The welfare reform of 1996, also known as the Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), was passed to increase the effectiveness of the welfare system social, but its discriminatory nature led to economic hardship, lack of funds to receive food, and poor health of new immigrants to the United States. One of the key provisions of PRWORA was that it repealed Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and replaced it with Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). ).Prior to the enactment of TANF and the AFDC appeal, legal immigrants were eligible for assistance under the same guidelines as citizens. This changed after welfare reform; PRWORA and TANF made it harder for immigrants to receive any form of welfare assistance by prohibiting them from applying until they had spent five years in the United States. This was done to increase the effectiveness of welfare programs and prevent welfare dependency which was at its peak during the passage of PRWORA. Although this regulation may seem modest to some, it has led to economic hardship among immigrants. PRWORA prevents immigrants from participating in welfare-to-work programs, such as CalWORKs, which helps unemployed adults obtain employment by providing job training and adult education. When immigrants enter the United States, they often do not have extensive work experience or a good education. Therefore, they tend to work in low-wage jobs, which makes them sensitive to the economy, as low-income jobs are the first to be affected by a declining or booming economy (Kalil and Ziol-Guest 13 ). Therefore, new immigrants to the United States could greatly benefit from CalWorks because they would receive training that would enable them to seek employment...... middle of paper ...... Citizen Eligibility Restrictions , vulnerable immigrants and social service providers. " Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies 9.1 (2011): 5-19. Google Scholar. Web. October 19, 2011 Parrott, Sharon and Arloc Sherman. " The results of TANF are more mixed than is often assumed. " Journal of Policy Analysis Management 26.2 (2007): 374-381. JSTOR. Web. October 18, 2011. Shin, Hyejung Janet. “ALL CHILDREN ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL: PRWORA’S UNCONSTITUTIONAL RESTRICTION ON IMMIGRANT CHILDREN’S ACCESS TO FEDERAL HEALTH CARE PROGRAMS” 2006): 484-497. Academic Search Complete.EBSCO.Web October 25, 2011. Van Hook, Jennifer and Kelly Stamper Balistreri. benefits and food insecurity among children of immigrants” Social Science Research 35.1 (2006): 228-251. Academic research completed.Web. October 19. 2011.