Material deprivation and class

• Material deprivation


  Explanation of failures in education resulting from factors such as substandard housing and low income
• Minorities are more likely to face material deprivation problems according to Palmer
• Ethnic minority children living in low income households


  • Almost half
  • A quarter of white children
• Ethnic minorities unemployment rate compared to whites

  • Twice as likely
• Ethnic minority households homelessness rate compared to whites

  • Around three times as likely
• Bangladeshi and Pakistani workers earning £7 per hour


  • Almost half
  • A quarter of white British workers
• Reasons why some ethnic minorities are at greater risk of material deprivation


  • Live in economically depressed areas with high unemployment and low wage rates
  • Cultural factors like tradition of purdah preventing women from working outside home
  • Lack of language skills and foreign qualifications not recognised
  • Asylum seekers not allowed to work
  • Racial discrimination in labour and housing markets
• Such inequalities are reflected in the proportion of children from different ethnic groups who are eligible for free school meals
• Material deprivation explanation


  Explains why Bangladeshi and Pakistani pupils tend to do worse than Indian and white pupils
• Indian pupils


  • Generally above average achievements
  • More likely to attend private schools at twice the rate of whites and five times that of blacks
• Failing to take the different class positions of ethnic groups into account when comparing their educational achievement is a danger as it can overstate the effect of cultural deprivation and understate the effect of poverty and material deprivation
• Indian and Chinese pupils who are materially deprived do better than most white pupils who are not materially deprived
• Material deprivation and social class factors do not completely override the influence of ethnicity
• The effects of low income were much less for other ethnic groups than for white pupils
• Poverty itself is the product of racism according to some sociologists
• Racial discrimination leads to social exclusion
• There is evidence of direct deliberate discrimination against ethnic minority job applicants compared to white applicants