Working Poor

Autorin: Gabu Heindl. Erschienen in : dérive 34, Wien, 2009

Alles ist Arbeit – oder: Über das Leben in: Cathode Ray Mission oder: Fernsehzellen, Bürozellen oder: Ein Meer an Zellen, Flexiblen Zellen, Mobilen Zellen, Kapseln, Sheep Boxes in Manga Kissa

As the regimes of the developmental states during 1970s started to wither away with the advent of a new market-led economic policy referred to as ‘Neoliberalism’, informal sector tend to have increased at an alarming rate as opposed to the very concept and predictions of the policy makers themselves.
Having discovered the ‘informal sector’, Keith Hart envisaged in 1973 that a modern market-led and industrialized global economy will absorb the poor precariats and semi-proletariats as the economy would grow eventually (dualist view). But, informalization rather grew faster than ever before as the
modern sector became dependent rather than absorbing it. Today, informal working class population in the world is about 1 billion strong and had grown five times faster than the formal one making it a prime mode of livelihood in third world countries (Davis M., 2006:174). Not only the third world countries but also the most advanced countries have experienced informal labour as ‘self-employment, part-time
work, and temporary work represent 30 per cent of overall employment in 15 European countries and 25 per cent in the United States (ILO, 2002 cited in Beneria, L. and M. Floro 2005:9). Since the early neo-liberal era in the mid-70s, the North had initiated deindustrialization and shifted the focus to low income countries through accumulation of capital and decentralization of production. Labour and capital market was made flexible in the name of globalism and division of labour. Different regimes all over the world especially Latin America, Sub Saharan Africa and Asia responded to the concept of market liberalization and economic restructuring to achieve higher economic growth. Since then the process of globalization has been evidently enriching informalization across the globe.
In this paper, I shall attempt to prove that globalization since the early neo-liberal era of the 1970s to date has contributed much to the informalization of employment especially in the developing countries. 

I shall first start by defining the key two terms ‘Globalization’ and ‘Informalization’ with their relevant historical backgrounds and then discuss how different characteristics and dimensions of globalization as a process has led to increased informalization.

Se vi è un termine che più di ogni altro è stato utilizzato per descrivere le trasformazioni del mercato del lavoro nei paesi a capitalismo avanzato, questo è indubbiamente quello di «dualismo». Che il mercato del lavoro contemporaneo sia (o stia sempre più diventando) «duale», caratterizzato cioè da soggetti che dispongono di diseguali condizioni di lavoro e di reddito, così come da differenti possibilità di accedere alle protezioni sociali e alle garanzie occupazionali, è oramai un'acquisizione comune condivisa da giornalisti, esperti del settore, studiosi di economia e sociologia del lavoro, policy maker e persone comuni. Dietro la generale accettazione del termine, tuttavia, si nascondono significati differenti, approcci teorici divergenti e contrastanti sfide politiche.

2006 年，樂施會委託黃洪調查香港在職貧窮問題（Wong, 2007）。在報告《有 份工，但貧窮：香港就業人口的貧窮問題》中，黃洪指出，13.1% 的勞動人口（代 表 418,600 位在職人士）在 2006 年的收入低於整個勞動人口收入中位數的一半。 1996 年至 2006 年間，在職貧窮人數增加 87.9%，當中主要為女性。2006 年，女 性（不包括外籍家庭傭工）佔在職貧窮人口的 63%。 研究亦明確指出，香港在職貧窮問題具有顯著的性別特徵。女性在結婚或子女出生之後，雖然可重返勞動市 場，不過多數被局限在低薪酬、低技術的服務行業。此項研究側重於屬於公共層 面的勞動市場中的在職女性貧窮情況，而未有深入分析屬於私人層面的家庭內的 性別資源及權力分配不公的問題。

本文將首先以絕對及相對貧窮概念，界定及量度香港女性貧窮狀況。然後我 們將說明香港貧窮問題的女性化趨勢，以及社會普遍忽視的隱性女性貧窮問題。 我們並會嘗試透過說明性別收入差距，及其他結構因素，以解釋香港女性貧窮問 題的成因。最後，我們會提出消減香港女性貧窮問題的建議。

FR
Dans le contexte de l'effritement de la société salariale (Castel 1995), on constate au Canada une prolifération de statuts d'emplois atypiques, une flexibilisation et une précarisation du travail, ainsi qu'une augmentation du nombre de travailleuses et travailleurs pauvres. Deux formes d’emploi semblent particulièrement illustrer la pauvreté et la précarité en emploi : le travail immigrant en agence de placement temporaire et le travail migrant temporaire. Alors que le travail en agence de placement (TAP) constitue un marché du travail précaire, on y retrouve un grand nombre d’immigrants reçus, de demandeurs d’asile ou de réfugiés, employés dans des emplois sous-qualifiés, malgré des niveaux de scolarité souvent élevés. Par ailleurs, le programme fédéral des travailleurs étrangers temporaires peu- spécialisés (PTET-PS), permet aux employeurs canadiens le recrutement d’une main-d’œuvre étrangère pour des postes déclarés non pourvus par une main-d’œuvre locale, établissant des normes spécifiques d'emploi et de migration et constituant un marché du travail transnational et fortement concurrentiel au travail salarié.
La thèse interroge les processus institutionnels de construction des conditions d’accès à l’emploi pour ces deux catégories de travailleurs non natifs du Canada que sont (1) les immigrants reçus et les réfugiés insérés en emploi d’agences de placement dans le secteur de l’entreposage et (2) les travailleurs étrangers temporaires peu-spécialisés travaillant dans un abattoir. Une immersion ethnographique effectuée sur le mode de la participation observante pendant près de deux ans au Centre des travailleuses et travailleurs immigrants (CTI) à Montréal, complétée par une série d’entretiens semi-directifs réalisés auprès de travailleurs, de personnes ressources et d’intervenants du secteur communautaire, montrent que la construction de ces régimes de travail doit être analysée (1) au croisement des politiques publiques d'immigration, de la régulation du travail, des mesures d’insertion en emploi des immigrants et de l’encadrement du regroupement familial, (2) au regard des pratiques des acteurs du marché du travail (entreprises, agences de placement/recrutement, organisations professionnelles et sectorielles) et (3) en considérant les manières dont les travailleurs intègrent les conditions structurelles de l’emploi immigrant à leurs stratégies de vie personnelles et familiales.

Il ressort que l’association de statuts juridiques d’immigration et de certaines formes d’emploi structure des régimes de travail caractérisés par la captivité en emploi, construits relativement aux enjeux et aux besoins immédiats des secteurs d’activité et légitimés par une législation entravant de façon systémique l’accès des travailleurs aux droits et libertés. On observe ensuite que ces régimes de travail contraint produisent des conditions d’accès à l’emploi définies sur un continuum allant de la qualification des personnes, à leur déqualification professionnelle, à leur disqualification sociale. Alors que les travailleurs rencontrés ont la particularité d’être fixés à leur emploi précaire par des contraintes liées à leur exclusion des emplois valorisés et/ou à leurs statuts juridiques d’immigration, la thèse interroge finalement les formes possibles de mobilisation et de défense collective de leurs intérêts à travers une étude de cas portant sur des actions collectives soutenues par un groupe communautaire en lien avec des syndicats.
Mots-clés :
emploi, précarité, immigration, agence de placement temporaire, travail migrant temporaire, politiques publiques, travail contraint, déqualification, disqualification sociale, mobilisation.

EN
In the context of the erosion of the “société salariale” (wage-earning society, Castel 1995), in Canada as elsewhere, we are witnessing the proliferation of atypical employment conditions, the flexibilisation and casualization of work, and an increase in the number of working poor. Two forms of employment best illustrate poverty and precariousness in employment: immigrants working in temporary placement agencies (temp agencies) and temporary foreign workers (TFWs).
The precarious labour market of temp agency work harnesses a large number of highly educated landed immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers employed in low-skilled jobs. Moreover, the federal program for low-skilled temporary foreign workers (TFWP-LS), allows Canadian employers to recruit foreign workers for positions unfilled by the local workforce. The TFWP-LS establishes specific employment and immigration standards, thereby institutionalizing a transnational labour force competing with domestic wage-earners.
This thesis examines the institutional processes that create the terms of access to employment for two categories of foreign-born workers in Canada: (1) landed immigrants and refugees working in warehouses through temporary placement agencies and (2) low-skilled temporary foreign workers in slaughterhouses. A nearly two-year ethnographic immersion at the Immigrant Workers Centre (IWC) in Montreal, based on the “observant participation” method, complemented by a series of semi-structured interviews with workers, key informants and community sector stakeholders, showed that the construction of these work arrangements is complex. An understanding of these categories of work requires an analysis: (1) at the intersection of immigration policies, labour regulations, employment integration measures for immigrants, and regulations related to family reunification; (2) in relation to the practices of labour market actors (companies, placement/recruitment agencies, professional and sectorial organizations); and (3) in consideration of the ways in which workers incorporate the structural conditions of im/migrant employment in their personal and family life strategies and choices.
iii
Results show that immigration status has intersected with certain forms of employment to structure work arrangements characterized by forced labour. Those work arrangements are built on the short-term needs of industries and are legitimized by legislation that systemically impedes workers' access to rights and freedoms. These constrained work arrangements lead (im)migrant workers through a deleterious process, starting with their qualification as an (im)migrant to Canada, then professional de-skilling and finally social disqualification. While the workers met in the context of this project are constrained in their precarious jobs due to their exclusion from qualified jobs and/or by their legal immigration status, the thesis concludes by exploring the possible forms of mobilization and collective defense of their interests through a case study of collective action supported by a community group in connection with trade unions.
Keywords:
employment, precariousness, immigration, temporary placement agency, temporary migrant labour, public policy, forced labour, deskilling, social disqualification, mobilization.

Özet: 18. ve 19. Yüzyıl kapitalizmi koşullarında yaygın bir hal olarak var olan işçi sınıfının yoksulluğu, neo-liberal dönemde çalışan yoksulluğu kavramı ile yeniden gündeme gelmiştir. Uluslararası kuruluşlar, Avrupa Birliği (AB) ve çeşitli ülkeler, farklı kavram setleri ile çalışan yoksulluğunu tanımlamaktadırlar. İstatistiki veriler ve yapılan araştırmalar, tüm dünyada çalışan yoksulluğunun önemli bir boyutta olduğunu göstermektedir. Çalışan yoksulluğu, bireysel ve hanehalkı özelliklerini temel alan mikro yaklaşımlar ile işgücü piyasası ve refah devleti politikalarını temel alan makro yaklaşımlarla açıklanmaya çalışılmaktadır. Türkiye’nin çalışan yoksulları, bir yandan güvencesiz istihdam diğer yandan tek çalışanlı ve çok çocuklu hane yapısının birleşik ekonomik ve politik basıncı altında yaşamlarını sürdürmeye çalışmaktadırlar. Dünyada ve Türkiye’de, çalışan yoksulluğunu neo-liberal aktifleşme ve ücret dışı geçim araçları ile kontrol altına almaya çalışan politikalar, bu sorunu ortadan kaldırmak yerine yeniden inşa eden bir niteliktedir.
Anahtar Sözcükler: Yoksulluk, işçi sınıfı, çalışan yoksulluğu, Türkiye’de çalışan yoksulluğu.
Working Poverty in the World and in Turkey: An Evaluation in the Context of Labour Market and Social Protection Policies Abstract: The poverty of working class which was a common occurrence under the conditions of 18th and 19th century capitalism, was reconceptualized in the neo-liberal era as working poverty. International organizations, the EU and various countries define working poverty with different sets of concepts. Statistical data and research show that the extent of working poverty is significant all over the world. Working poverty is explained by micro approaches based on individual and household characteristics and by macro approaches based on the welfare state and labor market policies. Working poor of Turkey are trying to survive under the combined economic and political pressures of the precarious employment and single earner household structures with many children. Both in other parts of the world and in Turkey, the policies aiming to control the working poverty by neo-liberal activation measures and by non-wage subsistence means, rebuilds working poverty rather than eliminate it. Keywords: Poverty, working class, working poverty, working poverty in Turkey.

This article offers an operationalization of working poor and analyses the main causes of this phenomenon in Poland. To this end, it presents the basic approaches to the measurement of poverty and lists the various employment arrangements applicable under the national law. As the available research results show, the phenomenon of working poor is determined at the 'macro' level by, among other things, servicing of the economy, the economic crisis or by the jobs market becoming more flexible. On the other hand, at the 'micro' level, it is related to causes more complex than just low income. Additionally, the poverty of those in employment is closely related to the tendency towards precarious employment in the so-called "junk  jobs" or “junk contracts.”

Key words: working poor, poverty, precariat, junk jobs, underemployment;

n the last decades, scholars from different disciplines, ranging from economy to law, have tried to better identify and target the working poor in order to provide them with legal protection. Some have referred to categories such as ‘non-standard or precarious forms of employment,’ ‘informal labor’ and ‘popular economy’ to refer to the working poor. My dissertation questions those categories and their ability to target the workers most in need, as well as their underlying assumptions that the activities of the working poor are not regulated by law, but rather fall into a legal vacuum. Using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, I conducted research with one group of vulnerable workers (whom I refer to as street rebuscadores) in Bogotá (Colombia) to answer two main questions: 1) how can we better target and characterize the social grouping to whom the most vulnerable segment of the working poor in Bogotá belongs? 2) How do both State and non-State legal regimes, such as constitutional law, labour law and derecho de policía, interact to influence the productive strategies of the most vulnerable workers in Bogotá? Following Bourdieu’s theory of practice, I found that street rebuscadores constitute the most vulnerable segment of the working poor in a city deeply segregated by class, that they share a similar volume and composition of overall capital (or habitus) and that they share similar practices associated with that habitus. Following a legal pluralist approach, I also concluded that as a social group engaging in regulatory activities, street rebuscadores are situated in a semi-autonomous social field generating internal normative rules, but that is also vulnerable to rules from the larger social matrix in which it is situated. Within that semi-autonomous social field, the vulnerability of street rebuscadores is legally constructed and accentuated by the State, and existing regulatory frameworks are perpetuating and reproducing their condition, although not without resistance.

A Case Study on Perception of Poverty among the Working Poor in the Service Sector.
Abstract:
There have been ongoing debates in the literature on the poverty of the working poor and their survival strategies to make ends meet. Based on fieldwork conducted on daily paid house cleaners, baby sitters, apartment door keepers and taxi drivers, this study looks at the ways in which the working poor develop maximizing income and minimizing expenses strategies for their own survival. Furthermore, this study also explores availability of social ties and networks conceptualized as social capital and their roles for the working poor to cope with the deprivations of poverty.

Öz:

Çalışan yoksulların düşük ücret ve yetersiz iş güvencesi nedeniyle sosyal ve ekonomik açıdan ne tür geçim stratejileri geliştirdikleri, yoksulluk literatürde sıkça tartışılmaktadır. Bu çalışma uygulamalı bir araştırmanın verilerinden yola çıkarak gündelikçileri, bakıcıları, apartman kapıcılarını ve ücretli taksi şoförlerini ele almakta ve bu bağlamda çalışan yoksulların kente tutunabilmek için ne tür gelir arttırıcı ve gider azaltıcı stratejiler geliştirdiklerini irdelemektedir. Ayrıca bu çalışmada çalışan yoksulların kente tutunmalarında önemli bir rol oynayan sosyal ilişki ağlarının etkisi ve gücü sosyal sermaye kavramı bağlamında çözümlenmektedir.

Since the establishment of a European strategy to create more and better jobs at the end of '90s (EES – European Employment Strategy), Member States faced many efforts pursuing the target of high percentage of employed persons, target renewed with Europe 2020 strategy. In the same years many citizenship rights, universally recognized, started to be conditioned to the employment status: the " welfarism " was rapidly substituted with " workfare " , with the twin aims of encouraging activation of labour force and-less claimed – of cutting public expenses, especially in social services. In this paper we analyse trends and relations of certain dimension of employment to better understand the sustainability of this approach. We stressed out that in front of asymmetric reduction of unemployment among Member States, the " new " employment is more and more characterized by undermining factors: insecurity, precariousness, poverty. From this point of view, it seems that States pursuing active labour market policies, under a Flexicurity approach, besides a good labour market performance, are still facing with poverty and job insecurity of many workers. So that is even more true if we consider other variables like household indebtedness, the other dangerous drawback of welfare " commodification " processes. There is no one solution, beyond enforce Employment Protection Legislations, Basic income or Minimum wages, but changing the targets of European strategy with more social or qualitative components (e.g. quality of employment) and get over the Flexicurity approach could be a good starting point.

Abstract:
This paper aims to explore the economic and social difficulties that working poor women confront in the service sector in Turkey. It particularly focuses on the survival strategies of house-cleaners and the babysitters in Eskisehir, Turkey.

The paper draws upon fieldwork conducted in 2006-2007 in Eskisehir, a middle-sized city which is characterized by presence of middle income groups in Turkey. House-cleaners and the babysitters are generally employed on an irregular base, usually paid less than minimum wage, are not covered by social security system and thus regarded as disorganized and poorly paid work force in Turkey. Massive migration from rural areas has created an abundant labour force in urban areas and this has resulted in a growth of informal economic activities in Turkey. Since the migrants lack level of education and skills required by the formal sector in Turkey, they are forced into low paid jobs in the informal sector. The experience of poverty and economic hardship genderly differs as women are coerced more than men to go into low paid jobs in Turkey. This paper will particularly look at ways in which women experience poverty and their survival strategies in easing economic difficulties.

Résumé

Le travailleur pauvre est celui qui cumule à la fois conditions de travail précaires et conditions de vie précaires, deux situations qui pratiquent beaucoup d’interfaces sans se recouper totalement. Les questionnements portent autant sur l’activité de travail que sur le rapport à l’emploi. En plus d’être multidimensionnelle, la problématique du travailleur pauvre est une remise en cause fondamentale de l’ordre social basé sur l’emploi salarié à temps plein. Ceci implique de réviser les catégories d’analyse existantes pour appréhender le degré d’épuisement du mode de régulation existant n même temps que pour saisir les lignes de force de celui qui émerge.

Abstract

The working poor. From percariousness to being poor while employed. The literature in Quebec, Canada, the United States and France

A poor worker is someone who is both doing precarious work and has precarious working conditions. These two circumstances are interconnected without being exactly the same, leading to questions about both the work and the employment relation. In addition to being multidimensional, the issue of the working poor is a fundamental challenge to a social order founded on full-time salaried work. It implies an alteration of analytic categories so as to understand the degree to which the existing mode of regulation is exhausted as well as to appreciate the power relations of that which is emerging.

In May of 2005, the Community Economic and Social Development program at Algoma University College was contracted to conduct research on the population defined as the “working poor” and to conduct evaluations of other programs developed under the SCPI funds (see Boston and Broad, 2006). The Social Services Solution Committee of United Way Sault Ste. Marie acted as an Advisory Group to this research (CSC, 2005).
This study was intended to develop a profile of Sault Ste. Marie’s low wage earners, and to answer the following three research questions: (1) Who are the working poor? (2) What are the characteristics of this population? (3) Are they at risk of homelessness?

The crucial lines in Zeph 2:3; 3:12 state that a people described as ani and anawim (in Hebrew) will be saved from the coming wrath and left as a remnant faithful to the LORD.  These terms in Hebrew, however, may be rendered either metaphorically (i.e., the spiritually poor or “humble”) or more literally as those who suffer material poverty (i.e., the poor). To date, the majority of First World English translations render the term metaphorically, including major Catholic translations. This article will argue, following historical and lexical evidence, that the terms ani and anawim in Zeph 2:3 and 3:12-13 should be translated as those who are economically poor. The common translation of “humble” or “meek” in these verses represents a First World bias and should be rejected. Revision to the Catholic lectionary’s translation would correctly represent the historical meaning of the texts as well as inspire homiletic exhortations on Catholic social teaching.

W języku angielskim pojęcie junk job jest silnie obecne w publicznym dyskursie od pewnego cza- su i ma bardziej neutralną konotację. W Polsce nie, używamy więc terminu junk job w obawie przed ową niepoprawnością polityczną, jako swoistego rodzaju przykrywkę.
Pojęcie working poor jest nieobecne w dyskursie społecznym w Polsce, aczkolwiek zjawisko to jest za- uważane i komentowane.
Zamierzamy te pojęcia zdefiniować oraz pokazać, jak przekładają się one na sytuację pracy w naszym kraju. Oba należą do zjawisk nigdy nie badanych w podejściu socjologicznym i właściwie jako takie nieobecne w polskim dyskursie naukowym. Nasz ar- tykuł im poświecony nosi więc wszelkie znamiona eksploracji wstępnej4.

Adolescents' attitudes toward disadvantaged groups are surprisingly understudied. What we know from these few studies is that adolescents' attitudes tend to become more favorable over time and that adolescent girls display more favorable attitudes than do adolescent boys. However, researchers have not offered explanations for why these effects occur. We proposed that changes in social-cognitive abilities that accompany adolescent development increase perspective taking and that the increased perspective taking facilitates more favorable attitudes toward disadvantaged groups. Because girls develop social-cognitive abilities earlier than boys, girls should show greater perspective taking and thus more positive attitudes toward disadvantaged groups than should boys. Importantly, we propose that these more positive attitudes are explained better by perspective taking than by gender. Participants were late adolescents (n = 803, 53.3 % female, ages 15-19) from high schools in nort...

Working poor families living in underserved urban communities are gaining access to the Internet and attending Information Communication Technologies (ICT) through municipally provisioned broadband and Digital Inclusion (DI) plans. Within this Information Society, new levels of disparities emerge for working poor families threatening greater socio-economic marginalization. Likewise, new possibilities and opportunities for socio-economic mobility and civic participation arise for working-poor families. Subsequently, the public policy implications are joint and several. Using an interdisciplinary, multi-method approach, comparative case studies are offered as the basis of analysis to evaluate municipal broadband policies and DI plans in Philadelphia, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Boston. Non-linear models that estimate disparities between and among working poor families participating in the respective DI plans are presented.

Garland, C. (2014) ‘As Barriers Fall, Contingency Becomes Possibility: Protest Resisting and Escaping Containment and Categorization’, Part II Identity, Embodiment and Categorisation in Eds. Lamond, I. and Spracklen, K. 'Protests as Events: Politics, Activism and Leisure (London: Rowman & Littlefield International) Hardback ISBN/9781783480760 Paperback ISBN/978-1-78348-077-7 eBook ISBN/978-1-78348-078-4 

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781783480760

SPIS TREŚCI

Wstęp (7-16)

ROZDZIAL 1: BIEDA I PRACA (17-82)
1.1 Maria Skóra: Transformacja jako czynnik konstytuujący nowe grupy zagrożone ubóstwem w kontekście tzw. „trudnych” rynków pracy (19-36)
1.2 Ewelina Kuźmicz: Bieda pracujących, czyli working poor po polsku (37- 62)
1.3 Małgorzata Zielińska, Piotr Kowzan: Definiowanie biedy. Rozważania nad biedą we współczesnej Polsce oraz jej rozumieniem przez trójmiejskich nauczycieli (63-82)

ROZDZIAL 2: BIEDA I WARUNKI MIESZKANIOWE (83-156)
2.1 Martyna Bildziukiewicz, Magdalena Marcinkowska: Ubóstwo energetyczne – nowa kategoria biedy (85-104)
2.2 Witold Kieńć: Czekając na polskie slumsy (105-116)
2.3 Magdalena Chruściel: Prawno ‑ społeczne aspekty eksmisji (117-140)
2.4 Beata Maria Pawlik‑Popielarska: Archetyp bezdomności (141-156)

ROZDZIAL 3: DEMOGRAFIA BIEDY I WYKLUCZENIA (157-174)
3.1 Michał Kubiak: Ubóstwo czy wykluczenie społeczne ludzi starszych w Polsce? (159-174)

ROZDZIAL 4: NOWE WYMIARY BIEDY I WYKLUCZENIA (175-212)
4.1 Piotr Kowzan: Nowe oblicza biedy: Dług jako kategoria
socjologiczna (177-190)
4.2 Magdalena Prusinowska: Komercjalizacja edukacji i zagrożenie wykluczeniem społecznym w świetle reformy polskiego szkolnictwa
wyższego (191-212)

ROZDZIAL 5: BIEDA W MIEJSCU (213-246)
5.1 Malgorzata Kłoskowicz, Agnieszka Pogrzeba, Anna Stawowa, Żaneta Śmigiel, Aleksandra Wycisk: Stara bieda w nowym mieście? Przypadek gminy Borne Sulinowo (215-234)
5.2 Tomasz Skoczylas: Wieś jako „przechowalnia biedy” w Polsce (235-246)

ROZDZIAL 6: ODPOWIEDZI NA BIEDĘ (247-264)
6.1 Małgorzata Zielińska: Emigracja jako odpowiedź na trudną sytuację finansową. Raport z badań Polaków na Islandii (249-264)
6.2 Dorota Majka‑Rostek: Żebractwo jako strategia radzenia sobie z ubóstwem
(265-278)
6.3 Magdalena Żemojtel‑Piotrowska, Jarosław Piotrowski: Biedny, więc roszczeniowy czy roszczeniowy, więc biedny? O możliwych związkach postaw roszczeniowych ze statusem socjoekonomicznym i wykluczeniem społecznym (279-296)
6.4 Agnieszka Kaim: Przeciwdzialanie ubóstwu i wykluczeniu a komercjalizacja organizacji pozarzadowych (297-308)

ROZDZIAL 7: POSTRZEGANIE BIEDY / BIEDA W OCZACH POLAKÓW (309-350)
7.1 Alicja Lisowska: Dolnoślązacy wobec problemów społecznych
regionu (311-328)
7.2 Witold Kieńć: Postawy i aktywność polityczna polskich biednych (329- 339)

English summaries (341-350)

Amidst a period of economic growth and development in Hong Kong, poverty not only remains, but is on the increase. Amidst the prosperity, the gap between rich and poor people is widening. Amidst talk in our nation of building a harmonious society, and talk in Hong Kong of compassion and of civic values, the facts show that trends are heading in the opposite direction: more and more people are facing marginalisation and discrimination, especially women, minorities, and elderly people. Poverty in the workforce-also referred to as 'employment poverty'-is an issue that Oxfam Hong Kong has been addressing for several years through research, advocacy, public education, and support for community projects. We see that in the swelling ranks of the poor and the near-poor are people who do an honest day's work, but who do not receive the compensation that can provide a decent standard of living. This report examines the alarming facts on poverty among workers over the past decade and argues that the current situation is unacceptable. Solutions are urgently needed. This report also makes proposals for a path to improvement. Oxfam's underlying proposal is simple: all of us-not just business and government leaders-need to get involved in making Hong Kong the society it wants to be: polls indicate that a majority of the population supports a minimum wage, for instance. All of us need to consider what responsibilities we accept as individuals, and as a community. Here is a way in which everyone can help: make it clear to our leadership that their mandate rests on our expectation that they will build a better, fairer society, a society that values every single worker in Hong Kong.

pp. 1465-69 in "The Social History of the American Family: An Encyclopedia". Eds.: M. J. Coleman and L. H. Ganong, SAGE Reference, 2014.

Working-Class Families/Working Poor

In the United States, the working class and the working poor hold a place in the social class structure where employment and poverty co-exist.  Laborers who work for wages that place them and their families below the comfort zone of middle-class reliability but above absolute poverty—the working-class—have minimal stability within the labor market.  In contrast, the working poor, individuals and families whose wages from employment do not provide for a standard of living above official poverty thresholds, struggle just to make ends meet. 
At a particular historical time, the working-class and the working poor were distinct groups; however, in recent years these distinctions have disappeared and are now synonymous for low-wage, at-risk families at the margins of the United States economy.  Breadwinners in families often hold positions at or near the boundaries of dominant labor markets; this expansive service sector includes low-wage clerical, sales, and physical labor occupations in support of many mainstream social, political, and economic institutions.