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ScholarWorks > HHS > Social Work > JSSW > Vol. 52 > Iss. 4 (2025)

 

Keywords

Migrant, migrant categories, social welfare policy, employment policy, policy equity analysis, resettled refugees, farmworkers, undocumented immigrants

Abstract

The defining of migrants at the point of entry at the border is later basis for social policies in determining migrants’ entitlements and restrictions regarding social welfare and employment. The affordances and limitations of policy have material or economic impacts on migrants, but they also confer symbolic meanings. That is, policies impact not only migrants’ material needs, such as housing, nutrition, well-being, and income opportunities, but also migrants’ relationalities and positionality in the context of the local and national communities. This study employs a critical policy equity approach with a focus on three migrant categories: (a) undocumented immigrants, (b) temporary farmworkers, and (c) resettled refugees, examining how these three categories are differentiated through social policies, specifically social welfare and employment policies in the United States. We illustrate how social policies differentially impact migrants’ entitlements, eligibilities, and restrictions for public assistance and employment, respectively. We argue for the differentiated ways in which social policies go beyond their mechanisms, technicalities, and legalities, yielding not only material implications but also discursive meaning about (un)deservingness and (un)welcoming realities of different categories of migrants.

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