I have a dream : a study of Maori mothers living on social welfare, their lives, dreams and thoughts about the future

Abstract: The purpose of this Thesis was to let a group of six Maori single mothers, depending on Social Welfare, tell the story about their lives, their dreams and thoughts about the future. The queries at issue dealt with topics such as the interview persons (IPs) economy, living standard and family constellations. Other questions dealt with reasons for getting and staying on Social Welfare, interactions with staffmembers at Work and Income New Zealand and the lives, dreams and thoughts about the future. The Thesis was exploratory with the intention to define and describe the questions mentioned. The methods used was deep interviews and a background information survey. The population was chosen according to four different criteria: The subject had to be Maori, single, a mother and receive Social welfare Benefit on regular bases. The major findings were that the IPs got and stayed on the benefit because of having children. All of the IPs struggled economically which had a stressing effect on them all. All of the IPs wished for attributes correlated with what a normal New Zealander have such as, a house, a steady relationship and ability to give the children what they wanted and needed.