The New Ethnic Politics of Welfare: Struggles Over Legal Immigrants' Rights to Welfare in California

Race, Legality, and the Social Policy Consequences of Anti-Immigration Mobilization

“…Previous studies have argued that Proposition 187 affected welfare reform by catalyzing Latino naturalization and voter participation; the resulting class of elected Latino leaders shepherded lenient welfare reforms through the legislature (Reese and Ramirez 2002). Although 187 certainly increased Latino mobilization, Latino leadership explanations cannot explain why all but one Republican assembly member switched sides during reform debates to support lenient reforms, despite initial and overwhelming opposition (McClintock 1997b).…”

“…Organizations such as the Western Center for Law and Poverty, the Asian Pacific Policy Planning Council, and a number of Hispanic organizations spearheaded the effort. Despite their extensive histories in state politics, welfare reform marked a rare occasion on which they joined forces (Reese and Ramirez 2002). The legality frame exposed common interests for these groups, facilitating collective mobilization.…”

The Politics of Welfare Inclusion: Explaining State Variation in Legal Immigrants' Welfare Rights

“…In line with the "threat hypothesis," U.S. welfare policies have historically been more restrictive in states where blacks were a higher percentage of the population (Neubeck and Roach 1981;Reese 2001;Soule and Zylan 1997;Zylan and Soule 2000). In more recent decades too, states were more likely to adopt more restrictive welfare reform policies where blacks and Latinos made up a larger percentage of the overall population, the welfare caseload, or the low-income population (Fellowes and Rowe 2004;Fording 2003;Soss, Schräm, Vartanian, and O'Brien 2001;Zylan and Soule 2000).…”

“…She suggests that this was an effective strategy. Similarly, Reese (2011) points to multiracial coalitions and the visible role of Hmong refugees in pushing for benefit replacements in Wisconsin to help explain why the state's RepubUcan-dominated legislature restored legal immigrants' access to Food Stamps and TANF.Ô ther scholars have examined states' welfare policies toward legal immigrants using quantitative methods. Reese and Ramirez (2002) attribute the success of California's benefit replacement campaigns to a combination of factors, including the formafion of broad, multiracial and multisector coaUtions and advocates' high level of mobiUzation.…”

“…Various studies thus highhght the role of anti-Latino and anti-Asian sentiment in contributing support for PRWORA's anti-immigrant provisions or shaping politicians' justifications of these policies (Chang 2000;Neubeck and Cazenave 2001;Reese 2005;Yoo 2001). As of 1996, 49.6 percent of the U.S. foreign-born population was Latino, while 26.8 percent was Asian (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1997a).…”