Workfare Workers

Submitted By kobejsam8
Words: 564
Pages: 3

Immigrants and Workfare Workers In chapters 5 “Immigrants of workfare workers” by Grace Chang, she really touched on the self serving nature of the state and private business area. Welfare recipients and undocumented workers are both chewed up and spit out by these past parties. Both individual and formal examples of the unfair circumstances were shared by Chang in chapter 5. Workfare women receive wages lower than those of regular employees in the same jobs and often replace full-time city employees in jobs such as street sweeping and cleaning staff in public schools. The jobs are viewed as “training” rather than employment. Marriott Hotels has welfare-to-work women being “trained” in housekeeping and kitchen work, among other things. Chang, points out the similar economic position of immigrant and workfare women when she states, “While immigrants are forced to do “3D—dirty, dangerous and degrading” work for sub-minimum wages in large part because they are excluded from public assistance and services that they need and deserve, workfare workers are forced to do this work for free or what amounts to poverty wages because they are threatened with losing their benefits otherwise” (180). Public officials, in the meantime, approved the deportation of the undocumented because this frees up jobs for workfare workers. There were several individual cases that highlighted this such as Yuni Mulyono's case. Mulyono was an Indonesian woman who came to the U.S in 1992 and quickly began working as a domestic set up through a "consultant". Mulyono began working over 50 hours a week and was paid $100.00 a month. Mulyono was informed that this was minimum wage in the USA and sent her checks back home to support family. Yuni began to seek more opportunities for freedom such as taking English class and after coming home late once, Yuni's employers ended up chasing her out of the house and threatening to send her back to Indonesia. Like others before and after her, Yuni took the family to court and was awarded $47,827 as back pay for her years of service. Unfortunately the initial