Recent news reports indicate that 12.7% of the US population lives in poverty which for a family of four the official poverty threshold in 2004 was $19,157. This translates into 37 million people with nearly a third being children. Put another way, for every 10 people you might see on the street, one will be living in poverty.
Even more dramatic is the fact that the threshold for poverty is really high -- meaning you have to be really, really poor to be considered living in poverty. In reality, a much greater percentage of Americans can be considered working poor. For example, if a family of four has two working adults making $7/hour, they will take home $29,120 (pre-tax). Add childcare costs, rent, utilities, food, and other basic necessities and it is essentially living in poverty.
The Chicago Tribune (8/30/2005) reported that "The Midwest was the only region of the country to experience increases in both the poverty rate and in the number of people considered poor. The Midwestern poverty rate climbed from 10.7 percent to 11.6 percent last year while the number of poor people increased from 6.9 million to 7.5 million . The poverty rate remained unchanged in other regions."
One recent group of people who are contributing to this increase in poverty in the Midwest are the large influx of refugees from around the world who are settling in cities like Minneapolis/St. Paul, Milwaukee, and Chicago. For example, these poverty numbers got me thinking about the new Hmong refugees who have been arriving from the last refugee camp in Thailand since 2004. Approximately 4,000 have settled into Minnesota and it is expected to top at around 5,000 (excluding internal migration which likely will increase this final number).
As some of you may know, I have been working with colleagues and graduate students in collaboration with a variety of community-based organizations on the development and implementation of a mental health screening protocol for the new Hmong refugees. We also have attended various community meetings to hear about first hand accounts of the Hmong refugee communities adjustment.
I won't go into the details of the current project, but I want to share come of the challenges that these families face as they settle into their new lives in Minnesota.
Imagine a family of eight with no English skills, no formal education, limited employable job skills, a long history of trauma and neglect, and complete and absolute culture shock living on minimal welfare assistance that covers rent and provides some food. Moreover, they are pressued (thanks to welfare-to-work reforms) to find a job within months of arrival and start to lose assistance if they do not find a job or hold onto a job. Their sponsors to this country tend to be extended family who themselves may be living just above working poverty levels and do not necessarily have much resources to offer.
It is a desperate situation that I suspect most (if not all) of us would not want to be living in. In fact, if you are reading this blog, you clearly are affluent enough to not be in this situation, altho' perhaps your family was in a similar situation not long ago.
America is a land of wonderful oppportunities but there are clear barriers and restrictions that make mobility easier for some than others. The Hmong refugees are just one example. The poor, especially the working poor, become the invisible part of society that we (including I) do not want to think about day to day because it is just downright depressing.
I was given a book for my birthday, Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, which is about growing up in poverty in the Bronx. I just started to read it but within the first 50 pages you can already feel the desperation and futility of trying to make it out. Survival skills are short-term because it's seems hopeless to think long-term when you are wondering how to feed, protect, and care for yourself and your children.
My current prayer is for the new Hmong refugees to find some hope in their current lives and to demonstrate the resilience that allowed them to survive and succeed living in Laos and Thailand. I know most will succeed despite the odds. It is an amazing thing about humans and about our country that so many will find their ways out. Hopefully, each generation succeeding the other. But I also am a realist to know that some will stay just above the margins and others will sink further.
It really does challenge those of us who are living privileged lives to ask what can we do to help. What is our civic responsibility in this matter? Is my research efforts enough?
Posted by richlee at August 31, 2005 10:59 AM