By Davida Ademuyiwa
The Covid pandemic has played a big role in exposing British social-economic inequalities. Black and ethnic minority communities were the worst affected, which clearly tells us that more needs to be done to address this problem.
According to Deloitte: “The UK has one of the poorest rates of social mobility in the developed world. This means that people born into low-income families, regardless of their talent, or their hard work, do not have the same access to opportunities as those born into more privileged circumstances.”
Awareness that the problem exists is a starting point. Education on how the inequity can be addressed would help orientate those impacted towards adopting the right mindset and choices that can help improve their life chances, moving them towards upward social mobility rather that experiencing downward mobility.
At the same time, government policy can remove obstacles preventing these people from accessing and engaging in the education system, becoming gainfully employed, starting and growing their own businesses, and getting on the housing ladder.
The Two-Pronged Effect of Emigration
Contrary to popular belief, not every immigrant to the UK comes for an economically better life. In many cases they can end up being worse off. Emigration can have a two-way effect on social mobility. In some cases, it means downward mobility for people well placed in their home society but had to leave due to conflict or other socio-political situations. Coming to the UK is known to be a leveller. Thus, you will find many black and ethnic minority (BAME) people of different socioeconomic statuses having to start at the lowest rungs of the social ladder.
Before anybody can go from striving to thriving economically, they would need a shift in their thinking. The same mindset that helps a community in survival mode is not the same one that would help them go to the next level and ascend the economic ladder. However, for various reasons many get stuck. Then again, wealth in BAME communities is not an individual achievement, it is often a family matter. Family members are known to have made great sacrifices to the individual’s achievement, therefore as they go up the socioeconomic ladder, they constantly have to reach back to help family members who are still steeped in the poor conditions they left behind, thus making the climb slower and more onerous.
The Education Social Mobility Model
Many see education as the key to becoming socially mobile. In the ‘60s we saw illiterate but industrious parents educating their children in order to help them climb the ladder. The UK saw an influx of BAME people from countries that had colonial ties with Britain, coming into the UK to be professionally educated and trained to become nurses, doctors, engineers, pharmacists, lecturers, architects etc. Many returned to their native countries after their education to join the emerging affluent class.
Following that model of social mobility worked for them, and so numerous immigrant parents place high value on education to ensure that their children achieve academically in pursuit of intergenerational social mobility.
One factor not often highlighted is the limited types of intelligences recognised and rewarded by the education and employment systems. The intelligence recognised by the education system often dictates how well a child can achieve. Traditional education and employment systems are geared towards measuring and rewarding only certain types of intelligences such as logical mathematical intelligence and scientific intelligence, to the detriment of others. However, life often rewards other forms of intelligence. Actors and actresses; musicians; entertainers and athletes; writers; TV broadcasters, and other talented people do well in life, becoming highly socially mobile in their lifetime.
The Business Social Mobility Model
Accessing to education does not necessarily mean success for some who are unable to complete their schooling. Many drop out and find themselves at the bottom rung of the ladder. Some find themselves hustling and living hand-to-mouth throughout their lives. Conversely, others develop entrepreneurial skills, finding opportunity, social networks, and funding that enables them to pull themselves out of a downward social mobility spiral. However, the majority are left to flounder. Thus, there is a need for an alternative system to help these people move beyond survival to thriving, that rewards those with talents outside the narrow scope of the education system.
Whilst there are pockets of more privileged BAME children and young people who do well in the educational system, more help is needed for those who do not so that they can build well-developed entrepreneurial acumen to build a business that will positively support and contribute to the British economy.
The Government occasionally implements schemes that provide this alternative, however, this alternative provision is often poorly planned, supported, and funded. These programs are often short-term with sporadic funding. The government needs to pay more attention to this, as a great number of people from BAME communities have used these schemes, for instance in the corner shop or kebab van economy, to access and achieve social mobility.
The sad thing for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds is that most of them do develop entrepreneurial skills, but for some it is on the wrong side of the law. For many of these young people, having their own disposable income is important due to poverty at home, so they become easy targets for criminal gangs and are easily drawn into crime, perpetuating the trend of downward social-mobility.
The Investment Social Mobility Model
Homeownership has always been an important marker for upward social mobility. It is seen as one of the quickest ways to build wealth.
The most socially upwardly mobile from BAME communities are those who have pursued investing in their own homes and have speedily gone on to grow their own property portfolios. Unfortunately, the drive to get on the social housing waiting list is a big deception that becomes an obstacle which prevents many BAME people from becoming socially mobile.
Margaret Thatcher's Right to Buy policies in the ‘80s enabled many in social housing to buy their own home, helping many who would not have otherwise been able to get on the housing ladder become upwardly mobile. According to The Guardian, “Home ownership grew from 55% of the population in 1980 to 64% in 1987. By the time Margaret Thatcher left office in 1990 it was 67%. 1.5 million council houses were sold by 1990, by 1995 it was 2.1 million.” Boris Johnson also has plans to help thousands of young people onto the property ladder and has vowed to pave the way for renters to become homeowners.
Whilst social housing has a place in sheltering the vulnerable, preventing homelessness, and helping people start out, homeownership is the key that often helps them gain social mobility traction.
In Conclusion
According to the Resolution Foundation, wealth gaps between different ethnic groups in Britain are large and likely to persist: “People of Black African ethnicity typically hold the lowest wealth (a median figure of £24,000 family wealth per adult), a total which amounts to less than one eighth of the typical wealth held by a person of White British ethnicity (£197,000 family wealth per adult). Those of Bangladeshi ethnicity typically hold just £31,000 family wealth per adult (median figure), while those with Mixed White and Black Caribbean ethnicity typically hold £41,800.”
These statistics look bleak.
Although many BAME people already employ the three social mobility models mentioned above, we need to see more from these communities adopting them if we want to see a cessation of intergenerational disadvantage.
We must educate the community to be intentional about becoming upwardly mobile. BAME people need shift how they think about economic issues that feed into the choices they make and inevitably help to perpetuate the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage rather than advantage.
With many BAME people living at the lowest rungs of the UK's socioeconomic ladder, intergenerational downward mobility is certainly not an option that the UK can entertain, as it comes with other vices that suck individuals, families, communities, and the nation into a further downward spiral; it perpetuates crime, such as the drug, gang, and the gun and knife culture which all have their own repercussions.
Some people in these communities are proactively taking responsibility for their own upward progress and continue to pull themselves up by the bootstraps as they climb the socioeconomic ladder. For the rest, early interventions, such as investment in the provision of financial and entrepreneurial education and efforts to assist and encourage the upward social mobility of this subsection of UK’s society is a must.
