Welfare use and culture: Arab-American attitudes toward welfar

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to explore the attitudes and opinions of Arab Americans toward welfare and to find out if their attitudes and opinions were culturally motivated. Less than 1 percent of Arab Americans are known to use welfare. Available information suggested that there are 144,000 Arab Americans in California.;Methodology. The research methodology for this study was qualitative in nature and used face-to-face interviews. Forty Arab Americans in California were interviewed: twenty of them were immigrants who came to the United States when they were eighteen years of age or older. The other twenty were native-born Arab Americans who lived in this country all of their lives. A convenient sample of forty Arab Americans was obtained using the snowball approach. The independent variable in this study was the residency status of Americans, and the dependent variables were the attitudes and opinions of the Arab Americans concerning welfare and their reasons for use or nonuse of the system. Face-to-face interviews with a semistructured interview schedule were conducted. The attitudes and opinions of native-born and immigrant Arab Americans were compared.;Findings and conclusions. Taken together, the results of this study suggested that cultural values and traditions may help determine attitudes and behavior of Arab Americans towards welfare. The values and traditions that were most prominent were (a) the centrality of the family as a place to go for help in case of need, (b) the importance of maintaining pride and dignity by not being dependent on welfare, the need to save face and not bring shame to oneself and family by being a productive person, (d) the Islamic call to help the needy as a duty and, (e) the use of harsh punishment for those who steal from or defraud the system. The study showed no differences of attitudes and opinions between immigrant and native-born Arab Americans. The study also showed that it is considered shameful for Arab Americans to seek welfare assistance, especially if a person is young and able to work. Also, a high percentage of themes indicated a strong need to help children and elderly who are poor.;Recommendations. I further research supports these findings, it may be recommended that the welfare delivery system should be sensitive to the cultural values of the people it serves. More research in this area is needed, especially concerning the values and opinions of different ethnic groups toward welfare.