Structural inequalities: Socio-economic disadvantage

Whilst this project is focused specifically on barriers to media employment, a general overview of the inequalities that exist in Britain in terms of socio-economic disadvantage offer a useful insight into potential barriers to successful media careers.

Historically, ethnic minority communities have suffered disadvantage from the time of their arrival in Britain. The first wave of migration came mainly from the Caribbean and the Indian subcontinent and saw people arriving in Britain to find work. These migrant workers were filling a huge demand for labour caused by the post war expanding economy and were thus concentrated in jobs that were not being filled by White workers. Despite the fact that many arrived in Britain with skills, minorities worked mainly in unskilled manual jobs. A small proportion of those who were qualified doctors found

work in hospitals and surgeries but were generally given more junior posts. As Ballard and Holden write:

“Whether coloured immigrants were manual workers or professionals, it remains generally true to say that they have taken the jobs for which no White Britons could be found, and that these jobs are, by definition, the ones which are less well paid, less pleasant, or less prestigious.” (1975:163)

Racial discrimination in employment did not become unlawful until 1968 so it was common for employment agencies and companies to refuse to employ minorities. Brown suggested that Black and Asian people were “more likely…to be unemployed, and those who are in work tend to have jobs with lower pay and lower status than those of White workers.” (Brown, 1984:293) It is not just in employment that ethnic minorities have historically been disadvantaged; immigrant workers were forced to live in poor quality, mostly rented, housing in undesirable inner city areas due to the fact that they were not eligible for council housing at this time and could not afford to buy suitable accommodation due to their low wages1. This resulted in ethnic minority groups living in concentrated areas and as Brown states, “the housing circumstances of Black [and Asian] people in Britain are in many ways unusual and inferior to those of White people.” (1984:68) The second wave of immigration (involving mainly the families of the first wave immigrants) in the 1970’s has been described as a period of consolidation and segregation, with minorities settling into communities, but remaining excluded from White society. The variety of jobs available to minority workers grew and the passing of the 1965, 1968 and 1976 Race Relations Acts gave ethnic minorities formal rights and made racial discrimination in both housing and work unlawful. Racial discrimination in employment

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remained rife however and although - due to a gradual reduction in discrimination and the enterprising nature of many minority communities – many ethnic minority people did become more economically powerful, in general racial equality has still not been achieved.

Contemporary statistics indicate that many ethnic minority groups are still suffering economic disadvantage today. The Cabinet Office Report, ‘Ethnic Minorities and the Labour Market’ (March 2003) highlighted a number of problem areas. For example, “Britain’s ethnic minorities have consistently experienced unemployment rates twice those of Whites” (2003:18) with Bangladeshis and Pakistanis experiencing particularly low rates of economic activity. Furthermore, ethnic minorities can expect to be paid less than their White counterparts, Bangladeshis being particularly poorly paid with male average weekly net earnings of £155 less than Whites in 2000. Indeed, four-fifths of Pakistani and Bangladeshi households and around two-fifths of other ethnic minorities have incomes at or below the national average compared to a quarter of White households. Indians in general remain the least disadvantaged ethnic minority group in terms of pay and Indian men actually earned an average of £10 more a week than Whites in 2000. (DfES, 2003:21) Disparities between ethnic groups in terms of eligibility for free school meals also gives a clear indication that a significant proportion of children from certain ethnic groups are experiencing poverty with as many as 50% of Bangladeshi pupils, 42% of Black Africans, 35% of Pakistanis and 30% of Black Caribbean’s eligible compared to only 14% of Whites, 12% of Indians and 11% of Chinese pupils (DfES, 2003:9). Many minority groups are also still predominantly employed low down the occupational scale with only 11% of Black Caribbeans, 12% of Black Africans, 14% of Bangladeshi and 15% of Pakistani workers employed as managers or senior officials. Again it is only Chinese and Indian groups who are as well represented as Whites in these top end jobs with 20% of Chinese workers, 21% of Indians and 18% of Whites working as

managers or senior officials. (EOC, 2004:10) It does appear that aside from Indian and Chinese groups, all other ethnic groups are, generally speaking, experiencing inequality in terms of employment rates, pay, poverty and power.

Research by the Department for Education and Skills (2003) has highlighted the fact that these ethnic groups are also suffering disadvantages in education. This will obviously have a huge impact on the career prospects of these groups. The graph below indicates the disparity between ethnic groups in relation to educational attainment with Black pupils in particular severely under-achieving. Indeed, such has been the concern over the low level of educational attainment amongst Black pupils that Trevor Philips has recently suggested Black pupils should be schooled separately. It is only Indian and Chinese groups who are now starting to achieve better results than Whites while Pakistani and Bangladeshi pupils achieve lower GCSE results than their White counterparts.

Proportion of young people achieving five or more A*-C grade GCSE's (England, 2002) 77% 70% 57% 50% _46% 44% 38% 70% 58% 46% 40% 34% 29% 23% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% Chine se Indian Whi te Bangladeshi Pak istan i Blac k A frica n Blac k Ca ribbea n Ethnic group Source: DfES, 2003:12 Percent Girls Boys

It is important to note that Black Caribbean pupils are around three times as likely to be permanently excluded from school as Whites, with the latest figures indicating that forty-one in every ten thousand pupils of Black Caribbean heritage are permanently excluded from school. (DfES, 2003:19) This

obviously has severe implications for the educational and career success of these Black pupils.

Given these figures it is perhaps surprising to learn that ethnic minorities are actually more likely to continue in full time education after the age of 16 than Whites (with 69% of White 16 year olds remaining in full time education compared to 77% of Pakistanis, 79% of Bangladeshis, 82% of Blacks and as many as 91% of Indians (Youth Cohort Study, Cohort 11, sweep 1, 2002 in DfES, 200324)). Furthermore, 39% of Indians of working age were working towards a degree qualification in 2002 compared with 30% of Pakistanis 36% of Black Africans, 64% of Chinese people and only 26% of Whites. However, Black Caribbeans were still underrepresented with only 22% of those of working age studying for a degree. (Labour Force Survey, 2002 in DfES, 2003:25)2

Although ethnic minority groups are continuing into post-16 education and studying for degrees (which on the surface should be helping them to achieve media careers), they appear to generally be taking much more time-consuming and difficult routes into degree education than their White counterparts. For example, minority degree applicants (particularly Black applicants) are much more likely to gain entry to higher education through an Access qualification than Whites with far more Black students entering higher education at age 21 or over. (DfES, 2003:27) UCAS 2000 data also indicates that most ethnic minority pupils are less likely to achieve 21 or more ‘A’ level points than White pupils (only 19% of Black Caribbean students, 26% Bangladeshi, 28% Black African and 29% of Pakistani students achieved these results compared to 40% of Indian students, 46% of Whites and 50% of Chinese students (in DfES, 2003:27). This will obviously make it harder for minorities to gain places on the more competitive courses (such as media) and to attend good quality, prestigious institutions.

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Due to low number reliability problems, it has not been possible to provide figures for all ethnic groups.

Thus, although ethnic minorities with UK citizenship account for 15% of all undergraduates in English Higher Education institutions, they are concentrated in a relatively small number of less prestigious institutions (predominantly modern (post 1992) universities in London and the larger cities). Indeed, in London, minority students account for 60% of full-time undergraduates at modern universities and only 36% at older universities. (DfES, 2003:28)

When assessing the barriers preventing ethnic minorities from entering and progressing in media careers, it is important that the socio-economic factors discussed here are taken into account. Arguably, socio-economic disadvantage can prevent media employment on a number of levels. Firstly, the offspring of parents on low wages are likely to struggle to afford to pay for media training courses, relocate to one of the few cities where there is a multitude of media work available and live off the notoriously low media starting wages. Those students who perform badly in school are also less likely to achieve the qualifications necessary to compete for media positions. Secondly, people whose parents have been excluded from White society and actively prevented from gaining professional positions in the workplace may experience a lack of status and unequal access to the intrinsic social knowledge required to say the ‘right thing’ in job interviews, ‘fit-in’ with workplace culture or successfully network with other professionals. These forms of social ‘armour’ are part of what Bourdieu terms ‘capital.’ ‘Capital’ can be economic but also social (i.e. having access to significant contacts and relations), symbolic (i.e. possessing “prestige and social honour” (Jenkins, 1992:85) or cultural (i.e. possessing knowledge that is widely believed to be legitimate). When looking at the networking and workplace culture at the heart of the media industry, it is easy to see how the possession of ‘capital’ is vital to success. Indeed, according to Bourdieu it is access to ‘capital’ that determines relationships of domination and subordination within ‘social fields’ (arenas where society’s power struggles occur). It is clear that many minorities may find

themselves in socially subordinate positions because of a lack of access to ‘capital’ and the link between media success and access to ‘capital’ can clearly be seen in the area of ‘cultural capital’ in particular. Bourdieu uses the example of the education system to explain that because the curriculum is defined by the socially powerful, those pupils who have not been socialised in a way that gave them access to these narrowly defined definitions of what constitutes knowledge often fail to achieve success in education. Similarly, because the media industry is dominated and controlled by the White middle- classes, ‘news-value’ is defined almost solely from this perspective too. It is therefore likely that many ethnic minorities have not been raised in an environment where views and perspectives are defined along the same lines. Thus, they experience a lack of access to cultural capital. It is in this manner that inequalities are reproduced with those people raised in White, middle-class homes having a sort of pre-disposition to fitting into media culture and sharing a similar perspective with editors and producers:

“the disposition to make use of the School and the predispositions to succeed in it depend…on the objective chances of using it and succeeding in it that are attached to the different social classes, these dispositions and predispositions in turn constituting one of the most important factors in the perpetuation of the structure of educational chances as an objectively graspable manifestation of the relationship between the education system and the system of class relations.” (Bourdieu, ‘Reproduction’ in Jenkins, 1992:112)