Immigration and Poverty Reduction: Policy Making on a Squirrel Wheel

摘要

The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 (EOA), which launched the War on Poverty in the United States, was more than a major accomplishment of the Great Society's political agenda. It marked the beginning of "a new approach to poverty" (Levitan 1969). Until that time, the nation's efforts to combat poverty had focused almost exclusively on relief measures. With the passage of the EOA, a new tactic was undertaken: prevention. As President Lyndon Johnson declared upon signing this legislation, "Our American answer to poverty is not to make the poor more secure in their poverty but to reach down and help lift themselves out of the ruts of poverty" (10). The causes of poverty in the United States were to be identified and then specific policies enacted to eliminate them. Attention was disproportionately given to measures to eradicate youth poverty, which was identified as the weakest link in the cycle whereby one generation of the poor becomes the next. If pursued vigorously, this approach―it was proclaimed by the original director of the program, R. Sargent Shriver―could eliminate poverty in the United States by 1976 (69).