Pathways to opportunity: The pole of race, social networks, institutions, and neighborhood in career and educational paths for people on welfare

The ongoing struggle: over welfare reform hinges on debate over which factors cause joblessness and poverty. Conservative scholars blame lack of work experience and a culture of poverty while liberals focus on lack of skills and structural inequality. Through a synthesis of six interrelated research studies conducted between 1992 and 1996, this paper examines the relationship between macro- and micro-level factors in the career. and training paths of welfare recipients. The study illustrates the utility of a holistic. anthropological approach to the study of poverty. The studies found four distinct groups: 1) limited work experience: 2) low-skill workers: 3) displaced workers: and 4) immigrants and refugees. Social networks played a powerful role in the life histories of each group. Using a combination of statistics and ethnography. the article discusses different career and training paths for each group. The relationship ht lu ren training and work experience Tur each group shows the nuances among training programs and the way that class, race, and gender work together to influence various ways that each group makes use of training in developing unique pathways to opportunity or continued poverty.