Negotiating the discourse of race within the United States welfare system

Abstract

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Survive but not thrive? Geographical strategies for avoiding absolute homelessness among immigrant communities

“…The findings could not be more contrasting: the more explicitly multicultural, accommodating and generous UK welfare state diverged sharply with the threadbare US welfare state and its inherently disadvantaging treatment of immigrant groups. The American welfare state has long been considered racialized, given that the majority of White population see it as disproportionately benefiting 'undeserving' racial minorities and immigrants, and whose welfare dependency causes rather than attenuates poverty (Hero and Preuhs 2007;Lens and Cary 2010). Since the 1980s, the Bangladeshi population have been able to take advantage of a much stronger local welfare state in Tower Hamlets (as well as the national UK welfare state), especially in the form of housing benefits (59 per cent of all London Bangladeshis lived in local authority council estates in 2001; Dench, Gavron and Young 2006), which necessarily makes the task of avoiding homelessness that much easier.…”

Welfare chauvinism at the margins of whiteness

“…With public concern growing in regards to the burden of migration on the welfare state, it has become more legitimate to argue that welfare benefits should only be reserved for those considered 'natives', who hold a self-evident right to belong to the nation (Keskinen et al 2016). These notions of deservingness have been shown to be constructed around racialising criteria and othering (Harrell et al 2014;Keskinen et al 2016;Lens and Cary 2010).…”

The New Racial Politics of Welfare: Ethno-Racial Diversity, Immigration, and Welfare Discourse Variation

“…The Discursive Politics of Welfare Studies of discursive politics are a critical part of welfare state scholarship. Researchers in this area parse out the language that welfare recipients use to explain their understandings of work, poverty, and welfare participation (Lens and Cary 2010;Woodward 2008). Ethnographic and historical studies reveal the gendered and racialized ways in which case managers characterize their jobs, their clients, and social citizenship (Korteweg 2006;Park and Kemp 2006;Watkins-Hayes 2009).…”