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Researchers infrequently have focused on assessing the degree to which the changes in welfare policy legislated during the 1990s have affected immigrants' receipt of welfare. Using data from the March Current Population Survey, we analyze the contribution of local labor market conditions to the explanation of relative declines in immigrants receipt of welfare from 1994 to 2000. The results or a series of models that included labor market-area and state fixed effects indicate that employment and unemployment rates across metropolitan statistical areas and states account for at least one-third of the observed relative decrease among immigrants. The policy implications of the findings are discussed.

The interests in social indicators and social reporting started in the 1960s with the new awareness of poverty in the midst of affluence. In this paper I first discuss the poverty concept and its implication for social policy strategy. The poverty concept should be but one in a system of concepts that throws light on the whole distribution of income and wealth and how income from labor as well as income from capital is generated. The central concepts in the system are income and economic standard, which I explain in different perspectives on command over resources. The command-over-resources concept is used to get from a narrow concept of material welfare that can be measured in money to a wider concept of welfare that includes the universal common social concerns. I confess to being intrigued by the fact that a list of social concerns can be agreed upon that seems to be relevant across cultures, political systems and times. I suggest that this surmised universality springs from the great 'life projects' that all humans face over the life cycle. I then discuss the role of social indicators and social reporting as continuous information on these common concerns in the context of an epistemology of the democratic process. Social reporting would serve the democratic process best if it answers 'how it is' and leaves the answers on 'how it ought to be' and 'what should be done' to come about through discussion among citizens. KEY WORDS: democratic process, income distribution, poverty, quality of life, welfare

Many studies to date regarding public support for welfare-state programs do not have an adequate theoretical model and fail to consider differences in public support for contributory vs. means-tested programs. Moreover, these studies seldom take into account cross-cultural variations. This study presents and tests the validity of a three-tier model in which socio-economic variables influence social ideologies which, in turn, differentially affect support for contributory and means-tested programs. Using comparable data from two countries - Israel and the United States - a path analysis with log-linear models is applied, indicating that, while important cross-cultural differences exist, the model is generally confirmed.

The longtime liberal/conservative split on welfare policy, effectively bridged in the decade leading up to the 1996 welfare reform act, may resurface as research evaluating that reform begins to accumulate. [...]

The intervention of the states in welfare reform will be effective only if enough research has been conducted into the relations between illegitimacy, poverty, and welfare programs. The research must have strict guidelines to prevent bias. Reforms must be aimed at changing the behavior of the poor.

The extent to which levels of welfare receipt for immigrants and natives are sensitive to the use of household-, family- or individual units of analysis or presentation was studied using data from the 1990 and 1991 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation. Results showed that nativity differences are statistically significant only at the level of larger units. It was also shown that if immigrants and natives had identical living arrangements, immigrants' household-level receipt of Supplemental Security Income would exceed natives' receipt even more than it actually does.