Immigrants' welfare use and opportunity for contact with co-ethnics

In this article we examine the relationship between immigrants' we rare use and their social capital, using the 1990 census. We measure community soci al capital using contact with co-ethnics and coethnics' economic inactivity and examine the use of AFDC and SSI in two subpopulations: single-mother f amilies and elderly units. Major findings are that the effects of social ca pital differ between immigrant single-mother families and elderly units; th e effects of social capital differ between the young-at-arrival elderly and the old-at-arrival elderly; and the process of AFDC use is similar for imm igrants and for natives, whereas the process of SSI use is more complicated for immigrants than for natives.