TMP Online

Jan Etienne, lecturer in social policy at Birkbeck College, University of London, argues that getting a clear message out and one that does not alienate a whole community is the first step towards achieving progressive consensus.

Reaching out to all communities, we are told, helps build stronger communities but in a society where vulnerable communities are relied upon to devise and deliver their own strategies and solutions to tackling the big issues of the day, where is progressive consensus?

How can young people feel confident or inspired enough to move forward if their leaders have no real interest in finding solutions for them? How can a demoralised and exhausted community find the strength to mobilise and remove itself out of poverty, deal with low academic achievement, tackle gun crime and at the same time cope with the reality of a society seemingly concerned only with those who are able to cope?

Delivering a clear message that says “We are on your side” is a first step to serious community involvement and engagement.

The latest Joseph Rowntree Foundation research into Poverty and ethnicity in the UK (April, 2007) found stark differences in poverty rates according to ethnic group. Over half of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Black African children are growing up in poverty. Child poverty rates were greater than adult poverty rates across groups, so that children from minority groups were poorer than both white children and adults from their own ethnic groups.

The high rates of child poverty in some groups are of particular concern, both for their present welfare and their future opportunities.

Educational qualifications as a key factor, was one of the areas considered to play a role in different poverty rates.  Despite high levels of qualifications, Black Africans did not achieve the employment outcomes that might be expected.

With regard to the older community, the UK’s national population structure, in line with most Western societies, is ageing rapidly. By 2025 the number of people over the age of 60 will outnumber those under 25.

The 2001 census revealed that the White Irish group had the oldest age structure of all in 2001, with one in four people in Britain aged 65 and over. Among the non-White group, Black Caribbean’s had the largest proportion of people aged 65 and over (11 per cent) reflecting the first large-scale migration of non-White groups to Britain back in the 1950s.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s research found Indian and Caribbean pensioners to be poorer than white pensioners.

In an ageing society, progressive consensus must prepare for the growing number of ageing BME communities who have contributed substantially to the economic prosperity of our nation. But what strategy should be adopted to reach out to such communities and to supporting vulnerable elders when in many areas the old are ‘getting younger’?

The Rowntree research found clear evidence that low income from employment was a central issue in causing poverty, impacting on those of all ages, including those of pensionable age.

In respect of family and employment, while mothers in lone parent Black Caribbean households are more likely to be in employment than those in other households, this did not necessarily prevent poverty and could impact on other aspects of welfare such as the nature of social contact.

In a society where competition is placed at centre stage, only those able to get through will continue to survive at the expense of and with very little regard to those left behind.  In reaching out to all communities, getting a clear message out and one that does not alienate a whole community is the first step towards achieving progressive consensus.

Jan Etienne teaches Social Policy at Birkbeck College, University of London and is standing for selection to become Labour’s parliamentary candidate in Hornsey and Wood Green.