Immigration and social assistance: Evidence from the Norwegian welfare state

In 1910, the Uruguayan Public Assistance Law established the concept of universal poor relief, declaring that “anyone … indigent or lacking resources has the right to free assistance at the expense of the state.” Nothing better than this law qualifies Uruguay for its distinction as the ‘first welfare state’ in Latin America. As in other countries, much of the first social assistance legislation targeted poor women and children and relied on elite women for much of its implementation. In the Uruguayan case, the primary intersections between public assistance and private philanthropy were the secular “ladies’ committees” (comités de damas), charitable organizations without direct ties to the Catholic Church. These organizations were also an important catalyst for liberal feminism in Uruguay, whose chronology—from the foundation of the National Women's Council in 1916 through the women's suffrage law of 1932—closely parallels the history of the early Uruguayan welfare state. Following a discussion of the formation of the National Public Assistance and its significance for class and gender politics in Uruguay, this article will summarize the evolving relationship between the Uruguayan social assistance bureaucracy and one of these groups, theSociedad“La Bonne Garde,” an organization that worked with young unmarried mothers. It then discusses how a formal and direct relationship with the state helped make the Bonne Garde and other groups like it a principal point of entry for many elite women in the early phases of Uruguayan liberal feminism. Finally, this article shows how processes set in motion in the 1910s resulted in a relative marginalization of elite women from both state welfare and organized liberal feminism in the 1920s. Through an examination of the history of these ladies’ committees, we gain new insight into both welfare state formation in its earliest Latin American example as well as some of the elements and circumstances which helped shape liberal feminism in Uruguay.

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Social assistance in Southern Europe: the case of Greece revisited

Journal of European Social Policy ◽

10.1177/a011399 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 68-80 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Manos Mataganis

Keyword(s):

Welfare State ◽

Social Protection ◽

Social Assistance ◽

Relative Weight ◽

Developed Countries ◽

Southern Europe ◽

Future Directions ◽

Recent Developments ◽

Poor Relation ◽

Of Greece

Social assistance is a largely neglected part of the welfare state in Greece. Recent surveys of social assistance arrangements in developed countries from a comparative perspective tend to portray Greece as the most 'rudimentary' member of the 'rudimentary' group of countries or social assistance regimes, i.e. Southern Europe. While not entirely unfounded, this view rests on a less than complete account of social assistance in Greece, and also ignores the latest developments that further challenge this position. This article aims to 'map' social assistance benefits in Greece, describe recent developments and discuss current debates on future directions of welfare reform in the country. This review suggests that although social assistance remains a 'poor relation' within Greece's social protection system as a whole, its relative weight is much greater than previously thought. Moreover, the profile of social assistance is set to rise due to a renewed emphasis on notions of selectivity and targeting, but also in connection with the revival of the debate on the merits and practicalities of introducing a minimum guaranteed income scheme in the country. The article concludes that the search for the proper place of social assistance within a reconstructed welfare state in Greece has only just begun.

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The Production of Last Resort Support: A Comparison of Social Assistance Schemes in Europe Using the Notion of Welfare Production and the Concept of Social Rights

European Journal of Social Security ◽

10.1177/138826270500700103 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 35-56 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Susan Kuivalainen

Keyword(s):

Social Security ◽

Welfare State ◽

Social Assistance ◽

Point Of View ◽

Social Rights ◽

Lower Prevalence ◽

State Models ◽

Year 2000 ◽

Levels Of Support ◽

Welfare Production

This article aims to assess present social assistance schemes using the notion of welfare production and the concept of social rights. The focus is on how different stages of social assistance schemes are linked, and how well schemes succeed using a number of different indicators. The data are from the year 2000. The six countries that are included in the study represent different welfare state models. The findings show that there are a number of relationships between inputs, outputs and outcomes. Countries with more extensive social security schemes have less extensive social assistance schemes. The results also indicate that countries with less extensive social assistance schemes provide more generous levels of support; and simultaneously, that more generous schemes are associated with a lower prevalence of poverty. In the two Scandinavian countries that are included in the study (Finland and Sweden), social assistance schemes were the most generous from a social rights point of view.

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