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Preventing Social Exclusion
- Making sure that mainstream services are being delivered to everyone
- Reintegrating people who have fallen through the net.
If it all works this will become the first British government ever to eliminate poverty.
In practice, the idea of exclusion is mainly used in three contexts. The first is financial:
exclusion is identified with poverty, and its effect on a person's ability to participate in normal activities. This can involve many of the groups ive listed. The second is exclusion from the labour market:
exclusion is strongly identified with long-term unemployment and can lead to poverty and further exclusion form the workforce as skills will become out of date and new technology will become unfamiliar and more training will be needed which they can not afford. Third, there is exclusion in its social sense, which identifies exclusion partly with alienation from social networks, and partly with the circumstances of stigmatised groups. The government believes that to solve the problems of exclusion, benefits should not be increased but the answer is simply to get a job. It can solve poverty, and help get someone into social networks and back into society.
Social exclusion can happen as a result of problems that face one person in their life. But it can also start from birth. Being born into poverty or to parents with low skills still has a major influence on future life chances. Furthermore Children in England are more segregated in their school lives than they are where they live. Research by Bristol University into secondary schools found high levels of segregation by ethnic group. This was strongest in inner cities, where parents were choosing to send their children to schools where their race was dominant. Children whose families originated from South Asia were the most segregated, according to the data. It's an age group where children are forming their views learning life skills and how to socialize with others outside of their own groups. Different groups grow up in different communities and meet each other less - that's not good for social cohesion so schools should be a place where all can meet together. Bristol university found that in the average local education authority in England, 50% of children would have to move school in order to achieve an even spread of races across schools, and in most cases, the school playgrounds were reflecting the Structure of highly-segregated neighbourhoods.
In addition to minorities being excluded in school disabled children are too. The average school may not have the provisions to look after disabled child who may require one to one attention. A school specifically for these children where they are with others who require high amounts of attention may seem favourable to parents as they have the satisfaction that there child will have the help they need. and will not be subject to bullying due to their disability. Should the child go to a main stream school they may become segregated as they may not be able to keep the pace and participate as well due to mental difficulties. So which is the right choice?
People are vulnerable to exclusion regardless of age or sex, but it is more of a problem for some ethnic minority groups - particularly Somali and Pakistani’s. It’s never been clear as to weather refugees, immigrants or foreigners discriminated against sought to retain their identity or wished to merge as quickly as possible with the host population. Setting up their own community can have many problems. A temporary ghetto is a segregated area where populations become adjusted to their new ways of life, in particular they seek immediate refuge with their own kind until they become adjusted to the new country and once this is achieved they move on.
A permanent Ghetto is a cultural group existing in a small community instead of being weakened and lost in the larger community of the new country. Often those original inhabitants nearby feel out numbered and uncomfortable in their own country. and the ghetto groups can use this to their advantage. An example of a permanent ghetto community is the Jewish populations, their segregation can be considered not as a need to exclude them for being different but due to needs rising from their religious customs, in particular dietary requirements, and having a synagogue nearby.
The emergence of a ghetto or ethnic community area is also seen by some as a bad thing, they believe house prices will fall as the area is seen as being unattractive, not a safe place to live due to being outnumbered and conflicts may arise due to cultural differences. When asked about a ghetto many people give negative views and believe it to be an area where homeless, jobless people are given a place to stay, where they aren’t wanting to become integrated in society and resent anyone entering the area who is of ‘a different type’ to themselves.
One of the most well known cases of community segregation has to be in Northern Ireland where there is conflict between religions and beliefs. So much so that a tall wall separates the two groups. The place becomes marked out by the use of sectarian symbols, such as flags, wall murals and pavement markings, they become no go zones for the opposite groups. Bbc data shows only 22% would be happy to go shopping in areas dominated by another religion and 72% of all age groups questioned refused to use health centres in areas where the population was mainly the other religion. A survey taken recently of Belfast's communities finds the people living there have become more segregated since the peace process began. It showed 62% of those questioned felt community relations had worsened since 1994, after the first ceasefire.
Older people too can suffer too. Seven out of 10 older people in deprived areas are victims of social exclusion, a new study claims. It also found that 45% of the elderly in the areas were living in poverty. In the worst cases, social exclusion can mean elderly people going without basics such as heating, new clothing, and food as well as being less involved in community life.
Not only people living in inner city areas face exclusion, rural communities also do they are thinly spaced and the problem of social exclusion is not as obvious as in a city. It found young mothers, ethnic minorities and those with disabilities felt cut-off in small rural populations. A lack of services and support can lead to many feeling cut off from the wider world.
In conclusion there is many ways people are excluded from their community and many groups affected but there is no easy answer to the nationwide problem especially in the short term. Along with government help and support, Targeting schools and educating children at a young age about the problems people can face when they are unemployed, old, or of an ethnic minority can be important. and may help solve the problems in the future for their generation.