In Canada, a policy aiming at helping single parents on social assistance become self-reliant was implemented on an experimental basis. The Self-Sufficiency Entry Effects Demonstration randomly selected a sample of 4 134 single parents who had applied for welfare between January 1994 and March...

Many recent empirical studies have shown that recent cohorts of immigrants to western countries face more hardship than previous cohorts. In Quebec, for instance, the welfare dependency rates of immigrants have steadily increased between 1982 and 1998 and are insensitive to fluctuations in the...