Working at the Margins describes and analyzes the move, from welfare rolls to paid employment, of adults who were marginalized from the mainstream by race, ethnicity, language, and economic status. Frances Julia Riemer utilizes ethnographic data gathered over two years from four workplaces that employed thirty seven former welfare recipients. She examines how the private sector accommodates these workers and their differences and how the workers themselves negotiate the barriers they experience. The book illustrates how government policies and adult-education initiatives, designed ostensibly to create opportunities, often reify existing inequalities.

Table of Contents:
Foreword Preface Introduction: Myths and Realities PART I: THE STORIES 1. Development and the Hardest to Serve Naming the Hardest to Serve An Institutional History The Reality of the Hardest to Serve Conceptualizing the Hardest to Serve Socialization for Work Computers in the Learning Lab Life Skills Supported Work The Social Organization of Work Justification Exceptions to the Rule Perceiving Inequities Negotiating the Naming An Imperfect Fit Resistance Against Each Other Cooling Out Staying Full Circle 2. Church Hall and Single Mothers on Welfare Getting There Single Mothers and Welfare Training to Compensate Blending In Certification Training The Work Local Knowledge A Professional Hierarchy Different, Strange, and Even Dangerous A Lack of Respect Carving Spaces Few Options Protests of Denial Viewing Practice in Piecemeal 3. Concordance Steps and Southeast Asian Refugees Refugee as Identity A Political History Adult Learners The Labor Market Skills Training and Hands-On Learning Job Placement The Social Organization of Work Cambodians Are a Little Better The Language Barrier Errors on the Floor You Have to Know People Appreciating Kindness Accommodation in the Workplace Learning to Juggle 4. Jackson Hospital's Pharmacies and the Cream of the Unemployed Getting There The Collaboration The Best Five Broad-Based Funding Learning Specific Knowledge Getting Hired An Occupation in Transition A Good Salary Active Members Becoming Supervisors Embracing the Role Something's Keeping Us Here PART II: WHAT THE STORIES MEAN 5. Analyzing the Circle The Pieces of Choosing Training Programs Sorting the Poor The Underclass Refugees Assessment and the Cream of the Unemployed Ranking Individuals JTPA and Job Training Downscaling Training Defining Work Making Sense Distance from an Imperfect Fit A Better Fit 6. Other Possibilities Prioritizing Work Cooling Out at Work A Foot in the Door Imaginings Flexible Training Models Educational Networks and Supports Good Jobs, Good Pay, Good Benefits Bucking the Natural Trend Appendix A: Ethnographic Methodology and Methods Appendix B: The People Appendix C: State Mandated Content of Nurse Aide Training Appendix D: Church Hall's Clinical Performance Summary Appendix E: Pharmacy Committees at Jackson's Hospital Notes Glossary References Index