Elite Rhetoric, Target Group Positioning, and Policymaking: Immigrant Women and Project 100% in San Diego County
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Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont CGU Theses & Dissertations CGU Student Scholarship Spring 2021 Elite Rhetoric, Target Group Positioning, and Policymaking: Immigrant Women and Project 100% in San Diego County Amy Nantkes Claremont Graduate University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd Recommended Citation Nantkes, Amy. (2021). Elite Rhetoric, Target Group Positioning, and Policymaking: Immigrant Women and Project 100% in San Diego County. CGU Theses & Dissertations, 219. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/ cgu_etd/219. doi: 10.5642/cguetd/219 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the CGU Student Scholarship at Scholarship @ Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in CGU Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholarship @ Claremont. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Elite Rhetoric, Target Group Positioning, and Policymaking: Immigrant Women and Project 100% in San Diego County By Amy Nantkes Claremont Graduate University 2021 © Copyright Amy Nantkes, 2021. All rights reserved Approval of the Dissertation Committee This dissertation has been duly read, reviewed, and critiqued by the Committee listed below, which hereby approves the manuscript of Amy Nantkes as fulfilling the scope and quality requirements for meriting the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science. Dr. Melissa Rogers, Chair Associate Professor of International Studies Claremont Graduate University Dr. Jean Schroedel Professor Emerita of Political Science Claremont Graduate University Dr. Heather Campbell Professor, Department of Politics and Government Claremont Graduate University Abstract Elite Rhetoric, Target Group Positioning, and Policymaking: Immigrant Women and Project 100% in San Diego County By Amy Nantkes Claremont Graduate University: 2021 Thousands of Mexicans are crossing the U.S. border, bearing children, and collecting welfare checks, according to a dramatic 1994 article printed in the popular magazine Reader’s Digest. This well-known publication, which at the time sent out 15 million copies per month, included a story alleging that Mexican citizens were committing rampant fraud and abuse of the social welfare system in San Diego County, CA. In California in the 1990s, key state and federal level reforms involving immigrants and welfare usage occurred, such as Proposition 187 (1994) and the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA, 1996). Then, in 1997, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors (SD County BoS) in conjunction with the office of the District Attorney (DA) approved Project 100% (P100), an anti-fraud initiative that mandated invasive and warrantless comprehensive home inspections for all welfare program applicants in the county. In order to analyze how pejorative rhetoric can influence racialized policies, this research project applies Herbert Blumer’s (1958) Group Position Theory to investigate the underlying racial bias existing in SD County at the intersection of anti-immigrant elite language that coevolved with restrictive welfare reforms. This derogatory language codified metaphors, storylines, and discourses that were publicly disseminated by governing and non- governing actors who in turn used these labels to enact public policies that burdened the target groups. This research analyzes this specific rhetoric filled with harmful metaphors targeting women, Latinos, and African Americans in what Foucault would call the dismissive language of power and dominance. Fanning the flames of social anxieties and perceived resource threat, the dominant group engages in a process of discourse structuration and institutionalization to create negative identities for non-dominant social groups in order to maintain and reinforce its own privileged position. This research applied qualitative methods in MaxQDA software to analyze the frequency of certain elite discourse terms and metaphors in government meeting minutes and media sources to investigate if elite and public discourse used discourse coalitions (Hajer, 2006) that indicated concern over maintaining group position (Blumer, 1958) on the issue of welfare usage in SD County. This paper then analyzes the evidence for how these factors influenced key policy influencers and makers in the formulation, adoption, and implementation of P100. Findings include evidence of all four of Blumer’s categories in elite rhetoric on the issue of immigrants and welfare along with how this rhetoric was operationalized via policy. Further, the existence of a discourse structuration is presented, with pregnant Latina women occupying the bottom rungs and becoming a target of discourse institutionalization via early home searches and Project 100%. Finally, the research contemplates the long-term and ongoing impacts of elite discourse in general, P100 in SD County in particular, and the new complications arising from COVID-19 and the future U.S. political climate regarding immigration. Keywords: Immigrants, welfare, reform, fraud, border, San Diego County, rhetoric, prejudice Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my family and friends for their endless support and love. To my husband André and our boys Cayden, Maddox, and Xavier, thank you for your years of patience and for cheering me on every step of the way. My success is your success. I love you all and I agree with Maddox that we do have a fun family, even when we are shouting over Jeopardy! To Lauren and Taylor Begert, you are friends who are more like family. Our little crew has grown from the grad school couch chats to a table full of kids and it couldn’t be more perfect. Thanks for believing in me. To April, Sarah, and Emilie, my village people, thank you and your families for modeling the power of constant community and for celebrating every small win with me along the way. To my colleague and friend Dr. Noemi Hernandez Alexander, I will always appreciate how you blazed a trail ahead of me and for your willingness to stop, collaborate, and listen. To Karla and Patriece, I will be forever grateful that you check in on me, eat Thai food with me, and make time to encourage me in the midst of your own good work. Jess, Sherryl, Sarah, Wendy, Mic, Vanessa, Freddie: each of you are power women in your own right; so grateful to have your sisterhood. Byrne family, your across-the-world friendship has endured space and time and Tim Tams. To the generous faculty and clever students at Point Loma Nazarene University, you challenge me, you cause me to grow, and you bless me with your desire to build something greater than yourselves. Linda, Kelli, and Lindsey, I pinch myself daily that I get to work with you and learn from you. To the Nantkes/Bayee/Bohl/Dorn crew: I love and appreciate you. Thank you for welcoming me into your family! To my Grandparents William and Irene Ivy: I wish with all of my heart that you could see what I am doing now. I hope I’ve made you proud. Finally, to the immigrant women of San Diego County: thank you for your bravery and tenacity. You are worthy of dignity and belonging. Acknowledgements I must acknowledge the community that helped me along as I conducted this research. My committee comprises of three brilliant women political scientists, to whom I owe a debt of gratitude. Thanks to my chair Dr. Melissa Rogers for your mentorship and always helpful direction during this process. You are knowledgeable, witty, and wise. Our coffee chats about this project always filled me with confidence that I could really do this. I already miss learning from you in class. Dr. Jean Schroedel, you have demonstrated for me what it looks like for a researcher to work towards justice through meaningful work conducted with integrity and intention. I’m grateful that you allowed me the opportunity to learn from you in and out of the classroom. Dr. Heather Campbell, you taught me how important it is to examine the process of policymaking with a critical eye. From the first cup of tea in your office to the completion of this dissertation, thank you for all of the ways you have encouraged me to grow over the past several years. You have made me into a complete policy wonk. Thank you to Vivienne Tailor for your keen editing eye and for caring so much about this work. You were incredibly helpful in the final months of this process. To the Faculty Research Committee at Claremont Graduate University, many thanks for the honor and of the CGU Dissertation Award for 2020-2021. My gratitude to Attorney Hilda Chan, Dr. Jonathan Markovitz, and Dr. Bill Oswald for your time and help so that I might better understand the issues surrounding Project 100% and conditions in San Diego County. Finally, I am deeply grateful for the hours of time given by Attorney Joni Halpern, a real-life hero who has dedicated years to supporting families experiencing poverty and has worked brilliantly for dignity and change. May those that come behind you pick up your mantle and continue the fight. vii Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 Project 100% ............................................................................................................................................. 3 State and Federal Reforms ........................................................................................................................ 4 Theory ......................................................................................................................................................