Not Working

Alejandra Marchevsky is associate professor of liberal studies at California State University, Los Angeles.Jeanne Theoharis is distinguished Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College of CUNY. She is the co-editor of The Strange Careers of the Jim Crow North: Segregation and Struggle outside of the South (NYU Press, 2019), A More Beautiful and Terrible History (Beacon Press, 2018), The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks (Beacon Press, 2013), Want to Start A Revolution?: Radical Women in the Black Freedom Struggle (NYU Press 2009), Our Schools Suck: Students Talk Back to a Segregated Nation on the Failures of Urban Education (NYU Press 2009), and Not Working: Latina Immigrants, Low-Wage Jobs, and the Failure of Welfare Reform (NYU Press 2006).

A smart, engaging, and groundbreaking study that exposes the racist underpinnings of welfare reform. A model of stellar scholarship and a must read for anyone seeking to understand poverty in relation to the meaning of American citizenship today. - Arlene Davila,author of Barrio Dreams: Puerto Ricans, Latinos, and the Neoliberal City Original and insightful. Not Working is a powerful book, connecting theories of the state, citizenship, and globalization with first rate ethnography. It is an instant classic and will remain the definitive book on immigrant women and welfare reform for some time. - Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo,author of Doméstica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadows of Affluence This highly significant contribution assures that Latina immigrants will no longer be invisible in scholarly research on welfare reform. This superb ethnography establishes a clear connection to the political, legal, and economic realities that is needed in reassessing the success stories of welfare reform. It should be read by all those concerned with social inequality, poverty, and justice in America. - Mary Romero,author of Maid in the U.S.A This is a scholarly, professional critique of social science research paradigms generally, and poverty knowledge industry and associated applied policy research in particular: (Choice: Highly recommended) With this book, Marchevsky and Theoharis make a distinct contribution to the welfare reform debate by addressing a topic that has received less attention in the literature, namely how welfare reforms have impacted immigrant. Not Working is particularly timely as immigrants become more visible as they move to less traditional U.S. regions to find work and the immigration debate rages. (Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare)

• Acknowledgments Introduction: Latinas on the Fault Lines of Citizenship PART I Neither a Hand Up nor a Handout1 Ending Welfare: New Nativism and the Triumph of Post-Civil Rights Politics 2 Poverty in the Suburbs: Race and Redevelopment Policy in Long Beach PART II Any Job at Any Wage3 Tough Love in L.A. County: The Failure of Welfare-to-Work 4 The Myth of Welfare Dependency: Caught between Welfare and Work 5 "It's Not What You Choose, but Where They Send You": Inside Personal Responsibility Conclusion: The Emperor's New Welfare: Reassessing the "Success" of Welfare Reform Notes Index About the Authors