Native Welfare Research Articles

Ethnopsychology in the Bismarck Archipelago: Richard Thurnwald and the visual anthropology of German colonialism

Between 1906 and 1909, the Austrian-born German anthropologist Richard Thurnwald undertook an expedition to Germany's Pacific colonies on behalf of the Berlin Museum for Ethnology. There he carried out a series of experimental psychological tests to investigate the mentalities and intelligence of Melanesian subjects. Due to the limitations on verbal communication, Thurnwald privileged non-verbal experiments, especially involving drawings made by his local assistants and guides. His 1913 publication Ethnopsychological Studies on South Seas Peoples reproduces some 200 of those images, which have seldom been studied since. This article examines Thurnwald's experiments in ethnopsychology through the lens of these visual materials and situates his project within larger international trends of scientific colonialism. Despite purporting to further native welfare, his application of experimental psychology to the colonial field was meant to provide solutions to the administration's most urgent problems: pacification, labour recruitment, and a declining birth rate. Yet, as this article argues, the images he collected can also be read against the grain as documents of indigenous response to German colonial rule.

An Exploration of Changes in British Welfare Social Policy in the First Half of the Twentieth Century through Bourdieu's Theory of Field and Habitus

The question of how to transcend the dichotomy between subjectivity and objectivity is a central one in contemporary sociological theory. Bourdieu advocates habitus as a cognitive framework that embodies an individual's practical understanding of society. Such practices consist of structures and habits, and social behaviour is not directly determined by structures, but is indirectly influenced by habitus as an 'embodied mode'. Habits, as 'opportunities for the subject', act as constraints on the formation of structures and contribute to their reproduction. The welfare policy of Britain has experienced the transformation from solving the problem of the poor with a single welfare policy of relief law to the establishment of national economic law, which is continuously amended according to the native welfare policy habitus, thus affecting the welfare policy field and realising the two-way constraints of the field and habitus.

What Explains the Gap in Welfare Use Among Immigrants and Natives?

We investigate the gap in welfare use between immigrants and natives over a 24-year period using the Annual Social and Economic Supplement of the Current Population Survey from 1995-2018, spanning periods of economic recessions and recoveries, changes in welfare policy regimes, and policies towards immigrants. A novel contribution of our research is to adopt the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition analysis to study the effects of demographic factors, macroeconomic trends and policy on welfare use gap between immigrants and natives. Our analysis leads to three main findings: one, if immigrants had the same demographic characteristics as natives their participation in means-tested programs would have been much less overall and much below those of natives. This finding holds true across broader measures of welfare receipt capturing cash and near cash programs and health insurance as well as participation in five specific safety net programs. It also holds true across periods of economic recessions and recovery. Second, we find evidence that the business cycle impacts immigrant and native welfare participation differently. Immigrant participations in Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program and State Children’s Health Insurance Program are more sensitive to the business cycle than native participations. Three, we find that changes in program eligibility explain only a modest proportion of the immigrant-native gap in welfare use. A possible explanation for this finding is that changes in eligibility rules have affected only specific immigrant populations (e.g. new immigrants) whereas our analysis pertains to all immigrants.

Just Gold: The Mavis Walley Collection

‘What she captured is just gold’, says Dallas Phillips. She is talking about the photographs taken by her mother, Mavis Phillips, née Walley, one of Australia’s earliest known Indigenous photographers. Representing an extremely rare perspective of life during protectionist and Native Welfare times from a Ballardong Noongar point of view, the Mavis Walley Collection (MWC) existed for decades as negatives kept in an old chocolate tin before coming to light at an oral histories workshop in Goomalling, Western Australia. By way of its knowledge-based digital archive, Storylines, the State Library of Western Australia worked with Mavis Phillips’s family to restore and disseminate 325 of these negatives in 2015. This article argues that the MWC significantly differs from heritage photographs taken by non-Indigenous photographers in subject, composition, and style, expressing the joy and spontaneity of the photographer and her sitters. A product of intercultural collaboration between an Indigenous family and a non-Indigenous state institution, the MWC disrupts the pictorial record of Western Australian Indigenous history, shedding light on the rich past of a connected and thriving Ballardong Noongar family in Goomalling.

Mothers’ Pensions and the ‘Civilised’ Black Poor: The Racialised Provision of Child Maintenance Grants in South Africa, 1921–1940

This article discusses the origins and early 20th-century administration of child maintenance grants, first introduced in South Africa in 1921 as an amendment to the Children’s Protection Act of 1913 and popularly known as ‘mothers’ pensions’. The grants were patently racialised: in the 1920s, government officials administered the grants so as to exclude people categorised as ‘native’ and as ‘Asian’. This article traces how, from the late 1920s, liberal members of the self-styled ‘Child Welfare Movement’ (which had established a country-wide network of local branches after the First World War) began advocating the extension of maintenance grants to African communities. During this period, mission-educated African women were also becoming increasingly involved in questions of social welfare. From the mid 1930s, growing numbers of Child Welfare Societies, along with some sympathetic magistrates, were advocating the extension of mothers’ pensions to indigent African mothers and children. In this context, senior bureaucrats in the national departments of Native Affairs and Social Welfare sought to clarify the social responsibilities of the state towards its impoverished ‘native’ subjects. The article considers the collaboration and the escalating contestation between organisations active in child welfare, civil servants and ministers of state. The qualified extension of maintenance grants resulted in a policy of limited social assistance to impoverished African families living in towns and cities throughout South Africa. The child welfare movement and its allies were partly successful in their attempts to limit racialised application of the Children’s Protection Act from the 1940s until the late 1950s. The powerful officials in the national departments of Native Affairs and Social Welfare were fully convinced that the demands of segregation must determine how the state should intervene in questions of state social assistance and parental responsibility. In principle, they had little or no sympathy with representations that the state should provide social assistance to impoverished African mothers and African children in need of care. In 1940 – in response to pressures from the child welfare coalition – they reluctantly included the urban-based African poor as recipients of child maintenance grants. This marginal assistance took place within a social welfare system designed to protect ‘civilised’ (defined as ‘European’) labour and to complement policies of segregation. In fact, the policy revision involved continued official commitment to the gendered geography of racial segregation and delimitation of civic access to state resources that placed ‘native’ families in the reserves and on white-owned farms beyond governmental regimes of child welfare.

Maendeleo: From Colonial to Postcolonial Development in Tanzania

This article argues that the concept of maendeleo, which conflates development with progress, has served many contradictory purposes in Tanzania, and traces how it has worked its way through different phases of Tanzanian development history. The starting point is the recognition that the concept of development, and maendeleo even more so, has a great variety of meanings and it is not possible to pick up one as ‘correct’. Rather, the argument goes, it is this ambiguity where the concept derives its power from. While everybody can agree on its significance, many things can be accommodated under its umbrella. It has been made such a concept by its history which has allowed it to accumulate various meanings. The article maps the process of how this happened in Tanzania. The German colonialists introduced the notion in the guise of development of exploitable resources. The British followed the lead, formalizing the idea of mutual benefit as dual mandate and adding “native welfare” to it. A crucial shift occurred during the transition from the late colonial to early postcolonial development. As colonialism approached its end, the idea of development seemed to be in danger to outlive its political usefulness, but it was rescued by African nationalists as maendeleo. They appropriated the concept and made use of it in their independence campaign and later elevated it to a major prop for their rule. The article concludes that while maendeleo undoubtedly has been a politically successful concept, it has been much less effective as a guide for economic and social transformation. This raises the question whether the very concepts of development and maendeleo have become part of the problem rather than that of the solution.

Immigration, Search and Redistribution: A Quantitative Assessment of Native Welfare

We study the eects of immigration on native welfare in a general equilibrium model featuring two skill types, search frictions, wage bargaining, and a redistributive welfare state. Our quantitative analysis suggests that, in all 20 countries studied, immigration attenuates the eects of search frictions. These gains tend to outweigh the welfare costs of redistribution. Immigration has increased native welfare in almost all countries. Both high-skilled and low-skilled natives benet in two thirds of countries, contrary to what models without search frictions predict. Median total gains from migration are 1.19% and 1.00% for high and low skilled natives, respectively.

Expressions of Culture in American Indian/Alaska Native Tribal Child Welfare Work: A Qualitative Meta-Synthesis

This qualitative meta-synthesis of materials from three national projects that had examined more than 75 American Indian/Alaska Native child welfare programs sought to articulate how culture is expressed within tribal child protective services (CPS)work and to uncover whether there are cultural elements of tribal child welfare practice that are distinct from practice in non-tribal settings. Through the meta-synthesis, a framework emerged outlining a cultural approach to practice that incorporates: (a) a culturally-distinct definition of Native child well-being; (b) tribal values that form a foundation for practice; (c) practice intentions linking child protection with cultural and community health; and (d) two specialized worker skills.

Informality and The Idea of the Townn in Hubert Murray's Papua

Without pretension to novelty in the historical narrative, this paper examines how far economic informality emerged among Papuans in Pt. Moresby, capital of Australian Papua. Informal behaviour arises out of inability or unwillingness to conform with what Hart calls 'the institutional effort to organize society along formal lines', where form is 'the rule, an idea of what ought to be universal in social life'. The paper follows my study of informality among Chinese and indigenous Tolai in German New Guinea (GNG), where the goal was to impose conformity with a German ideology of 'national-economic purpose'. In Papua, bureaucratic effort was devoted to organizing society in accordance with a less coherent and compelling ideology, the 'preservation of village life' and, in Pt Moresby, with achieving an 'idea of the town' congenial to Europeans. 'Natives' were excluded from the town, other than as menial workers. The paper considers the bureaucratic effort to realize the 'idea of the town' in Pt Moresby and its impact on the traditional landowners and other Papuans, who proved more acquiescent to bureaucratic suasion than the Tolai in GNG. In consequence, urbanism was retarded and Papuan initiative smothered by paternalism. Much of the narrative revolves around comparisons of GNG, a classic plantation economy, with Papua, seen as an 'unlucky place', lacking natural resources, private investment and government funding, and handicapped (in the eyes of settlers) by undue concern for native welfare. Crucially, the Chinese intermediary class which drew the Tolai of GNG into the monetary economy was absent from Papua. Nor were white traders encouraged to perform this role, while official efforts to engage Papuans with 'the market' were ineffective. Colonial Papua was, as Charles Rowley said, an obsolescent society and economy. The comparatively vigorous economic informality in and around Rabaul before the Pacific War was emblematic of greater progress towards economic development than had proved possible in Hubert Murray's Papua, while Rabaul also expressed a more vigorous urbanism.

‘Anginayo ngisho indibilishi!’ (I don't have a penny!): The gender politics of ‘Native Welfare’ in Durban, 1930–1939

This paper examines how the Durban Bantu Child Welfare Society (DBCWS) came to be established by African women in Durban in the early years of public political activity by African women in Durban and its relationship to African women's welfare societies (the Durban Bantu Women's Society and the Daughters of Africa) also established in the 1930s. I consider kholwa (African, mission-educated) women's interaction with the local state and also with white liberal segregationists who were participating in a national turn towards the establishment of ‘Non-European’ child welfare societies in South Africa. The DBCWS began its work in the context of fierce opposition, particularly by kholwa women, to the promulgation of new pass law regulations aimed at controlling African women's movements into Durban. In inter-war Durban, ‘Native Welfare’ first referred to control of African male leisure time and focused primarily on migrant labourers. By the end of the 1930s the DBCWS worked with officials of the Durban Town Council (DTC) and with the Durban Children's Court. The state provided reluctant and limited assistance to impoverished African families, whilst also continuing to enforce the rule of segregation.

Immigration, Search, and Redistribution: A Quantitative Assessment of Native Welfare

We study the effects of immigration on native welfare in a general equilibrium model featuring two skill types, search frictions, wage bargaining, and a redistributive welfare state. Our quantitative analysis suggests that, in all 20 countries studied, immigration attenuates the effects of search frictions. These gains tend to outweigh the welfare costs of redistribution. Immigration has increased native welfare in almost all countries. Both high-skilled and low-skilled natives benefit in two thirds of countries, contrary to what models without search frictions predict. Average total gains from immigration are 1.25% and 1.00% for high and low skilled natives, respectively.

Immigration, Search, and Redistribution: A Quantitative Assessment of Native Welfare

We study the effects of immigration on native welfare in a general equilibrium model featuring two skill types, search frictions, wage bargaining, and a redistributive welfare state. Our quantitative analysis suggests that, in all 20 countries studied, immigration attenuates the effects of search frictions. These gains tend to outweigh the welfare costs of redistribution. Immigration has increased native welfare in almost all countries. Both high-skilled and low-skilled natives benefit in two thirds of countries, contrary to what models without search frictions predict. Average total gains from immigration are 1.25% and 1.00% for high and low skilled natives, respectively.

International migration and the welfare state: Asian perspectives

Immigration is a controversial topic in Australia and some of its Asian neighbours. Given the potential impact on native welfare, such as effects on relative wages and unemployment, there has been political mobilisation on the immigration question. The presence of a redistributive welfare state in all major immigrant host countries creates yet another margin on which immigration affects native welfare. The focus of the paper is whether a large intake of immigrants leads to a reduction in welfare state effort. It is often argued that steady increases in immigration lead to public pressure for stricter immigration controls or for less generous publicly funded social expenditures. In terms of immigrants with similar employability and claims on the public purse to natives, it is hypothesised that the impact on welfare spending is neutral. These ideas are tested using detailed data for migration to developed countries.

‘Battlin’ for their rights’: Aboriginal activism and the Leper Line

In 1957, three Aboriginal men travelled north across the twentieth parallel, to the north-east of Port Hedland in Western Australia, to encourage Aboriginal workers on Wallal Downs Station to leave their employment. After several days of discussion, the men left Wallal with 17 people, including most of the workers. In returning south, they breached Section 10 of the state's Native Welfare legislation which made it illegal for Aboriginal people to cross from north to south of the twentieth parallel. Although this action placed those involved in conflict with the authorities, Aboriginal men and women travelled back and forth across the line during the following months in repeated breaches of the legislation. This article argues that these activities were an example of activism carried out to challenge restrictive legislation in an effort to achieve equal rights for Aboriginal people.

International migration and the welfare state revisited

Immigration is a controversial topic in most developed economies. The presence of a redistributive welfare state in all major immigrant host countries creates a margin on which immigration affects native welfare. The primary focus of the paper is whether a large intake of immigrants reduces welfare state effort. It is usually argued that steady increases in immigration lead to public pressure for lower levels of publicly-funded social expenditures. In contrastz to the earlier empirical literature on this topic, we find little evidence in favour of this hypothesis. While immigration does have a relatively modest effect on the welfare state, if anything there is some support for the view that a greater influx of immigrants has lead policy-makers to increase welfare state spending.

Leprosy, Labour and the ‘low Wage Line’

The Aboriginal pastoral workers’ strike of 1946–49 and the subsequent establishment of Aboriginal mining cooperatives caused significant disruptions to the supply of essential Aboriginal labour to the Pilbara pastoral industry. As a result, wages and conditions for Aboriginal workers improved substantially on stations in the area affected. These effects were, however, limited by a section of Western Australia’s Native Welfare Act which, in order to prevent the spread of leprosy, prohibited Aboriginal people from travelling from north to south across the twentieth parallel. The legislation was used, I argue, to prevent the spread of industrial action among Aboriginal workers on stations north of the so-called ‘leper line’.This article has been peer-reviewed.

Immigrant-Native Differences in Welfare Participation: The Role of Entry and Exit Rates

We analyze differences in welfare transitions between natives and immigrants in Sweden using a large representative panel data set. The data contain administrative information on welfare use and detailed demographic information. The empirical results suggest that the main reason for the large immigrant–native welfare gap observed is the differences in welfare entry rates. Thus, policies aimed to reduce these transitions may be particularly successful in reducing welfare use in general and particularly the immigrant–native welfare gap.

Missionary Albert Kruyt and Colonial Modernity in the Dutch East Indies

Intense debates emerged in the Dutch East Indies during the course of the third decade of the twentieth century concerning the role of missionaries in the development of the Outer Islands of the Indonesian archipelago. Ostensibly concerning “native welfare”, disagreement fundamentally reflected underlying fractures within the Dutch nation, projected through its “colonial mission” concerning the nature of modernity. While the main focus appeared to be a disagreement concerning the goals of mission and government agencies, it would be too simplistic to characterise the debate as one between adherents of a secular versus a religious world view. This paper considers the question of “missions and modernity” in the context of this debate about “native development” in the Dutch East Indies through the prism of the Poso mission in Central Sulawesi, headed by missionary Albert Kruyt, one of the foremost missionaries of his day.

Short-Term Training Programs for Immigrants: Do Effects Differ from Natives and Why?

We evaluate the effects of different short-term training programs on the employment chances of immigrant and native welfare recipients in Germany. In particular, we investigate whether program effects differ between both groups and what might cause these potential differences. In a first step, we evaluate program effects separately for immigrants and natives using propensity score matching estimators. To explain potential differences in effects between the groups, we suggest and apply a decomposition method based on the matching procedure that allows identification of differences due to observable characteristics and differences related to an immigrant fixed effect in a second step.

Native welfare losses from high skilled immigration

This paper explores the effects of high skilled immigration to a host country with unionized low skilled labor and an unemployment insurance scheme. We show that such immigration can create a negative immigration surplus due to adverse effects on low skilled employment, provided that fiscal redistribution is not too intense and the elasticity between high and low skilled labor is high as empirical evidence suggests.