Poverty is a well‐known short‐term outcome of migration in general and a long‐term outcome of forced migration in a global context. Surprisingly, this outcome appears among refugees in welfare states which provide various asylum and social policies facilitating integration. The article aims to explore the relationship between asylum and social policies and poverty among refugees. The research results are drawn from two studies conducted among refugees, NGOs, national and local administration representatives, and case workers in Poland between 2006 and 2014. The results show that asylum policy contributes to the material and symbolic hardship experienced by refugees, and social policy is ineffective in its prevention. If refugees are settled in regions with high levels of poverty, unemployment and ethnic‐based prejudices, then they experience and continue to live in poverty. In such a context, and due to its weaknesses in addressing discrimination, social policy cannot successfully integrate refugees.

It has been argued that individuals living in poverty are shamed, and thus, experience it in various social and institutional spaces. However, little is known about this dynamic in the United States. This study examined the relationship between poverty and shame among individuals living in poverty. Individual semistructured interviews were conducted with 60 participants in New York, NY. The results reveal that participants experience shame, anger, and frustration in their roles as (a) caregivers when being unable to provide material items and trying to keep up with others in society and (b) social welfare recipients when at the welfare office and accessing welfare benefits. Despite experiencing such debilitating emotions, participants formulated and used strategies to manage these feelings and situations. These findings point to the role of social and institutional practices in shaping emotions.

A lack or low level of social capital is associated with negative outcomes for communities impacted by poverty. However, less is known about how different types of social capital operate on the ground in poverty‐impacted urban neighborhoods. This article explores the ways in which bonding, bridging, and linking capital manifest among residents of two poverty‐impacted neighborhoods in New York City. Findings of the study reveal that urban neighborhood characteristics, more than individual‐level factors, compromise the ability to develop and utilize the leveraging role of bridging and linking capital. Lack of safety resulted in limited trust, and involvement in community life limit bonding capital. Opportunities for bridging are restricted by the socioeconomically homogenous and spatially segregated nature of the communities. Linking capital is undermined by the lack of resources in the neighborhoods. These structural barriers prevent communities from breaking the cycle of poverty and should be explicitly targeted when developing interventions focused on building social capital.

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