2b functionalist explanations for ethnic inequalities

Question 1

Patterson

Answer 1

HOST-IMMIGRANT MODEL

Britain 🇬🇧 = stable, homogenous, orderly, value consensus
DISRUPTED by immigrant ‘strangers’ in the 50s.

culture clash between West Indians (boisterous, noisy, not queueing) and English hosts (valued privacy, quiet, ‘keeping oneself to oneself’

Hosts aren’t racist, just unsure, so confusion spills into suspicion and resentment.

Cultural ‘strangeness’

Cultural assimilation will eventually happen and create racial harmony

Question 2

Roberts (explanations of ethnic inequality)

Answer 2

Cultural factors

economic differences between ethnicities is due to culture

Modood: 3/5 Bangladeshi women, 1/2 Pakistani women DIDN’T SPEAK ENGLISH

Afro-Caribbean groups have anti-enterprise attitude
Cashmore: successful black entreprenuers treated with suspicion

South Asian women have custom of purdah (seclusion of women away from men).

SO EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES REDUCED

Question 3

Davis and Moore (explanations of ethnic inequality)

Answer 3

role allocation theory
meritocracy, merit = skill and effort

functional uniqueness, degree of dependency

ethnic minorities may have less merit for the best jobs e.g. less English (Modood) or not wanting to take on paid work (Purdah)

Question 4

Michael Young (explanations for ethnic inequalities)

Answer 4

meritocracy
some ethnic minorities show less merit
Sewell report: the only evidence of racism is annecdotal, not actual evidence of structural evidence
Ethnic minority groups doing well professionally and educationally

UK isn’t yet a ‘post-racial’ society with complete equality but it’s pretty okay