Welfare to Work

In the context of social programs for low-income families, limited proficiency in English poses a significant barrier to effective communication between social service providers and clients. This has been an acute challenge for state administrators of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant. While most states have taken steps to address this population’s various needs, they have not done so in a comprehensive way. The lack of specific, targeted services often means that such families do not get appropriate and useful assistance. The absence of a coordinated and comprehensive effort has affected both native-born and immigrant Latinos who have a strong desire to enter the workforce and move up the economic ladder, but who have not been able to access appropriate welfare-to-work services, given both their lack of English fluency and the limited worthwhile job opportunities that exist for limited English proficient (LEP) workers. For example, despite the drop-off in Latino families receiving welfare, Hispanic women have tended to leave the rolls at a slower rate than their White and Black counterparts. And as a result, Hispanic families have become a larger share of the nationwide caseload since 1996, rising from roughly 20% of the caseload then to about 25% in 2001.

Discriminatory practices limiting Latino families’ access to services, work supports, and training programs have arguably contributed to adverse outcomes for families on TANF based on race and ethnicity. Over the past decade, there has been a dramatic shift in the nationwide TANF caseload composition from White to Latino families, which has peaked since 1996. As mentioned earlier, Hispanic families compose 25% of the TANF caseload, although Latinos are 12.5% of this nation’s population.

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