Functionalist ethnic inequality

• Patterson - Functionalist 


  • Immigrants are strangers who disrupted the peace in Britain.
  • The host-immigration model interprets racism as the understandable fears and anxieties from the hosts as they are unsure how to act.
  • Cultural assimilation will bring racial harmony.
• Giddens, postmodernist, criticised Patterson's idea as the idea of assimilation is outdated due to globalisation
• Roberts- Functionalist 


  • Cultural explanations of the economic differences between Asians and African-Caribbeans are plausible.
  • 1/2 of Pakistani women spoke little to no English.
  • Traditional networks of African-Caribbeans has been weakened by their bitter experience of colonialism and slavery
• Cashmore- Functionalist 


  • Successful black entrepreneurs are often treated with suspicion in Britain.
  • Accused of 'selling out' or adopting 'white' values
• Postmodernists disagree with Roberts and instead focus on the increasingly diverse situation of ethnic groups in the UK who have high earnings. For example, Priti Patel served as home secretary since 2019
• Davis and Moore - Functionalist 


  • Role allocation theory allows use to allocate the right jobs to the right people.
  • Ethnic minorities are less likely to be in top jobs due to their lack of functional uniqueness and lack of people depending on them so are paid less as a result.
• Parkin, Neo-Weberian, rejects Davis and Moore's idea as society doesn't allocate jobs fairly; higher status groups like whites use exclusion strategies to protect their privilege.
• Young- Functionalist 


  • If we live in a meritocracy then ethnic inequality exists because they show less merit and skills.
• Brown and Gay criticise Young's idea of meritocracy as ethnic minorities do not have equal chances of getting job interviews, shown in their experiment.
• Castles and Kossack criticise Young's idea of meritocracy as ethnic minorities are used as scapegoats in the divide and rule policy.