A viral chart claims that the majority of the country’s food stamp recipients are non-white and noncitizens, with millions of Americans in danger of losing access to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) – also known as food stamps – starting on November 1.
The chart, titled “Food Stamps by Ethnicity,” listed 36 different ethnic groups and indicated that “a proportion of US households are receiving SNAP benefits.”
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
The racial groups were labeled “white,” “Black,” and “native,” along with the nationalities “Afghan,” “Somali,” “Iraqi,” and “Somali.” The largest group receiving SNAP benefits, at 45.6 percent, was the Afghan population, according to the chart, followed by Somalis (42.4%) and Iraqis (34.8%). White people, who are represented by the US flag, came in third place with 8.6%.
The looming SNAP funding lapse was brought on by the federal government’s October 1 shutdown. Low-income households who use SNAP have access to food. People commenting on the chart rehashed a similar talking point, just as conservatives have spread the deceptive claim that Democrats are pushing for healthcare for undocumented immigrants.
Who will lose their EBT? read the caption to a post on October 25 that shared the chart, which had 3.1 million views as of October 27. A SNAP payment system, EBT stands for Electronic Benefits Transfer.
“Only 18.7% of people who receive EBT or food stamps are Americans. There was no “American” category in the chart, despite the seemingly incorrect use of the figure next to the word “Armenian.” “We are paying the taxpayers’ dime to subvention foreigners.”
Who will receive their EBT cut photo? twitter.com/el8x9X5iVX
The SNAP recipients’ complete list is not represented in the chart, which is not representative of all races or ethnic groups. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which oversees the program, is the most trustworthy source for demographic breakdown of SNAP recipients.
White people are the most prevalent racial group receiving SNAP benefits starting in 2023, according to the most recent USDA data available, at 35.4 percent. Next are African Americans, who account for 25.7 percent of recipients, followed by Hispanics, who account for 3.9 percent, Native Americans, who account for 1.3 percent, and people of different races, who account for 1%. Unknown is the race that accounts for 17% of the participants.
Less than 11 percent of SNAP participants were foreign-born, according to the same report, which found that 89.4% of SNAP recipients were US-born. 6.2% of those who were naturalized citizens, 1.1 percent of refugees, and 3.3 percent of noncitizens who were lawful permanent residents and other eligible noncitizens, were lawful permanent residents.
Although many of the groups on the list may receive food stamps, “they definitely account for a small portion of the households and spending on SNAP,” according to Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Richmond.
Survey results paint a picture of SNAP recipients that are incomplete.
The Personal Finance Wizards blog post from June, which cited “US Census Table S0201” as its source, is where the chart was shared on social media. The website provides financial advice, but it recently published a disclaimer that states it cannot guarantee the information’s “completeness, accuracy, or reliability.”
The site’s creators made the decision to include a number of ethnicities in the chart, noting that “the graph highlights a group of ethnicities we felt would be most relevant and engaging for our audience.” There was no author name in it.
Personal Finance Wizards shared a link to the US Census table it used in a comment on an Instagram post that was shared the chart. The American Community Survey’s data, which was filtered by 49 racial and ethnic groups, is displayed here. Although the dataset has a column for “households with food stamp/SNAP benefits,” which displays percentages comparable to those in the chart, the filtered groups don’t completely overlap with those in the chart.
What proportion of SNAP recipients are ethnically or nationally unrepresented in the data?
According to Joseph Llobrera, senior research director for the liberal think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the chart appears to show the shares of households receiving SNAP based on household respondents’ reported ancestry, which is distinct from citizenship status.
Without context, he said, “This graphic is misleading and may lead some people to believe that many non-citizens are SNAP participants,” which is false.
Respondents can choose their race according to the American Community Survey. An ancestry is defined as a person’s “person’s ethnic origin or descent, roots or heritage, birthplace or place of parents’ ancestors before their arrival in the United States.”
The American Community Survey data on SNAP receipts is self-reported, according to Colleen Heflin, an expert on food insecurity, nutrition, and welfare policy at Syracuse University, and that data “has a great deal of measurement error” when compared to SNAP administrative data.
Chart shows higher levels of need in groups with higher SNAP participation rates.
Because of their unique immigration status, groups like Afghans and Iraqis, who are first and third on the list, would have been more likely to have been eligible for the SNAP program right away.
Prior to the passage of the law, refugees and those receiving asylum were also eligible for SNAP without a waiting period. According to Roof, Somalis, who were second on the list, are “more likely” to meet those requirements.
Other noncitizens, such as lawful permanent residents, may be eligible for SNAP after a five-year waiting period.
