I have no issue with, as those immigrants are usually legal, pay their fair share of taxes, and are generally law abiding.
My question, and if anyone has ever seen a decent study of this please let me know as I couldn't find
one in the relatively quick searches I did, is how many immigrants (both legal and illegal) receive some form of cash or cash equivalent benefits from the states of Michigan or California that are intended to be spent locally, but the funds end up finding their way to the home country of the immigrant?
By this I mean, if the immigrants aren't able to find employment, or are under-employed, and receiving benefits from the state, are they turning around and sending those funds back home instead of spending them locally? What about on a national basis? How many immigrants take any form of benefits they get, convert them to cash somehow and send that money out of the country?
The basic premise of these benefit programs is to support them and through them the local economies where they reside. If they are taking those funds and re-distributing them overseas, then there would at least be reduced benefits to the local communities that these benefits are supposed to help support.
Just a random thought.
Amendment Guy
Twitter @amendment_guy
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