Ethnicity

• Immigrant-host model


  Patterson depicted Britain as a stable, homogenous and orderly society with a degree of consensus over values and norms, but this social equilibrium was disturbed by the arrival of immigrant 'strangers' in the 1950s who subscribed to different cultural values
• Immigrant-host model


  • Clashes reflected understandable fears and anxieties on the part of the host community
  • The English were not actually racist, but unsure about how to act towards the newcomers
• Causes of ethnic inequality in the immigrant-host model

  • The host population - the White majority - feared social change and difference
  • Section of the host population, particularly the White working class, resented having to compete for scarce resources with the newcomers
  • BAME groups failed to assimilate and integrate
• Triple quandary theory


  Sewell's theory to address ethnic inequalities experienced by young African-Caribbean boys
• Factors in Sewell's triple quandary theory


  • African-Caribbean families often lack fathers, so boys lack positive role models
  • Failure of society to deal with institutional racism in schools and police forces
  • Media culture organised around the Black music scene, especially rap music, which celebrates individualism, hyper-masculinity/sexuality and materialism
• Social solidarity


  Durkheim's concept that a certain level of social inequality is essential for the smooth functioning of society
• Durkheim's view on ethnic inequality


  • Different ethnic groups have specific functions, with white individuals assuming leadership and innovative roles, and individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds undertaking roles crucial for day-to-day operations
  • Social control acts as a mechanism to balance differences in norms and values, preventing a state of anomie or normlessness within ethnic groups
• The Bell Curve


  Murray and Herrnstein's book suggesting that aspects such as education, job performance and income were better predicted using measures of intelligence than socio-economic status, and that there are differences in intelligence when comparing races
• Underclass


  (according to Murray) individuals who lack employment, income or an education, largely made up of 'problem families', including never-married Black single mothers and young men who lack fathers and positive role models
• Murray would view state welfare as creating a culture of dependency and individuals don't have an incentive to work
• Racism as a social construct


  (according to Cox) racism asserted White superiority and has always served the needs of capitalism by justifying the treating of some groups as 'less than human'
• Reserve army of labour


  (according to Marxists) certain segments of society, including ethnic minorities, serve as a secondary labour force in capitalism that can be mobilised during economic booms as temporary or flexible labour
• Reasons why ethnic minorities are part of the exploited working class (Castles and Kosack)


  • Racism helps to justify low pay and poor working conditions
  • Racism divides the workforce, preventing white and ethnic minority workers from uniting
  • Ethnic minorities become scapegoats for social and economic problems, deflecting attention away from inequality and the need for radical change
• Racialised class fractions


  (according to Miles) the class position of ethnic minorities is complicated by the fact that they are treated by White society as socially and culturally different, and consequently they have become the victims of racist ideologies that prevent their full inclusion into UK society
• Moral panic


  (according to Stuart Hall) the mass media works on behalf of the capitalist class by stereotyping working class and Black people as members of a criminal underclass and creating moral panics around them, in an attempt to justify the government bringing in more laws and police officers to control them
• Dual labour market


  (according to Barron and Norris) the economy is organised with a primary labour sector of secure, high-status and well-paid jobs monopolised by White men, and a secondary labour sector of low-paid, low-status, unskilled and insecure jobs dominated by ethnic minority workers
• Ethnic underclass


  (according to Rex and Tomlinson) ethnic minority experience of both class and status inequality can lead to poverty, material disadvantage and social exclusion, which are often made more severe by racism
• Negatively privileged status groups


  (according to Parkin) some groups are kept out of high-status positions due to social segregation, such as ethnic minorities facing barriers through limited visibility in the media and strategies of social closure
• Triple disadvantage


  (according to Brewer) ethnic minority women face sexism, racism and class disadvantage simultaneously
• Concrete ceiling


  (according to Davidson) discrimination prevents ethnic minorities from being promoted even when they are eventually employed, unlike white women who can break through the "glass ceiling"
• Many Muslim women removed their hijabs or adapted their names to make them sound more English to avoid discrimination in the job market (Li)