wfn.org | Panelists Discuss Effects of Welfare

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

4-November-1997 
97425 
 
    Panelists Discuss Effects of 
    Welfare  From Many Perspectives 
 
    by Julian Shipp 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--During a General Assembly Council-sponsored national 
consultation on welfare reform here Nov. 1-3, panelists discussed the 
effects of federal welfare from many perspectives -- including through the 
eyes of a former welfare recipient and those of an immigrant. 
 
    Linda Jones of the Episcopal Housing Ministry of Greensboro, N.C., said 
she is a mother of three children, a former homeless person and a welfare 
recipient. Jones, who is also an African American, told meeting 
participants of the indignities of the welfare system, particularly how her 
self- esteem and personal dignity suffered tremendously as a result of 
receiving food stamps and other federal subsidies. 
 
    "I hated myself because I would look at my kids and I knew they 
deserved better than this," Jones said. "Poverty is bad in America and as 
far as I am concerned, it is a form of violence." 
 
    With new welfare reform laws giving states responsibility for welfare, 
hundreds of thousands of people are pondering how they will be affected. 
Government leaders have also been criticized by mainline denominations, 
including the PC(USA), for calling upon churches to increase their 
responsibilities to the poor and the marginalized in the midst of welfare 
reform. 
 
    Jones said that while she is grateful for the welfare assistance she 
once received, America has "lost touch with its communities," and that 
denying or neglecting opportunities for people to find good work only 
hinders their fulfillment and increases their suffering. 
 
    "It's all about self in this country," Jones said. "All about making 
more money, getting a new car and buying designer clothing. But when 
[human] dignity is lost, violence is the inevitable result. We've got to 
get it back. Whatever it takes to mend the wings of the poor and give them 
back their wings, we need to give them back their dignity." 
 
    With the official national unemployment rate holding at less than 5 
percent -- well under the 6 percent unemployment rate that standard 
economic logic assumes to be normal and necessary -- it might seem a 
strange time for many to worry about jobs. However, according to the Rev. 
Walter L. Owensby, associate for economic justice, Middle East and Latin 
issues for the Presbyterian Washington Office, for many working people the 
good times aren't quite what they seem. 
 
    That's because for more than a decade American business has focused on 
cost cutting, including job cutting, as necessary to achieve greater worker 
productivity and larger profit margins. Economist Stephen Roach of Morgan 
Stanley Dean Witter calls it "a labor-crunch recovery -- one that 
flourishes only because corporate America puts unrelenting pressure on its 
workforce" ("New York Times," Aug. 25, 1997). 
 
    "Thanks mainly to six years of economic expansion, U.S. unemployment 
rolls have shrunk, but jobs and work are still a problem," Owensby told the 
Presbyterian News Service. "Officially, 6.8 million people remain jobless. 
If those who are so discouraged they have stopped looking for work are 
counted, the figure is much higher. And, as always, unemployment for 
minorities is more than twice as high [as that] for the white/Anglo 
population." 
 
    Indeed, answering the question "How did we arrive at the new welfare 
reality?" is a complex undertaking, but it most certainly stemmed from a 
strong desire to change the old federal welfare system, since no one -- not 
even the majority of welfare recipients -- liked it. 
 
    Nam Phoung Thai, community outreach worker for the Northern California 
Coalition for Immigrant Rights (NCCR), said one of the most common 
misconceptions most people have of welfare is that undocumented foreigners 
in this country are responsible for "abusing" government social services, 
when in fact, Thai said, "these people are not even receiving welfare 
assistance." 
 
    Thai said untruths like that contributed to the passage of Section 
245(I), a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) that 
permits immigrants who are eligible for employer- or family-based residency 
visas to adjust their status in the United States instead of having to 
return to their country of origin to do so. 
 
    Phoung said 245(I) was scheduled to sunset on Sept. 30, 1997, but has 
twice been extended to date as part of a broad Continuing Resolution. While 
the Senate has passed a permanent extension of Section 245(I) as part of 
the FY '98 Commerce, Justice, State, and Judiciary (CJS) appropriations 
bill, the House has not. While a House-Senate Conference Committee is 
scheduled to decide the fate of 245(I) in the near future, Phoung said, 
NCCR is concerned, because if the measure is not extended, thousands of 
families could be torn apart and employees could lose their jobs. 
 
    But there are things panelists said individuals and local churches can 
do to help as states implement "welfare-to-work" legislation, among them: 
 
    *  Advocate policies with state officials. Start a church 
       letter-writing campaign; visit state representatives. 
    *  Help organize your municipal government to press policies on the 
       state government. 
    *  Help organize welfare families, the unemployed and low-wage workers 
       to speak for themselves as state government considers its welfare 
       policies. 
    *  Make sure that the religious- and community-based food pantries, 
       feeding programs and shelters are prepared for possible increased 
       need in the event of an economic downturn. 
    *  See that church and community job training and job-preparedness 
       programs are well integrated with state programs. 

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