Ethnography Paper
In recent years, California has made budgetary cuts to safety net programs to balance the state budget. The California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program has been one of the most affected. CalWORKs’ goals is to provide immediate income support by contributing a cash grant to the household and cultivating long term self-sufficiency for its clients. CalWORKs has had a number of cuts that is reshaping the program one component at a time, including cuts to the welfare-to-work employment services. These cuts will directly affect those clients who are likely to find and keep a jobs and those who need intensive support if they hope to find and maintain stable employment. In addition to the budgetary cuts, clients on
…show more content…
CalWORKs have more and greater barriers that prevents them from becoming self-sufficient. Those of immigrant backgrounds had even more barriers making their experience in CalWORKs different from the native born. How does an immigrant recipient of CalWORKs experience success in Welfare-to-Work program by utilizing all the ancillary benefits?
What are the benchmarks of success for immigrants? What services within the WTW program can provide people with the skills to be people self-sufficient? What part does the employer play in the success of immigrants retaining gainful employment? Ethnography is the study of social interactions, behaviors, and perceptions that occur within groups and communities. The central aim of ethnography is to provide insight into a particular group’s views and actions through the collection of detailed interviews and observations. A strong emphasis is placed on exploring the nature of social phenomenon rather than testing a hypotheses. The experiences of immigrants in the welfare-to-work program is very different from those of native born participants. They have many barriers like language and economic hurdles that prevent them from attaining the same level of success. The objective is to document the perspectives and practices of the immigrant participants in these settings. The aim is to get inside the way immigrants view their success. The information attained from research of this scope would help to identify the issues faced by immigrants in the CalWORKs program. This would enable policy makers to address the gaps in service to this
group.
CalWORKs have more and greater barriers that prevents them from becoming self-sufficient. Those of immigrant backgrounds had even more barriers making their experience in CalWORKs different from the native born. How does an immigrant recipient of CalWORKs experience success in Welfare-to-Work program by utilizing all the ancillary benefits?
What are the benchmarks of success for immigrants? What services within the WTW program can provide people with the skills to be people self-sufficient? What part does the employer play in the success of immigrants retaining gainful employment? Ethnography is the study of social interactions, behaviors, and perceptions that occur within groups and communities. The central aim of ethnography is to provide insight into a particular group’s views and actions through the collection of detailed interviews and observations. A strong emphasis is placed on exploring the nature of social phenomenon rather than testing a hypotheses. The experiences of immigrants in the welfare-to-work program is very different from those of native born participants. They have many barriers like language and economic hurdles that prevent them from attaining the same level of success. The objective is to document the perspectives and practices of the immigrant participants in these settings. The aim is to get inside the way immigrants view their success. The information attained from research of this scope would help to identify the issues faced by immigrants in the CalWORKs program. This would enable policy makers to address the gaps in service to this
group.