April 1983, only half of the jobless had found work; their median annual earnings were only $6,726. Yet, Sehgal says, "the foreign-born do not seem more likely than the U.S.-born to be recipients of government benefits." Only 13 percent of the immigrants reported receiving unemployment checks, food stamps, or other forms of federal assistance; among native Ameri- cans, the figure was 14 percent.
That recent arrivals should suffer economic hardship at first is not surprising. But Sehgal...