Checking claims about who receives SNAP benefits (food stamps) - Salam
Salam - I wanted to share a clearer look at a viral chart that claimed most food stamp recipients in the US are non-white and noncitizens.
The chart listed many nationalities (Afghan, Somali, Iraqi, etc.) alongside racial labels and seemed to suggest groups like Afghans and Somalis were the largest SNAP recipients, while “white” households were a small share. People used this to argue that taxpayers are mainly supporting foreigners.
But official USDA data from 2023 tells a different story: white people are the largest racial group receiving SNAP (about 35.4%), followed by Black (25.7%) and Hispanic (15.6%). The USDA also reports about 89.4% of SNAP recipients are US-born citizens, so fewer than 11% are foreign-born (including naturalised citizens and a small share of refugees and other noncitizens).
The viral graphic came from a personal finance blog that pulled a specific table from the American Community Survey and highlighted chosen ancestry groups. That approach can be misleading because the ACS lets people self-identify ancestry and the survey question on SNAP receipt is self-reported and prone to measurement error. The chart showed shares of households with certain ancestries that received benefits, not the share of all SNAP recipients made up by each ancestry group.
Experts note some recent immigrants (refugees, asylum seekers, certain arrivals) historically had direct eligibility for SNAP, and some nationalities might show higher SNAP participation rates within their small communities. But overall SNAP participation is dominated by US citizens and domestic households.
Long story short: the viral chart lacked context and gave a distorted impression. Official USDA figures show most SNAP recipients are US-born and that racial breakdown differs from the viral image. Hope this helps clear things up - and salam.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news