External factors- Material deprivation

Question 1

What is material deprivation ?

Answer 1

A lack of those physical necessities that are seen as essential or normal for life in today’s society

Question 2

Why does Guy Palmer argue the ethnic minorities may be more at risk of being materially deprived ?

Answer 2

Almost half of all ethic minority children live in low income households, as against a quarter of white children

Ethnic minorities are almost twice as likely to be unemployed compared with whites

Almost half of Bangladeshi and Pakistani workers earned under £7 per hour, compared with only a quartered of white British workers

• In addition, ethnic minority workers are more likely to be employed in shift work and Bangladeshi and Pakistani women are more likely than others to be engaged in low-paid home working

Question 3

Several reasons why some ethnic minorities may be at greater risk of material deprivation (which results in unemployment, low pay and overcrowding)

Answer 3

Many live in economically depressed areas with high unemployment and low wage rates

Cultural factors such as tradition of purdah in some Muslim households, which prevent women from working outside the home (wont have dual income)

A lack of language skills and foreign qualifications not being recognised by UK employers.
These are more likely to affect recently arrived groups, many of whom are refugees

Asylum seekers may not be allowed to take work

Racial discrimination in labour and housing market

Ethnic minority families are more likely to occupy poor quality and overcrowded housing in economically depressed urban areas which experience severs social problems such a high crime rates

Question 4

How can these above claims be evaluated ?

Answer 4

However, Indian and Chinese pupils who are materially deprived still tend to do better than most, suggesting that perhaps its the family support and values and attitudes which affects educational achievement

Question 5

How does Madood (2004) evaluate these claims above ?

Answer 5

Madood (2004) argued that many ethnic minority parents have more cultural capital than is typical for their income or class position

If they are recent migrants in the UK, they may have been downwardly mobile or they might not be able to get jobs in line with their skill and experience due to disrimcation because they lack familiarity with British culture

As a result, they may be better educated than most White British parents from the same background and can therefore provide more help to their children in theri education