PRWOA: The Reification and per formatively of the Individualist Perspective

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to take this chance for thanking my research facilitator, friends & family for support they provided & their belief in me as well as guidance they provided without which I would have never been able to do this research.

DECLARATION

I, (Your name), would like to declare that all contents included in this thesis/dissertation stand for my individual work without any aid, & this thesis/dissertation has not been submitted for any examination at academic as well as professional level previously. It is also representing my very own views & not essentially which are associated with university.

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ABSTRACT

The Act and Work Opportunity Reconciliation for Personal Responsibility commonly known as the reform of the Public Assistance Program in 1996, created new requirements which gave effect to federal funding for immigration programs, while immigrants were always excluded from certain federal benefits, new legislation gave states the option to exclude illegal immigrants from other public benefits. The reform of the welfare legislation of 1996 is paired with new laws immigration despite having created fear in some illegal immigrants and consequences are allowed to ask for assistance in health and nutrition. Based on these premises, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 (PRWOA) is an effective assault on the demarcation of the public and private sphere. The aim of this paper is to explore the discursive power and representation of such welfare recipients, namely single welfare mothers, to determine to what extent is social policy is per formative and is used as a tool of bio power and governmental control. Using Butler's notion of per formative and Foucault's arguments of bureaucratic bio-power and govern mentality in advanced liberal societies, the individualist discourse employed in PRWOA in the U.S will be analyzed. This paper argues that policy is per formative precisely because of its inherent discourse. The individualist perspective, whereby an individual believes that poverty is the result of his/her own faults, and public identities such as the "welfare queen" and the 'welfare mom' are illustrations of the power of per formative and bio-power governance inherent in social policy.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT2

DECLARATION3

ABSTRACT4

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION5

Introduction5

Research Questions6

Discourse8

What is social policy?13

Policy Analysis13

The Role of Discourse in Social Policy14

The Individualist Perspective18

Public Identities of Welfare Recipients20

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW32

Gender perspective32

CHAPTER 3: DISCUSSION37

Conclusion40

REFERENCES44

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Introduction

Legislation on Illegal Immigration Reform and on the 1996 Welfare Reform limit the level and extent of public assistance to legal immigrants and undocumented workers in health, education and social benefits, and restrict federal aid and states to finance hospitals, community health centers and public health programs that constitute the safety net for migrants, as well as support for higher education of non-citizens. The total budget in 2004 federal spending on immigrant spending was U.S. $ 2.600 billion, an increase of 20.8% over the 1999 budget; on the contrary, the contribution to the economy of the United States in 2006 for workers migrants is estimated at 30 billion dollars.

The individualist discourse in the Personal Responsibility Act and ...