| The Chinese community in Boston reflects the lower median household income, lower education attainment, less English proficiency, higher poverty rate, and higher concentration on low-pay jobs. It also reflects many individuals are far behind economic self-sufficiency. This thesis focuses on the Chinese residents in the city of Boston, especially the Chinese workers, to identify the barriers that they face, to provide an overview of the related programs and trainings that the community organizations offer, to assess the strengths and limitations of those programs, and then to include the findings and recommendations.; To reach economic self-sufficiency is a major journey, and it is a community-wide responsibility. The barriers that the Chinese workers face include the lack of English, the lack of time commitment, the lack of awareness of career and networking, the lack of confidence, the lack of familiarity of the job system in the U.S. and the lack of financial literacy. For the policymakers, they need to take into consideration adopting the self-sufficiency standard as the measure of policies or the minimum wage. For the community organizations, they are not only the services providers but also the bridge between the residents and employers, developers and the public agencies. The most important, for the Chinese people, it is their responsibility to enhance their own skills, increase their own confidence, improve their own economic conditions and help themselves reach economic self-sufficiency. |
