EDUCATION: Ethnicity and education - External factors (Material Deprivation)

Question 1

What did Palmer find as a result of material deprivation 
Statistics for 
- Households
- Unemployment 
- Homelessness
- Wages
- Shift work 
- Women

Answer 1

Households: Almost 1/2 of all ethnic minority children live in low income households against 1/4 of white children

Unemployment: EM are almost 2x as likely to be unemployed compared to whites

Homelessness: EM households are 3x as likely to be homeless

Wages: Almost 1/2 of Bengali and Pakistani workers earned under £7 an hour compared with only 1/4 of White British workers

Shift work: EM more likely to engage in shift work

Women: Bengali and Pakistani women more likely than others to be engaged in low-paid home working

Question 2

Bhatti:

• What impact did financial struggled have on asian families
• What problem arises therefore

Answer 2

• Because of financial constraints, some asian students left education before their parents would have liked
• If we fail to take into account the different class positions of ethnic groups when we compare their educational achievements, there is a danger that we may over-estimate the effect of cultural deprivation and underestimate the effect of poverty and material deprivation

Question 3

Why might ethnic minorities be at greater risk of the impacts of material deprivation

6 reasons

Answer 3

• May live in economically depressed areas with high unemployment and low wage rates
• Cultural factors like tradition of purdah in some muslim houses, prevents women from working outside the home
• Lack of language skills and foreign qualifications not being recognised by UK employees
• Asylum seeker may not be allowed to take work
• Racial discrimination in the labour market and housing market

Question 4

What evidence is there for material inequalities between ethnic groups

• Indian, white and Bengali, Pakistani
• FSM - + statistic

Answer 4

• Indians and whites generally have a higher social class position compares to Bengalis and Pakistanis - so they achieve higher in education
• More Pakistanis are eligible for FSM the Indians which may explain why Indians attain higher
  + 30% of Pakistanis compared to just under 10% of Indians