受全球金融危机的影响，拉美国家社会形势好转的势头在2009年出现逆转：贫困率再度回升，收入分配状况有所恶化，失业率普遍增高，侨汇收入明显下降。与此同时，拉美社会领域出现一些值得关注的问题：拉美因患甲型H1N1流感而死亡的人数占全球的40%左右；拉美一些国家爆发了罢工示威活动，社会不稳定风险增加；毒品犯罪呈常态化趋势，给相关国家的社会安全提出严峻挑战；全球气候变化对拉美造成的不利影响逐渐加剧，等等。为应对全球金融危机对社会领域的消极影响，拉美国家相继推出了一系列的政策措施：反周期的财政政策，积极的就业政策，保护弱势群体的政策。
Social improvement was reversed by the impacts of global financial crisis in 2009 as poverty rate bounced back，income distribution deteriorated，unemployment rate rose up in many countries and remittance income fell in a few. Moreover，several emerging social problems deserve much attention，such as nearly 40% of H1N1 cases around the world were found in LAC，strikes and demonstrations in a few countries threaten social instability，drug related crimes are rather regular than exceptional，posing severe challenges to social security in some countries and the negative impacts of climate change are turning for the worse etc. To counter the negative social impacts caused by global financial crisis，LAC countries successively adopted series of policies and measures such as countercyclical fiscal policies，active employment policies and policies aimed at protecting vulnerable groups.
