What influences BSW students’ attitudes towards cross-border marriage immigrants? The Taiwanese case of female marriage immigrants from China

Unlike existing supply-side employment of persons with disability (PWD) research in Korea, this study focused on demand-side issues. In this study, a qualitative research method was used to explore the perspectives of 20 human resource directors regarding employment of PWD in Korea. Based on the results of this study, the author recommends improving the job skills of people with disabilities, decreasing employer fears about industrial injuries among people with disabilities, reducing tax and social insurance costs for companies employing people with disabilities, setting up workplace accommodations, differentiating employment quota rate of PWD by occupational categories, offering information to companies about people with disabilities who are seeking a job, and stricter implementation of the quota system.     

Events that Trigger Poverty Entries and Exits*

Objective. This article examines how events—such as changes in household composition, employment status, disability status, and economic conditions—affect poverty entries and exits. We also examine whether the role these events play in poverty transitions differs in the pre‐ and post‐welfare‐reform periods. Methods. The analysis uses discrete‐time multivariate hazard models along with monthly, longitudinal data from the 1988, 1990, and 1996 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). Results. Analyses show that many events are related to the likelihood of entering and exiting poverty. Of the trigger events examined, individuals living in households that experience a loss or gain of employment are the most likely to enter and exit poverty. We also find that changes in employment are more important in the 1996 to 1999 time period—after welfare reform—than in the 1988 to 1992 time period—prior to welfare reform. Finally, changes in household composition, disability status, and educational attainment are found to play a role in throwing people into poverty and helping them exit from poverty in both time periods. Conclusions. There is no single path into or out of poverty, suggesting that multiple policies can be considered to help alleviate poverty.     

The effects of poverty on sleep problems in Sweden

Does relative poverty measured as low disposable household income or the presence of personal financial crisis affect health measured in terms of self-reported sleep problems? If so, is this effect modified by macroeconomic conditions or life changes such as unemployment experience, divorce or limiting illness, and it is buffered by social networks or coping behavior such as smoking? These questions are studied on a representative sample of employed people aged 20-65 who participated in the Survey of Living Conditions conducted by Statistics Sweden for the years 1980-1981 (7180 people) and 1986-1989 (13,376 people). The results reveal a conditional relationship between poverty and sleep problems. Among men it is modified, in particular, by previous experience of unemployment. Among women strong social networks buffers the effect but smoking aggravates it. Men's sleep was affected more by poverty and unemployment in the late 1980s than in the earlier period.     

The Costs of Disability and the Incidence of Poverty

Both disability and poverty have been the subject of extensive research, although relatively few Australian studies have examined the relationship between them. Most poverty studies make no allowance for the higher needs (and costs) associated with disability, while few disability studies have focused on poverty among the disabled. Yet disability often leads to greater need and this will increase the risk of poverty. This paper uses data from the 1998–99 Household Expenditure Survey to estimate the costs of disability using a ‘standard of living’ approach and uses these estimates to compare poverty rates among those with and without disability. The results imply that where there is an adult in the household with a disability, poverty rates are higher even before allowing for the extra costs of disability. After account is taken of the costs of disability, estimated poverty rates rise substantially where there is a disability present. Taking account of costs that vary with the severity of the restriction associated with the disability is also shown to make a large difference to comparisons derived from conventional poverty research.     

Work Behavior of Older People with Disabilities in the Era of the Americans with Disabilities Act

Abstract

This paper explores the correlation between the implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the employment participation of people with disabilities. First, it discusses the methodological difficulties in measuring the ADA's impacts. Second, it describes a longitudinal study using Health and Retirement Survey data exploring changes in employment rates and odds of employment during the 1990s for older working-age people with disabilities. The findings show that while older people with disabilities had slightly lower employment rates than older people without disabilities during the 1990s, the odds that older people with disabilities would be employed has increased since the passage of the ADA.     

Financial access and economic participation of youth with disabilities in China: an exploratory study

Financial access is an important indicator of economic participation and is particularly relevant to asset building among vulnerable individuals in transitional stages of their lives. Drawing on data from a survey of disabled youth (ages 16–25) in Beijing, this study examines determinants of the target group's financial access. It focuses on a range of individual, household and institutional factors that affect breadth and depth of financial access. Quantitative results complemented by field interviews demonstrate a gap between financial access breadth, measured by account holding, and access depth, measured by regular banking activity. Although individual characteristics, especially disability types and severity, have significant effects on the chances that a youth holds an account, household and financial institution factors show stronger effects on regular banking activity than do individual variables. Finally, this article discusses the implications of the study for economic participation and financial capability among youth with disabilities in China.     

Disability,the Senses and Apparel: Design Considerations

Sensory experiences are an important but infrequently explored aspect of clothing and apparel for people living with disabilities. Clothing serves as a type of ‘gate keeper’ to the social realm, especially for people living with disabilities. Newly emerging inclusive design approaches are increasingly addressing issues of accessibility and adaptability in the built environment, and these design approaches can and should be applied to clothing and apparel. Two broad categories of interest include: (1) Overwhelming or “too much” sensation, in other words, situations in which people would like to lessen the intensity of what they feel and (2) Limited sensation, lack of sensation, or circumstances under which people crave sensory input, but are restricted from feeling due to a variety of (typically medical or neurological) reasons. The lack of suitable apparel can become a genuine barrier for people living with disabilities, exposing them to the risk of a marginalized status, preventing them from fully participating in society. These barriers illustrate how the work of anthropologists, apparel, textile and engineering design teams with knowledge of sensory issues can offer options to those seeking to regulate the type and intensity of sensory experience and make a positive impact on their daily lives.     

Welfare Generosity in Europe: A Multi‐level Study of Material Deprivation and Income Poverty among Disadvantaged Groups

The aim of this study is to analyze whether and to what extent welfare generosity moderates the risk of income poverty and material deprivation among disadvantaged groups, that is, people with ill health, low education and lack of employment. The data are based on the 2009 European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (cross‐sectional) surveys. The analyses comprise 27 and 28 European countries, including 292,874 and 302,343 individuals between 18 and 64 years of age. Multi‐level analyses demonstrated that welfare generosity moderated the risk of both material deprivation and income poverty. With few exceptions, the risk decreased among disadvantaged groups in absolute terms. Among individuals who experienced the combinations of limiting long‐standing illness and either low education or non‐employment, the absolute inequalities in material deprivation decreased with increasing welfare generosity. Also, the absolute inequalities in income poverty among individuals who experienced the combination of limiting long‐standing illness and low education were lower in more generous welfare contexts. Results indicated lower absolute levels of both material deprivation and income poverty among disadvantaged individuals in generous welfare states. However, for material deprivation the results were more substantial and consistent than for income poverty. Taken together, these findings support the view that generous welfare states reach the worst‐off and are successful in buffering material deprivation and income poverty and, hence, in reducing social inequalities.     

Disability rating system reform in Korea: focusing on improving of the service delivery system for people with disabilities

The purpose of this study is designed to explore of improving the service delivery system for people with disabilities in Korea according to the reforming disability grading system. Focus group interview was conducted with public officials involved in the pilot project. As the analysis results, The study suggested it was able to provide integrated services for people with disabilities through intergraded network for public-private partnership, to be connected case management between public-private sector, to establish a unified window for the disabled to handle complaints while using the service and to be accessibility improvement through counseling visits to the disabled. Findings from the study have both practical and policy implications for the service delivery system for people with disabilities. Future studies should include opinions from the perspective of the people with disabilities who participated in the pilot project.     

Jobless or Working Poor in the Kyrgyz Labour Market: What Role for Social Policies?

This paper attempts to identify the multiple aspects of vulnerability in the Kyrgyz labour market. Particular attention is devoted to the working poor and precarious workers. This analysis is undertaken using the Kyrgyz Poverty Monitoring Survey, which is the only survey to date that allows a comprehensive analysis of poverty and labour market outcomes in the Kyrgyz Republic. The period under investigation covers the years 1997 to 1998, for which data are available. The results point to the extreme vulnerability of individuals with less education and women, who cumulated a high risk of being unemployed, of remaining longer in unemployment, of being discouraged unemployed and, if employed, of being low‐paid or working in precarious jobs. Other groups facing a high risk of exclusion, both from and within employment, were people with disabilities, individuals living in rural or depressed areas, young people and internal migrants. The multiple aspects of vulnerability in the Kyrgyz labour market, in particular the large overlap between work and poverty, have important implications for the design of effective social policies.     

Barriers to finding and maintaining open employment for people with intellectual disability in Australia

Everyone has the right to employment. Work is important for health, well-being, and social, economic, and financial inclusion. However, it is often difficult for people with intellectual disability to find and maintain work, especially in the open labour market. Policy challenges remain about who can access open employment (also sometimes called competitive or supported employment) and how often people with intellectual disability do so. Greater understanding about the barriers that people with intellectual disability encounter when they try to find and keep work in open employment is needed. Drawing on research with 51 people with intellectual disability in Australia, this paper examines the systemic barriers they report to finding and maintaining work in open employment. The findings highlight that the barriers they experience stem from narrow, dismissive, and discouraging attitudes to their work in open employment and from a spectrum of experiences of stigma and discrimination in open workplaces. The paper thus provides new knowledge about reasons that people with intellectual disability may either reject or not continue in open employment and take up less inclusive work options. The paper discusses the implications of the findings, including the need for policy development for attitudinal change, designing more varied roles for employees with intellectual disability, ensuring access to industrial relations protections, and increasing and better regulating and funding requirements on support to people with intellectual disability who are seeking work in open employment.     

Disability poverty and ageing in regional Australia: The impact of disability income reforms for indigenous Australians

Australian disability policy has undergone considerable reform since the early 2000s. While recent research and scholarship has largely focused on the new National Disability Insurance Scheme, there is a dearth of research that examines the impact of reform to the Disability Support Pension, and even less so the effects on Indigenous Australians living with disability. This is surprising as a higher proportion of Indigenous Australians live with disability than the non‐Indigenous population. This article pays particular attention to the experiences of Aboriginal Australians who have acquired a disability after extensive years of working (25–40 years), yet are still of workforce age (less than 65 years of age). Because of tightened eligibility criteria for the Disability Support Pension, people in this group are placed onto the lower paid Newstart Allowance (general unemployment benefit). The article illustrates the high levels of poverty that Aboriginal Australians with disabilities experience daily, and the ongoing costs they incur in managing Newstart conditionality to maintain continued access to the general unemployment benefit.     

Employment status transitions among young adults,with and without disability

Employment is a crucial avenue through which young people with disability can experience material wellbeing and social participation. While the low employment rates of young people with disability are well established, little is known about the stability of employment status – that is, the degree to which individuals remain in or move in and out of employment. This article uses longitudinal data from a large Australian national data set to investigate the transitions between full‐time, part‐time and non‐employment for young people with and without disability. Considerable mobility was found between employment states for both young people with and without disability, with young people with disability more likely than their peers without disability to transition to reduced levels of employment and less likely to transition to increased levels of employment. Social background and contextual factors predicted employment for young people with disability; however, disability represented an additional penalty even after taking these factors into account. Findings suggest a need for social policy targeted specifically towards the barriers to maintaining and increasing employment experienced by young people with disability.     

Immigration,living arrangement and the poverty risk of older adults in Hong Kong

Using 2011 census data, this study investigated how living arrangement affects disparities in poverty between older adults (aged 65 and older) who migrated to Hong Kong from Mainland China and those who were born in Hong Kong. Our sample consisted of 29,987 immigrants and 9,398 natives, all of whom were ethnic Chinese and living in Hong Kong at the time of the census. We found higher poverty rates among older immigrants than among natives, a disparity that persisted even after adjusting for living arrangement, human capital characteristics, assimilation‐related variables, household composition and demographic characteristics. We also found that living arrangement moderated the impact of immigrant status on the poverty risk among older adults, and that the impact was due mainly to the number of earners in the household. The implications of our results with respect to poverty among older adults and anti‐poverty measures are discussed.     

Child poverty in South Africa: an assessment based on microdata for 1995

In this study we assess child poverty in South Africa by estimating multivariate models using household-survey microdata from 1995. The applied poverty line defines children as poor if they live in households with a disposable per capita income less than US$1 Purchasing Power Parity. In South Africa, people living under such income conditions must be considered extremely poor. The results show that children living in South Africa face a risk of being poor comparable to that of the average world inhabitant. Child poverty in South Africa is an issue with strong racial connotations. Large variations in child poverty rates across provinces are found and most of South Africa's poor children live in rural areas. The educational level of household head is a strong predictor of child poverty. The probability of child poverty is vigorously reduced if a household receives wage earnings, but is affected by households' demographic structure.     

Differences in Well‐being among People with Disabilities in Paid Employment: Level of Restriction,Gender and Labour Market Context

This study investigates the variability in well‐being of people with disabilities in paid employment in two different labour market contexts: the beginning (1998) and end (2009) of a period of growth in non‐standard hours and work intensification. It focuses on the well‐being constraints that arise from three influences: a person's disability, a person's gender, and the labour market context. Hypotheses are developed using the social model of disability and social identity theory. Hierarchical moderator regression is employed to examine two national samples of nearly 4,000 people with disabilities in paid employment. Individuals who are most limited by their disabilities, particularly women, reported lower well‐being in 2009 than in 1998. Welfare‐to‐work policies affecting these disadvantaged groups are discussed in relation to the labour market and national regulatory environments.     

Making ends meet: perceptions of poverty in Sweden

During the era after the Second World War, Sweden has built a welfare system based on labor market participation and income maintenance. Low unemployment and decent wages are supposed to guarantee people a labor market income or income maintenance, which in turn should provide a proper standard for everyone. However, a rapid increase in unemployment and economic problems have made the future of the Swedish welfare state more uncertain than ever. These circumstances have, among other things, led to the suggestion that Sweden should abandon the income maintenance policy and create a social policy system with the more limited ambition of guaranteeing everyone a minimum income. In that case, one central question must be answered: what constitutes a decent minimum income in today's Sweden? Where should we draw the poverty line under which people will not be forced to live? These questions are central in the current debate. The consensual poverty line method is used in this article to derive a poverty line relevant for today's Sweden. The results shows that more than every fifth household has an income below the consensual poverty line. That is, they have an income that most Swedes would argue is too low to make ends meet. The level of the consensual poverty line was compared with the National Board of Health and Welfare's guidelines for social assistance. The consensual poverty line was shown to be more generous to small households and the norm for social assistance was more generous to larger households. Finally, the expenditure for guaranteeing all Swedish household a minimum income equal to the consensual poverty line was estimated: more than SEK 25 billion per year. The results in the article casts serious doubt on the ability of the Swedish welfare state to secure a decent income to all citizens.     

Access to social protection among people with disabilities: Evidence from Viet Nam

Although people with disabilities are frequently targeted as key beneficiaries of social protection, little is known on their access to existing programmes. This study uses mixed methods to explore participation in disability‐targeted and non‐targeted social protection programmes in Viet Nam, particularly in the district of Cam Le. In this district, social assistance and health insurance coverage among people with disabilities was 53 per cent and 96 per cent respectively. However, few accessed employment‐linked social insurance and other disability‐targeted benefits (e.g. vocational training, transportation discounts). Factors affecting access included the accessibility of the application process, disability assessment procedures, awareness and the perceived utility of programmes, and attitudes on disability and social protection.     

Emotion and relatedness as aspects of the identities of adolescents with severe learning disabilities: contributions from ‘practice‐near’ social work research

This paper considers social and personal/individual approaches to researching identities of adolescents with severe learning disabilities; suggesting that vital components of emotionality and relatedness are largely missing from research and consequently from literature informing social care professionals. This leaves untapped, rich information and communication resources for research which may improve understandings of the experiences of a socially excluded group of young people. A psychosocial view of adolescent identity development, ‘subjectivation’, offers a way forward and a case study on ‘Billy’, drawn from a ‘practice‐near’ observational study, helps to illustrate this. Observation allows the researcher to be sensitive to the subtle ways in which identities of young people with severe learning disabilities are constructed, often with a sense of fragility and uncertainty. Continuities of experience between the young people and the rest of the adolescent community may be seen, but also the impact of living with impairment can be thought about in relation to the particular psychosocial circumstances of each young person. Knowledge of these processes enhances social work practice by encouraging workers to be sensitive to, and healthily curious about, the multiple ways in which identities of young people with severe learning disabilities are shaped in relationship with those around them and the wider social field.     

Poverty and deprivation among children in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Although there is now a large body of literature on poverty in the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, there remains a dearth of comparative analysis of child poverty and wellbeing. This article uses household survey microdata for the period 2001–2003 to compare absolute poverty, relative poverty, material deprivation and participation in schooling among children in five countries: Albania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Russia and Tajikistan. The analysis shows that low absolute levels of household consumption are associated with other deprivation indicators and with children's participation in schooling. The article also highlights the usefulness of relative poverty measures that effectively identify children at risk of exclusion in even the poorest countries in the region. The article concludes by arguing that household consumption is a good indicator of child poverty and deprivation in the region, and that relative poverty measures should be more widely used in monitoring global targets for poverty reduction.