Social policies, identity and citizenship

Abstract

Nowadays social policies in Latin America are centred around the battle against extreme poverty. Multilateral organisations such as the World Bank or the Inter-American Bank of Development, suggest that state resources must be assigned in a focalized way to the poorest groups. Under this logic, programs such as ‘Oportunidades’ (Opportunities) arise in Mexico as do similar programs in Latin America. This study analyzes the relationship between the beneficiaries of this kind of program and those offering the programs, emphasizing the point of view of the former. The basic interest of the study centred around the category of social identities (within the framework of the theory of social representations); the aim is to analyze the impact of these programs on the construction of a civil identity. Our affirmations are based on a case study, carried out in 2006 in two Cuernavaca neighbourhoods, where beneficiaries of the Opportunities program live.
The most significant findings in this study indicate that in the relation of assistance established between government and the groups of beneficiaries of programs such as Opportunities, what is received is not represented as a right but as assistance. This fact, together with the lack of adequate control of the beneficiaries with regard to the program, instead of fomenting the social construction of citizenship, generates paternalistic forms of relations, which include gratitude and expose the population of beneficiaries to practices directed at gaining clients. The focalization creates groups of included and excluded, and becomes a source of conflicts in relation to the resources. In addition, the same focalization, identifies those considered to be in extreme poverty, fostering practices of identity manipulation in order to enter the program i.e. it encourages the role of a poor person with the negative connotations (in terms of deterioration of identity) that this represents. Key words: civil identity, social policies, social representations, assistance programs.