Social and economic disadvantage for some ethnic groups in Britain - Essay Example

Social and economic disadvantage for some ethnic groups in Britain 1. Introduction The stratification of social class is a complicated phenomenon and the notion usually varies with respect to territorial disintegration. The concept is understood in a way which takes into account economic aspects like wealth, education, health facilities, cultural aspects like that of clothing, music, food and social aspects including networks, contacts and so on. Social Scientist Pierre Bourdieu has compared these above stated aspects as capitals and has amalgamated framework of linguistic capital like that of vocabulary, languages spoken with symbolic capital like qualifications which together forms the basis of power generation in the process of determining values of different capitals. In determining values of different capitals and power development directs towards providing benefits to a section of people of the society while making it worse for the other people in that society(Social Class, 2012). In this respect, ethnicity is one of the major parameters associated with social capitals and in Britain it has been empirically found that ethnic minorities have been subjected to various disadvantages. The social scientists have propounded intersection theory which states that the intersection of race, class and gender fetches multiple disadvantages to the people in the societal and economic forefront (Macionis, 2006, p.350). Ethnicity forms one of the most important dimensions of identities of minority ethnic group but at the same time intersect with other social divisions like that of “age, ability, class, gender and sexuality” (Craig et al, 2012, p.211). In this paper, the main focus is to carry on a critical assessment of the ways in which ethnicity intersects other social divisions in the creation of social and economic disadvantage for some ethnic groups in Britain. In course of discussion, focus will be entailed on theoretical foundation. Although critical assessment will be made with respect to living standards, social security but education which is one of the major indicators in the determination of social and economic development will be also given special emphasis. 2. Ethnic fragmentation in Britain The social scientists in analyzing the social classes often consider a stark difference in the ethnicity forefront. They disintegrate ethnic groups within a society into two broad groups and they are ethnic majorities and ethnic minorities. In the British context it can be stated that the ethnic majority are White English Britons. The ethnic minorities in Britain primarily accounts for the people of Black and Asian origin but people of Scotland and Wales and people of Irish descendant are also regarded as ethnic minority in Britain. Sometimes the word ‘ethnic minority’ is over emphasized in the sense that they are the oppressed ethnic groups like that that of African Caribbean and people from Bangladesh (Walsh, Stephens & Moore, 2000, p.74). In the subsequent section focus will be given on the educational forefront. 3. Education and the ethnic minority- cultural capital theory Education is the most important socio-economic parameter which can reflect inequalities among various social classes and proper attainment and non attainment of which generates social and economic opportunities as well as deprivation simultaneously. Even for ethnic minority graduate passing out in 2012 is not at all easy. Every step of a student from studying in a university towards finding a job the ethnic minorities in Britain are in a state of complete disadvantage. In some universities the tuition fees are being trebled which puts university education out of reach of many people. With the outbreak of financial crisis of 2008, it was found that the white graduates of Britain were much more easily getting job as compared with the ethnic counterparts. Around 66% of the white graduates were able to find job as in comparison with 56.3% of the black, Asian and other ethnic minority students (Bakare, 2012). From this data it is revealed that the ethnic minorities are discriminated with respect to education. Now the underlying explanation will be highlighted. From the studies of Savagae, Warde and Devine in 2004 the idea which gets reflected is that if individuals accept the definition of class as the exploitation to the possession of resources then the application of the term of capital can be deemed to be worthwhile. Savagae, Warde and Devine states that, “If social class is a matter of categories of people accumulating similar volumes and types of resources, and investing them in promoting their own and their children’s life chances, the metaphor of capital is helpful” (Modood, 2004, p. 87). Developed by Bourdieu, the theory of cultural capital states that the involvement of the parents in the children’s elementary education is directly associated with the cultural capital. The theory states that with more cultural capital more involvement comes and which latter helps in succeeding their children. Bordieu also stated that ethnic disadvantages apply to all of the families and communities. A fact is also that some of the ethnic groups arrived in Britain only relatively recently which signify that they may possess limited quantities of relevant cultural capital. In Britain, when admissions in the higher education began to be ethnically monitored in and around 1990s then although the scenario has been reverse. There was no under-representation of ethnic minorities in education. Moreover it was revealed that minority groups except the Caribbean people increased their admission shares. It is also revealed that around 50 per cent of the pupils were more successful in attaining admission in universities as compared to white peers. More than around two times of the population of the Africans, Chinese, Asian and other groups were seen to be underrepresented. Here a critical analysis is encountered which questions the cultural capital theory. However it can be stated that the cultural capital theory is indeed true for the disadvantages of ethnic minorities in Britain. 4. Reasons for achievement gap Studies of Dustmann, Machin and Schoenberg in 2010 conducted rigorous studies on explaining the achievement gap between various minority groups and the white natives. Their research states that language spoken at home is one of the dominant factors which explains the reasons to why majority of the ethnic minority groups face significant constraints in the school entry and also the reason why the ethnic minority people improve with respect to White British people and why the Black Caribbean pupils are able to achieve smaller progress rates as compared to any other ethnic minority group. The pupils belonging to ethnic minority groups generally go to the schools with higher minority shares as compared with their white counterparts and they receive higher shares of classmates eligible for free meals but these differences mitigate over the curriculum of the school. Studies of Dustmann, Machin and Schoenberg also revealed that the largest part of the relative improvement of the students of ethnic minority with a large scale transformation from the primary to secondary schools and in between the schools (Dustmann, Machin and Schoenberg, 2010, p.7). The minority children are found to be experiencing disadvantages in achievement before the starting of school but the disadvantages are found to be reduced during the time of compulsory schooling which turns into significant advantages for some of the ethnic minority groups after finishing their compulsory education. It has been also found that the second generation immigrants are bestowed with much better education as compared with their generation of their parents and the white native peers. There has been relative improvement in education between the parent and descendant generation in accordance with the ethnic minorities. But the British born ethnic minorities are still prone to less limited access to employment and also earn lower wages even if White British peers possess the same characteristics. But it has been also found that given same educational achievements the wages for the White and the ethnic minority British born females are found to be more or less same. The males are recorded to be having a wage disadvantage of around 16 per cent as compared to the males (Dustmann, Machin and Schoenberg, 2010, pp. 6-9). Thus it can be stated that reasons for gap is manifold and boys are much more discriminated in the access of employment as compared to the girls. But however the girls of ethnic minorities in Britain are subjected to various types of socio-economic disadvantages and the segment after the subsequent segment highlights on a women empowerment and a general awareness program which has highlighted the disadvantages faced by the ethnic minorities especially the women and spreading the message as a whole. 5. Standard of living among the elderly people of ethnic minority Income is regarded as the most commonly used summary indicator for the purpose of analyzing the individual standard of living. Differences between relative incomes within various groups of people are considered as a good measure for explaining the measure of inequality within the society. Educational attainment, housing quality, employment experiences and ownership of particular consumer durables are regarded as good proxies for standard of living analysis. Empirical studies Maria Evandrou in 2000 revealed that around 66% of the white elderly people lived in owner occupied house which were majorly devoid of mortgage commitments. The Indian elders possessed the highest rates of home occupation but it has been also found that a sizeable proportion of the people reside within owner occupied houses with mortgage. The conditions of the houses in which the people live are reflectors of economic resources which also find implications for health and relations among the household members. Data collected from English House Condition Survey in 1991 states that Pakistani and Bangladeshi households were less likely to possess central heating as compared with other groups and around 28% of the Pakistani and Bangladeshi elderly people resided in households with no central heating. The income position differential of the ethnic minorities is deemed to be functions of ethnic minorities in their old age and it is also a function of the difference in access to various source of income. Studies of Maria Evandrou revealed that majority of the elderly people were in the receipt of basic state pension but there has been a stark difference within groups and it has been found that a lower proportion of the elderly people from South Asian origin receiving state pension. The differences in state pension receipt directs that many of the older people from the ethnic minority group have not resided in Britain for longer periods of time for developing adequate national insurance for the purpose of full entitlement. Demographic and migration data states that around eighty five percent of the Indians, around 81 percent of the older Pakistani, Bangladeshi nationals and around 60 percentage of the older Black Caribbean people arrived in Britain after the year 1956 and many of them also went through phases of unemployment. Car access is also regarded as an indicator of individual social deprivation. Rates of deprivation in car access are found majorly among the elderly people from minority groups in Pakistan and Bangladesh. It can be also stated that the Pakistanis and Bangladeshis deprivation in the car access can be also attributed to the fact that they want to live in multi-generational households. The interpretation is also difficult as it can be stated that due to physical disabilities the urge to drive become low and hence imparts negative effects on car ownership. The older people also benefit from the access of car in terms of facilitating social contract as well as travel outdoors but this is subjected to agreement and participation of other family members of the household as well (Evandrou, 2000, pp.14-17). 6. Disadvantages brought to limelight of policy makers- A real effort by the women In Britain, the organization which rigorously instilled the agenda of mainstreaming with international approach can be attributed by Fawcett society. Fawcett 2005a with its report ‘Black and Minority Ethnic Women in the UK’ initiated the start of serious engagement of mainstreaming of the women with respect to the structural inequalities faced by the Black and the ethnic minority women in the United Kingdom. From the report in 2007, the Fawcett society launched a three year ‘Seeing Double’ project launched at the reception celebrating Diane Abott’s (first Black woman MP in the United Kingdom) 20 years as a Member of Parliament. ‘Seeing Double’ project targeted at bringing the persistent disadvantages of the ethnic minority women in front of the policy makers. The women activists put forwarded the problems they encountered with respect to poverty, politics and the judicial system. The movement got positive responses backed by funding coming from private trust along with contribution from the government. The project was aligned with mainstreaming of work on the basis of race inequality within the organization. The project was visualized as a turning point with respect to symbolic and real terms. In symbolical terms it represented that “white dominated feminist women’s organization has taken on board the criticism which has been voiced by minoritised feminists and women’s movement actors for more than 25 years” (Predelli et al, 2012, p. 185). In the real terms it changed Fawcett through broadening of the focus of the organization and also provide legitimacy and also clout to the intersectional approaches to inequality. The organization also targets at bringing a wider political change through the help of evidence based advocacy work and lobbying on the persistent and intersecting inequalities by the women of ethnic minority women. The project ‘Seeing Double’ was primarily guided by Fawcett but again it was backed by an array of advisory group members from National Black Women’s Network, Wai Yin Chinese Women’s Society, the Birmingham Race Action Partnership, government institutions, universities and various charity organizations like that of Runnymede Trust and Joseph Rowntree Foundations. They together ensure that majority and minority group organization area able to work together for and develop strategies and implement them so that discrimination cab ne neutralized. A further Fawcett campaign known as, “ Femocracy” was launched in the year 2008 with a two year effort in enhancing the number of ethnic minority women registered to vote as well as engage in politics (Predelli et al, 2012, pp. 185-186). 5. Conclusion The paper focuses on the intersection of ethnicity in social division giving rise to emergence of disadvantages to the ethnic minorities in Britain highlighted on the dimension of education, employment and living standards. With the current scenario the ethnic minorities are facing severe constraints in university education and employment. But it has been found that after 1990s there was a significant performance of the pupils of the ethnic minorities. But applying the concept of cultural capital it can be stated that the ethnic minorities lacked cultural capital after migrating to Britain and so the ethnic minorities in their elementary stages were faced with underachievement. But gradually this gap seems to diminish. Again among the older people the living standards have been also not up to the mark as compared to the white people but car access can be also a misleading proxy for high life style and owing to large families and physical disabilities there has been drop in car access. In connection with it in educational forefront the second generation minority groups are found to be receiving more access to the resources as compared to the 1st generation who were supposed to lack cultural capital. But it is also a fact that the policies of the government are strong enough in establishing equality which gets reflected in the current graduation rates as well as women empowerment movement like ‘Seeing Double’. References 1. Bakare, L, (2012). Graduates from ethnic minorities face an even harder time. Available at, (accessed on December 5, 2012) 2. Craig et al, (2012), Understanding 'Race' and Ethnicity: Theory, History, Policy, Practice, The Policy Press 3. Evandrou, M, (2000), Social Inequalities in Later Life: the socio-economic position of older people from ethnic minority groups in Britain, Kings College 4. Macionis, (2006), Sociology, 10/E, Pearson Education India 5. Modood, T, (2004), Capitals, Ethnic Identity and Educational Qualifications, Cultural Trends, Vol. 13, Issue. 2 , pp. 87–105 6. Predelli et al, (2012), Majority-Minority Relations in Contemporary Women's Movements: Strategic Sisterhood, Palgrave Macmillan 7. Social Class, (2012). Available at: < http://www.genderandeducation.com/resources/inclusion/social-class/> (accessed on December 5, 2012) 8. Walsh, M, Stephens, P & Moore, S 2000, Social Policy & Welfare, Nelson Thornes Read More