When Government Aid Fails

Undocumented Immigrants and Informal Access to

Welfare Assistance through Social Networking

If the U.S. Government does not help provide for welfare of

undocumented immigrants, how do they fulfill these needs?

Social Services to be analyzed in the research project:• Child Care• Health Care• Food Assistance• Education• Housing• Employment• Psychological Support• Abuse Assistance• Job Training• Transportation 

The Immigrant PresenceAccording to the 2010 U.S. Census,• 50.5 Million Hispanics in the United States• 16% of the total population• 43% growth rate (compared to 5% among non-Hispanics

This largely excludes undocumented immigrants, which do not appear in official government accounts.            Primary age group- 18-34 years old (working years)

What does this tell us? Latinos are not only a significant but also growing sector of American society.

Yet, the U.S. Government fails to address the needs of undocumented immigrants and state governments are implementing discriminatory legislation against Latinos.

Environment of Hostility: New Nativism

• Contrary to past use of Latino labor in such guest worker programs as the Bracero Program ('42-'64), today Latinos are categorized as "illegal aliens" or potential "terrorists"

• '96 Immigration Reform Acts- uncompromising, harsh deportation policy, often only results in multiple border crossings

• Proposition 187 in CA- failed attempt to exclude undocumented children from K-12 education

• SB 1070 in AZ- opens police responsibilities to include racial profiling of any party "appearing" to be undocumented

           -meaning of Hispanic origin

• Failure of DREAM Act- attempt to open higher education to all residents of the United States

Institutionalized Racism in Welfare Program1930's Social Security Act• disqualified farm and domestic workers• traditionally jobs held by Latinos and Blacks

1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) Welfare Reform• Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)

replaced by Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)o 5 year limito Excludes legal and illegal immigrants, teen

mothers, convicted felons"Success" of '96 Welfare Reform• over 50% decrease in caseloads- often not voluntary• 44% budget saving from excluding immigrants

2000 Food Stamp Program (FSP) Revision• disqualified immigrants

Ramifications of '96 Welfare Reform• Pressures those disqualified as well as recipients to

accept low wage, low skill jobs with poor working conditions in "welfare to work" policy- drives down wages

• Promotes compliance among workers for fear of losing their jobs

• Reduces responsibility of government to its people• Opens opportunity for private investment to provide

services previously guaranteed by the government• In 2000, over 30% of Latino families were below the

poverty line in L.A.• In 1999, 

o over 1/4 immigrant families experienced difficulty paying rent and utilities in N.Y.

o About 1/3 of immigrants in L.A. and N.Y. were food insecure

Why should the United States Government be held liable for the needs of immigrants?• This is a human rights issue.

• Latino immigrants are here to stay and increasingly represent a significant portion of the American population.

• Despite the common ideology that Mexican people are dependent on the United States, the American economic system depends upon the cheap labor provided by the Mexican worker, either within the United States or across the border in maquiladoras.

• Immigrants today continue the American legacy as a nation of immigrants.

Methodology• Contact employment agencies, advocacy centers,

labor unions, local factories, and nearby farms of a community with a known Hispanic population

• Conduct survey of clients/employees• Use as background statistics about the composition

of the workplace• Screen for Hispanic immigrants representing

different household composition (4 of each)o Live-in Worko Cohabitation with multiple singleso Single parent familyo 2 parent familyo Cohabitation with several single parent familieso Extended relativeso Cohabitation with multiple families

Methodology• First round interviews in private homes

o General experience in the United Stateso Assessment of welfare needs

Child care, health care, food assistance, education, housing, employment, job training, psychological support, abuse assistance, transportation

o Assessment of methods to meet these needso Assessment of unmet welfare needso Potential solutions

• Focusing on lines of communication involved in finding ways to meet these needs

• Use format of genealogical maps to create visual representation of social networks of the research community

• Follow-up interviews

Issues Related to the Research • Dealing with sensitive information

o Immigration and welfare reformo Discrimination in the United Stateso Negative portrayal of government

• Dealing with a vulnerable populationo Hispanic minorityo Undocumented immigrants

Attempts at Resolution of Potential Issues• Graduated interviews where sensitive information is slowly

introduced• Reliance on field notes to alleviate feelings of suspicion• Emphasis on establishing rapport with the informants• Assurances that all information will be held in

confidentiality, including the identity of the informants• Interviews held in private homes to further protect the

identities of the informants• Use of pseudonyms in any and all published works related

to the research• Contact information included in primary survey so that

specific informants are not identified through the organization from which they were contacted

• Clear consent forms given in Spanish (either written or orally) with ability to discontinue participation at any time

Relation to Anthropological Methodology• Interview process

o Structured interviewing with interview guide (rather than set questions)

• Genealogical information related to social networks• Sensitive information• Disproportionate sampling

o Quota sampling to begin o Snowball sampling to follow lines of

communication• Applied anthropology

o Using results to attempt to facilitate dissemination of availability of immigrant-friendly social services

Works CitedChavez, Leo R. 1998. Shadowed Lives: Undocumented Immigrants in American Society.        New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers.

Hondagneu-Sotelo, Pierrette. 2001. Doméstica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and               Caring in the Shadows of Affluence. Berkeley: University of California.

Kilty, Keith M. and Elizabeth A. Segal ed. 2006. The Promise of Welfare Reform:        Political Rhetoric and the Reality of Poverty in the Twenty-First Century. New         York: The Haworth Press.

Marchevsky, Alejandra and Jeanne Theoharis. 2006. Not Working: Latina Immigrants,        Low- Wage Jobs, and the Failure of Welfare Reform. New York: New York        University Press.