Revisiting Welfare Reform

In her recent book, Mothers without Citizenship: Asian Immigrant Families and the Consequences of Welfare Reform, she chronicles the narratives of immigrants affected by the loss of welfare aid, many of whom felt the policy put their lives at risk.

At issue is the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, passed under President Clinton in 1996. As part of the Republican Party’s “Contract with America,” the law reduced access to aid, required welfare recipients to work and instituted time limits on eligibility.

In addition, the bill aimed to stem the flow of illegal immigrants, whom conservative lawmakers believed were being lured across the border by an overly indulgent welfare system.

According to Fujiwara, an assistant professor of women’s and gender studies, the welfare system was first instituted in the 1930s as a means to allow working, typically white mothers the opportunity to stay at home with their children.

“It was thought that mothers needed to be at home to raise good citizens. It was part of good nation-building,” she explained. “But when President Johnson opened up welfare access to people of color in the 1960s, perceptions started to change.”

As the dole became more diverse, welfare recipients came to be stereotyped as irresponsible single mothers, lazy immigrants and inveterate sluggards, Fujiwara says. But feminists argued that the real issue behind the “welfare trap” was a cycle of poverty—induced by a broken economic system that made it difficult for low-wage workers to survive—not a lack of personal responsibility (as the title of the 1996 legislation implies).

According to Fujiwara, these reforms were particularly damaging to the immigrant psyche because it made legions of immigrant families afraid to apply for aid to which they might rightfully be entitled.

In her book, Fujiwara weaves together her analysis of what she argues is a draconian policy along with heartfelt stories of the real-life immigrants she interviewed. “When they realized they were going to lose the aid that was keeping them afloat or providing the medical care they needed, they went into despair,” she said.

For her next project, Fujiwara will be investigating what she sees as a similarly devastating law—the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996—which expanded the government’s ability to deport illegals with criminal records.

— Marc Dadigan