Making a Life on Mean Welfare: Voices from Multicultural Sydney

We are often told that mean welfare is what the public wants. Whether or not that's true, this book encourages us to at least be honest about what that entails.

It explores how diverse welfare users navigate the personal and practical hurdles of Australia’s so-called social security system, where benefits are deliberately meagre and come with strings attached. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a region of Sydney known for ethnic diversity and socio-economic disadvantage, Emma Mitchell bri...