Study Finds Nearly 90% of Somali Households With Children in Minnesota Receive Welfare

New census analysis highlights deep economic disparities between Somali refugees and native Minnesotans.

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom

A new analysis from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) finds that more than eight in ten Somali-headed households in Minnesota receive at least one form of government assistance, a figure that rises to nearly 90 percent among families with children. The findings, based on ten years of Census Bureau American Community Survey data, show major gaps in education, poverty, and employment between Somali refugees and native Minnesotans.

According to the CIS report, 81 percent of Somali households in the state use welfare programs such as cash assistance, food stamps, or Medicaid. By comparison, only 21 percent of native-born Minnesotans rely on similar benefits. Among Somali households with children, 86 percent are on Medicaid, 62 percent on food stamps, and 23 percent on cash welfare.

Researcher Jason Richwine noted that “nearly every Somali household with children receives some form of welfare,” attributing the high dependency to poverty and limited earning capacity rather than to fraud alone.

The report found that 52 percent of children in Somali households live in poverty, compared with just 8 percent among native Minnesotan children. About 39 percent of working-age Somali adults lack a high school diploma, and 58 percent report speaking English less than “very well,” including nearly half of those who have lived in the United States for more than a decade.

The Somali-born population in Minnesota now exceeds 75,000, up from virtually none in 1990. While employment rates among Somali men were somewhat higher than expected given their educational challenges, the report found persistent poverty and overcrowding. One in ten overcrowded households in Minnesota is headed by a Somali immigrant, even though Somali households make up less than one percent of the state’s total.

CIS concludes that Minnesota’s Somali community, concentrated primarily in Minneapolis, faces “severe socioeconomic obstacles” that have widened inequality in a state historically recognized for high living standards.

Charts and full tables from the analysis are available through the Center for Immigration Studies.

Center for Immigration Studies

Center for Immigration Studies

Center for Immigration Studies