Abstract

MUCH ADO ABOUT WELFARE-TO-WORK: WHISPERING SWEET NOTHINGS ABOUT POVERTY

Deanna L. Williamson & Jerrold L. Kachur

Contrary to claims of "welfare reform" and "the children's agenda," welfare-to-work initiatives fall short of improving the lives of poor families with young children. The guiding values of these policy initiatives imply a reduction in poverty through "reduced dependency," "increased self sufficiency," and "a hand up rather than a hand out." These values have resulted in policies that both aim to "incentivize market attachment" and mandate employment or employment-related activities in exchange for income support.

This presentation asks whether welfare reforms are much ado about nothing. We answer this question with findings from our three-year multi-methods examination of the effects of welfare-to-work programs on families with young children. Our findings from a discourse analysis of policy documents, a secondary analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Survey on Children and Youth, and interviews with a hundred Alberta families demonstrate that the primary goal of welfare-to-work programs is to cut government spending by reducing the number of Canadian families receiving social assistance. While welfare-to-work programs imply "poverty reduction," they actually offer sweet nothings. Furthermore, the sweet nothings deflect attention away from reducing poverty and from enhancing the health and well-being of Canadian children in poverty. Efforts by policy makers to improve the lives of impoverished young children will not be realized until such efforts reduce the rate and depth of poverty among Canadian families and address the structural conditions of poverty. We call for a reorientation of policies and programs to address the real problem of poverty – the lack of economic resources.

Bios

Deanna L. Williamson is an associate professor in the Department of Human Ecology at the University of Alberta. She is the principal investigator on a SSHRC Strategic Grant examining welfare-to-work. Her research focuses on the relationships between policy and the health and well-being of families and communities in poverty. She has written about the impact of health care and social assistance policies on the health of people in poor families; the conceptualization and measurement of poverty; the role of the health sector in addressing poverty; and whether welfare or work is better for Canadian children.

Jerrold L. Kachur is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Alberta. He is one of the co-investigators on the SSHRC Strategic Grant with Dr. Williamson examining welfare-to-work. He specializes in policy analysis and the international sociology of education. He has written on the functions of education in the reproduction of socio-economic inequality and socio-cultural marginalization and is the co-author of Contested Classrooms: Education, Globalization and Democracy in Alberta.

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