Functionalist View on Ethnic Inequality

Question 1

How do early functionalists attempt to explain stratification by ethnicity

Answer 1

Suggesting that as the children of the early migrants to Britain assimilated into British culture, they too would come to share British values, particularly with regard to educational achievement so therefore climbing their way up the social mobility ladder

Question 2

However how has the economic gap changed

Answer 2

The economic gap between BAME groups and the White majority widened and the disaffection of BAME youth started to be expressed in riots - led to functionalists changing their view on ethnic inequality

Question 3

What did Patterson depict

Answer 3

That in the immigrant-host model, she saw Britain as a basically stable, homogenous and orderly society with a high degree of consensus over values and norms.

However she claims that this social equilibrium was disturbed by the arrival of immigrant strangers in the 1950s who subscribed to different cultural values

Question 4

What did Patterson argue

Answer 4

That this resulted in a culture clash between African-carribean immigrants and their English hosts

Question 5

What did Patterson argue about the clash

Answer 5

The clashes reflected understandable fears and anxieties on the part of the host community. She claimed that the English were not actually racist - and rather they were unsure on how to act towards the newcomers.

Question 6

What did Patterson claim there were the 3 causes of ethnic inequality

Answer 6

• The host population - Feared social change and difference because the existing social order was based on sameness
• Sections of the host population (specifically the white working class) having to compete with the newcomers for scarce resources
• BAME groups failed to assimilate and integrate, they did not become fully British and from the hosts perspective they were the complete opposite

Question 7

What was Pattersons theory implicitly critical of

Answer 7

The insistence of ethnic minorities that they should retain their own cultural values and practices because these allegedly make White people fearful and anxious

Question 8

What do some people argue in criticism to the immigrant-host model

Answer 8

That signs of assimilation or adaptation can be seen in the behaviour of third and fourth generation BAME young people. Johal argues many young Asians are becoming Brasian