Economy-wide effects of cross-border labor mobility: The case of Palestinian employment in Israel

This paper investigates the economy-wide effects of cross-border movements of Palestinian labor for employment in Israel. The integration of Palestinian and Israeli labor markets is unique, as it differs from international labor migration and associated remittances described in the literature. Especially, it departs from the cultural and social dimensions associated with international migration because there is no shift in residence. We find based on an economy-wide model calibrated to a newly developed database of the West Bank economy that increasing Palestinian labor demand in Israel negatively affects the West Bank economy by bidding up domestic wages, reallocating labor away from tradable activities and reducing competitiveness of the Palestinian export sector. However, increasing labor income from Israel has positive welfare effects for Palestinian households. Considering these results, the paper identifies policy options for the Palestinian National Authority.     

Education in the Context of Conflict and Instability: The Palestinian Case

This paper draws on the results of a study carried out in the West Bank, in 1999, to explore the role of education as a coping strategy among the children of Palestinian refugees, and to examine how the state of being refugees affects perceptions of the value and importance of education. The paper first reviews the background to the development of a formal education system in Palestine and considers the different approaches to education in different political contexts, with ensuing particular reference to the West Bank. The findings of the regional study are then reported, with special reference to the various functions of education as a coping strategy—remedial, incentive‐mobilizing and identity‐building. Education, for those who have lost their property and whose identity is under threat, emerges as a key channel for maintaining consciousness of collective rights.     

Response bias in opinion polls and American social welfare

Response bias and notably response falsification undercut the usefulness of opinion polls in characterizing collective American attitudes toward social welfare. The attitudes polled in surveys such as the General Social Survey (GSS) and the National Election Studies (NSS) appear to be customarily sensitive, often evidencing very large amounts of response falsification that obscure the degree of consensus for America's bifurcated social welfare system. Response bias and falsification greatly affect self-reports of family income, drinking and drug abuse, sex behavior, voting, and a large number of other attitudes central to the provision of social welfare. The problems of response bias may be intractable and attention might profitably return to traditional scholarship that attends to actual collective choices, e.g., legislation, as still imperfect but more reliable estimates of the national will.     

Child protection in China: Changing policies and reactions from the field of social work

This article offers a general review of the development of national policies on child protection in China. It offers an in‐depth analysis of related legislation enacted between 2010 and 2015 that have had an impact on child protection and related historical, cultural and legal issues. Furthermore, in the study we examined the emerging role of social work in preventing and responding to child abuse and neglect in China. Major findings of the research include: (i) policies concerning child protection have been highly influenced by Confucianism and its perspective of the child as family property; (ii) child protection regulations on accident reporting, custody transfer, and surrogate care are gradually being refined and improved, although the legal system for child protection is still incomplete and needs further substantiation; and (iii) the involvement of non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) and social workers has enhanced the child protection system. Key Practitioner Message: ? Policies concerning child protection have been subject to an immense impact by Confucianism, placing strong responsibility on family members in providing childcare although the child is viewed as part of the family's property; ? After 1949, the newly founded socialist political structure began to exert a significant influence on welfare and child welfare policies. Because the Confucian perspective emphasised family and parental responsibility, government in China has traditionally not been heavily involved in policies that interfere in the internal workings of families; ? Since the shift toward an open‐door policy in 1979, child protection policies in China have begun to develop, with a child welfare network gradually spreading to cover the majority of children. Moreover, child protection is generally supported by the legal system, within which regulations on accident reporting, custody transfer and surrogate care are gradually being refined and improved. However, despite the huge progress achieved in recent years, there are significant deficits in its implementation and monitoring; ? The involvement of non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) and professional social work services has promoted a child protection system.     

Welfare Policies and the Construction of Welfare Relations in a Residual Welfare State: The Case of Hong Kong

Each welfare system has its own welfare relations for shaping and maintaining certain types of welfare practices and welfare ideologies. Welfare relations concern the distribution of welfare responsibilities among various social institutions, the public's welfare expectations and entitlements, and the status of welfare recipients. Welfare policies, which are a legal basis of the dominant class's philosophy as well as a mechanism for policing welfare recipients' use of benefits, play an important role in shaping and constructing the welfare relations of a country. This paper discusses how welfare policies construct the required welfare relations with regard to Hong Kong's social security system. It is argued that the persistence of Hong Kong's residual welfare model is partly based on the residual welfare relations which facilitate family-centred and market-oriented welfare practices.     

Analysing the Welfare State in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia: An Ideal-Typical Perspective

This article applies ideal-typical welfare state theory in analysing the recent transition and the current position of welfare state systems in Eastern Central Europe, taking the cases of Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia. The article argues that Eastern Central European welfare state systems have returned to their historical and cultural roots of welfare state formation and development, to the time before the onset of state socialism in Soviet times. First, social security policies and social and labour laws were established when the vast bulk of Eastern Central European countries were member states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, sharing the same political economy, legal system and culture. Over the last 20 years, the socialist system of employment-based social services and benefits has been replaced with Bismarckian-type social security policy and systems. While there are major alterations here and there – in ideal-typical perspective – the four countries under scrutiny share all the major traits of Continental European (Christian Democratic) welfare regimes .     

Diagnosing Corruption in Russia : A Sociological Analysis

The interrelated planning of economic and social development poses, inter alia, a number of problems having to do with the content, distinctive characteristics, and form of manifestations of social relationships as they apply to the geographic organization of a social entity, i.e., to the subjects that have to be dealt with in planning social development in territorial units.     

Public support for the social rights and social obligations of the unemployed: Two sides of the same coin?

In light of the ever‐growing shift towards activation in European welfare states, the present article examines the relationship between citizens’ welfare generosity (i.e., support for social rights) and welfare conditionality (i.e., support for social obligations) with regard to the unemployed. Using data from the 2014 Belgian National Elections Study, we found that generosity and conditionality appear to be two sides of the same coin. The two factors are negatively correlated, and most of their respective attitudinal drivers are quite similar in strength, yet opposite in direction. In addition to self‐interest and conventionally recognised ideational beliefs, such as egalitarianism and individualism, beliefs about welfare deservingness – an explanatory factor that has remained understudied in the field – are particularly influential in shaping people’s welfare preferences. A stronger emphasis on criteria of deservingness such as control, attitude and reciprocity considerably lowers support for social rights and strengthens support for social duties.     

Effective workload management in child welfare: Understanding the relationship between caseload and workload

A common assumption in public social service organizations is that workload may be positively associated with caseload. However, few empirical studies have examined what specific characteristics of caseload affect caseworkers' workloads in the child welfare system. This study attempts to address this gap by identifying specific individual and regional factors that influence both subjective and objective dimensions of workloads. Survey data were collected from 1,244 caseworkers at one public child welfare agency in a Midwestern state in the United States. The data indicated that both perceptions of unmanageable workloads and self‐reported overtime work were significantly higher when caseworkers had a greater number of cases than the state caseload standard for the investigations units and worked with at least two different types of cases simultaneously (e.g., working with both investigation and ongoing service cases). Additionally, sufficient staffing numbers to meet caseload demands at the regional level significantly decreased the odds ratio of having to do overtime work. The major findings suggest that the objective and subjective dimensions of workload vary by individual‐ and regional‐level variables. Practice implications are discussed for effective and efficient workload management in the public child welfare system.     

Access to justice for Aboriginal People in the Northern Territory

This article discusses research in the Northern Territory on Aboriginal civil and family law needs. It is based on focus group discussions and interviews with legal services providers and other associated organisations. The article argues that key areas of legal need involve discrimination, housing, child protection, social security, credit/debt and consumer law problems. It further argues that welfare conditionality, particularly as embodied in the NT Intervention and subsequent Stronger Futures policies, has exacerbated the need for legal assistance and advocacy for Aboriginal people.     

地位层级认同为何下移: 兼论地位层级认同基础的转变

地位层级认同的“向下偏移”是一个在学理上和政策上都非常重要的现象。本文发现,地位层级的主要认同基础已由对具体社会单元的归属感转变为对收入等市场要素的占有,这是地位认同“参照系”的重大转变。要真正理解地位层级认同的“向下偏移”,就必须理解社会地位“参照系”的变动,而不仅仅是个体地位“参照点”的变动。建立在收入等市场要素占有基础上的地位参照系具有缺乏稳定性、没有具体边界等特点,因此导致原先的“中层认同”趋向于瓦解,新的“中层认同”又难以建立,地位层级认同出现整体性下移。要想建立起新的“中层认同”,不仅需要提升个体收入和福利,而且要在社会生活层面上通过种种制度方式建立起社会归属和公民认同。     

Social work practice toward enhancing competence in family planning

Competence in family planning possessing the ability to limit conception so that children are produced by choice. More attention must be directed toward family planning by social workers because of its importance in family welfare. They should help clients know that family planning might help in preventing family problems and promoting family health. The workers should determine whether their clients use or have ever used family planning, and who takes responsibility for it. Discussion of the physiology of the various methods can help alleviate many unwanted fears. The subject of family planning is also important in dealing with adolescent groups. As social work practice incorporates family planning as an integral part of its profession, it will become more effective.     

Protecting the Old in a Young Economy: Old Age Insurance in the West Bank and Gaza Strip

Taking the West Bank and Gaza Strip as a reference point, this paper looks at social protection in developing economies, which are beset by economic stagnation, widespread poverty and unemployment. If the main breadwinner dies, is unable to work or is an older person, these factors are prime causes of absolute poverty. This is hardly surprising, since private and public systems of social security are totally inadequate in this area in particular. Current thinking on social security suggests that what is needed is the rapid introduction of a comprehensive system of retirement provision, comprising a mandatory capital-funded insurance component, with defined contributions, administered on a decentralized basis; and a state-administered pay-as-you-go basic insurance component with lump-sum transfers to safeguard the poorest. A system of this kind works to prevent poverty in old age by redistributing funds from some individuals to others and ensuring an income for life, and it represents a compromise between a fair return on what people have contributed and a fair distribution over society as a whole. It is thus a major force for stability in society.     

Cultural context and social technology transfer: the case of Canton, China

This research examines social technology transfer by taking into account the role of cultural context – the interplay between geography, maritime trade, role of the state and foreign intercourse. The southern port city of Canton, China is the focus, and provides a case study to examine why Western merchants and missionaries came to this particular location to transfer various social technologies, i.e. hospitals, insane asylums, schools, colleges and homes for the blind. The relevance of these institutions to the development of China's social welfare is considered in terms of Canton's shifting welfare mix. Implications of this case study are considered relevant to critical understanding of international social welfare from an East–West perspective.     

Exploring and Assessing Nonsocial Play in the Preschool: The Development and Validation of the Preschool Play Behavior Scale

Recently, researchers have investigated the different structural forms of young children's nonsocial play behaviors. The primary goal of this research was to develop and validate the Preschool Play Behavior Scale (PPBS) , a teacher rating scale designed to assess the multiple forms of young children's solitary behaviors. In this regard, two studies were conducted. In Study 1, 39 preschool children were observed, and their social and nonsocial behaviors recorded over a three month period. Teachers then completed the PPB S. Results supported the construct validity of the PPBS ; teacher-rated and observed nonsocial and social behaviors were significantly associated in predicted ways. In Study 2, parental (e.g., demographic, child temperament) and teacher (e.g., PPBS , child behavior problems) ratings were collected for 337 preschoolers. Results established the psychometric properties of the PPBS (e.g., inter-rater reliability, factor structure, internal consistency, and convergent validity).     

More than Just DNA – Tax,Welfare and the Family. An examination of the concept of family in the Tax Transfer system,with particular reference to family benefits

One of the core issues taken into account in tax transfer systems is the family circumstances of a particular recipient. Family tax transfer payments may be delivered through either the tax or the welfare system. However, the fundamental requirement is that there is a family, maintaining children. The concept of what is a family is a social rather than a legal construct. While marriage and spouse have legal definitions, family structures evolve and change over time. In this paper I explore the concept of family as it is used in the Australian income tax and welfare legislation. I consider the impact of the legislative construct of family on the entitlements to tax credits, and whether the definition of family is appropriate to ensure that the benefits improve the equity of the taxation system, and properly reflect the structure of the contemporary family unit.     

The Social Construction of Reality in the Realm of Children's Mental Health Services

ABSTRACT

Across the United States, systems of care have emerged to provide mental health care to children and their families; fragmentation inhibiting the success of collaboration by stakeholders is common and compromises these systems of care. Survey data were collected from 1,428 respondents in a Midwestern state to examine problems that exist within systems of care from the perspective of the different stakeholder groups. Stakeholder group membership was based upon the respondent's employment or involvement within various child-serving systems and included those in child welfare, juvenile justice, and education, mental health providers, and consumers (i.e., caregivers/parents). Group differences revealed patterns of “finger pointing” by the stakeholder groups on where specific problems exist within systems of care. The findings provide insight into how the social construction of service delivery and practice emerges as stakeholder groups describe, understand, and evaluate problems within the system of care as a function of their own practice location within the system of care. Future research should consider exploring methods that might minimize the competitive nature of disparate child-serving systems and its potentially negative impact upon system performance and treatment outcomes.     

Local approaches to counter a wider pattern? Urban poverty in Portland,Oregon

A model U.S. city, Portland Oregon's progressive policies are often credited with making it highly livable, with a vibrant urban core. Yet these policies have not protected Portland from broader trends that have increased urban poverty over the past several decades in the U.S., including social welfare cuts and the shift in the economy to the service sector. In terms of poverty dynamics and social policies, we argue that while regional planning and other progressive policies have helped protect Portland from extremely high concentrated poverty present in many large U.S. cities, it has still experienced growing social dislocations associated with national and macro-level social and economic factors. These trends suggest both the possibilities and limits of local policy, regional planning, and activism for ameliorating the deleterious consequences of social welfare retrenchment and franchise capitalism for vulnerable urban populations, and highlight the importance of the broader social policy context and economic change for understanding urban poverty and the experiences of the urban poor.     

A Person‐Oriented Analysis of Social Withdrawal in Chinese Children

The goal of this study was to compare the socio‐emotional and academic adjustment of different subtypes of socially withdrawn (shy, unsociable, avoidant) school‐age children in mainland China. Participants were N = 1344 children ages 10–12 years from public elementary schools in Shanghai, People's Republic of China. Multi‐source assessment included: child self‐reports of social withdrawal subtypes and internalizing difficulties (e.g., depression, social anxiety); peer nominations of children's peer relations (e.g., peer victimization, peer preference); and teacher ratings of children's school adjustment (e.g., academic success, internalizing problems). Results from person‐oriented analyses indicated that socially avoidant (i.e., shy‐unsociable) children reported the most pervasive internalizing difficulties compared to other groups. However, in contrast to findings among Western samples, unsociable children were as likely to have peer and academic difficulties as their shy and socially avoidant peers. Findings are discussed in terms of the implications of different subtypes of social withdrawal among children in collectivistic societies such as China.