Race, Urban Poverty, and Public Policy - 2419 Words

The problems of race and urban poverty remain pressing challenges which the United States has yet to address. Changes in the global economy, technology, and race relations during the last 30 years have necessitated new and innovative analyses and policy responses. A common thread which weaves throughout many of the studies reviewed here is the dynamics of migration. In When Work Disappears, immigrants provide comparative data with which to highlight the problems of ghetto poverty affecting blacks. In No Shame in My Game, Puerto Rican and Dominican immigrants are part of the changing demographics in Harlem. In Canarsie, the possible migration of blacks into a working/middle-class neighborhood prompts conservative backlash from a†¦show more content†¦educational system would be further buttressed by quality child-care provisions which would also included pre-first grade/kindergarten nursery schools modeled after the French à ©cole maternelle. Wilsons other policy recomm endations include suburb-city economic partnerships, many of which coincide with Jargowskys recommendations in Poverty and Place, as well as policies revolving around the earned income tax credit (EITC) and public jobs of last resort, which are part of policy recommendations shared by David Ellwood and Herbert Gans (see below). In No Shame in My Game, anthropologist Katherine Newman attempts to draw greater attention to the plight of the working poor rather than the jobless poor. She and her research team explore the lives of Harlems working poor, primarily focusing on the fast food industry or burger flippers as the subject for her largely ethnographic study. One of the important insights articulated in her study is the extended familial structures/networks that rely on wage and welfare income as a means of survival, in addition to providing resources such as child care: networks she identifies in African-American, Dominican, and Puerto Rican working poor families in Harlem. Thus, welfare reform restructuring will not only impact those families who rely solely on welfare for survival, but also on those working poor familiesShow MoreRelatedInsular Poverty Essay1448 Words   |  6 PagesEnglish 102 Insular Poverty 11/3/2012 Nobody wants to be considered to be below the poverty line. Unfortunately, for fourteen percent of the people in this country, that is their reality. Fourteen percent of the people currently living in the United States’ basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter are not being met. Poverty is experienced at different levels in different parts of the country. 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