Social Exclusion

1
Social Exclusion

• NARCC Expert Roundtable
• October 23 2004
• Grace-Edward Galabuzi
• Ryerson University

2
Introduction

• Canadas changing population
• Social exclusion
• Dimensions of social exclusion
• Racialization of poverty
• Social exclusion and neighbourhoods
• Social exclusion and the criminal Justice system
• Social exclusion and health

3
Canadas Changing Population, Immigration and
Labour force

• Canada welcomed an annual average of close to
  200,000 new immigrants and refugees over the
  1990s.
• Immigration accounted for more than 50 of the
  net population growth between 1991 1996.
• Immigration accounted for 70 of the growth in
  the labour force from 1991- 1996
• Immigration will account for virtually all of the
  net growth in the Canadian labour force by the
  year 2011 (HRDC, 2002).

4
Racialized Groups, Recent Immigrantsand Canadas
changing population make-up

• There has been a significant change in the source
  countries, with over 75 of new immigrants in the
  1980s and 1990s coming from what is called the
  global South.
• According to the 2001 Census data, those who
  self-identified as Visible Minorities (racialized
  group members) were 13.4 of the Canadian
  population while immigrants accounted for 18.4.
  
• Those figures are projected to rise to 20 and
  25 respectively by 2015. This does not include
  non-status residents.

5
Canadian population growth rates

• During the census period (1996-2001), the growth
  of the racialized group population far outpaced
  the Canadian average.
• While the Canadian population grew by 3.9
  between 1996-2001, the corresponding rate for
  Racialized groups was 24.6.
• Over the same period, the racialized component of
  the labour force by (males 28.7/females 32.3)
  compared to (5.5 and 9 ) respectively for the
  Canadian population.

6
Social Exclusion

• Describes
• structures of inequality
• processes of inequality
• unequal outcomes among groups in society.
• A form of alienation and denial of full
  citizenship experienced by particular groups of
  individuals and communities.
• Its characteristics occur in multiple dimensions.
• In industrialized societies, a key determinant of
  social exclusion is uneven access to the
  processes of production, wealth creation and
  power.

7
Aspects of Social Exclusion

• Denial of civil engagement through legal sanction
  and other institutional mechanisms.
• Denial of access to social goods - health care,
  education, housing.
• Denial of opportunity to participate actively in
  society.
• Economic exclusion.

8
Dimensions of Social Exclusion

• Racialized groups and new immigrants experience
  differential life chances. Characteristics
  include
• Segmented labour market participation
• A double digit racialized income gap
• Chronically higher than average levels of
  unemployment,
• Deepening levels of poverty
• Differential access to housing and neighbourhood
  segregation
• Disproportionate contact with the criminal
  Justice system
• Higher health risks

9
Economic exclusion

• A segmented labour market
• Income inequality
• Inequality in access to employment
• Higher unemployment and under employment
• Lower labour market participation
• Higher exposure to low income

10
Labour Market segregation

• Racialized group members are over represented in
  many low paying occupations, with high levels of
  precariousness while they are under represented
  in the better paying occupations with more secure
  jobs.
• Racialized groups were over-represented in the
  textile, light manufacturing and service sectors
  occupations such as sewing machine operators
  (46), electronic assemblers (42), plastics
  processing (36.8), labourers in textile
  processing (40), taxi and limo drivers (36.6),
  weavers and knitters (37.5), fabrics, fur and
  leather cutters (40.1), iron and pressing
  (40.6).
• They were under-represented in senior management
  (2.0), professionals (6.2), supervisors (6.3),
  fire-fighters (2.0), legislators (2.2)
• One area where they faired better is in the
  information technology industry, with software
  engineers (36.3), computer engineers (30.1) and
  computer programmers (27.8).

11
Inequality in employment incomes

• The impact of racialized segregation on income
  distribution
• During 1996-98, a period of relative prosperity
  in Canada
• Racialized Canadians in 1996 received pre-tax
  average earnings of 19,227, while non-racialized
  Canadians made 25,069, or 23 more or 5,464 -
  equal to about 6 months rent for average earners.
  
• In 1997, the gap grew to 25 or 6,189
• In 1998, it fell back somewhat to 24 or 5,650
• The median before tax income gap remained
  statistically stagnant (29 in 1996 and 28 in
  1998) and with the government intervention
  effect, the median after tax income gap grew from
  23 to 25

12
Unemployment rates for Immigrants,
Non-Immigrants, and Visible Minorities ()

• 1981 1991 2001
• Total labour force 5.9 9.6 6.7
• Canadian born 6.3 9.4 6.4
• All immigrants 4.5 10.4 7.9
• Recent Immigrants 6.0 15.6
  12.1
• Visible Minorities n/a
  9.1 12.6
• ____________________________________________
  ___________________
• Source Statistics Canada, 2001 Census Analysis
  Series. The Changing Profile of Canadas Labour
  Force, February, 11, 2000 and 2001 Employment
  Equity Act Report, Human Resource and Development
  Canada.

13
Labour force participation

• Patterns of lower labour force participation
  among immigrants coincided with the shift to
  immigration from the global South
• 1981 1991 2001
• Total labour force 75.5 78.2 80.3
• Canadian born 74.6 78.7 81.8
• All immigrants 79.3 77.2 75.6
• Recent Immigrants 75.7 68.6 65.8
• Racial Minorities n/a 70.5
  66.0

14
Unequal return to education

• Average earnings of immigrants and Canadian born
  with university degree in 000
• Male Female
• 1990 2000 1990 2000
• 1yr in Can. 33 31.5 21 19.8
• 10yr in Can. 52 47.5 32.5 32.4
• Can. Born 60 66.5 37 41
• _________________________________________________
• Conference Board of Canada study - 8,000 -
  12,000 (5.9B)
• Jeffrey Reitz study - 55 billion loss to
  economy

15
Globalization and racial discrimination

• Neo-liberal restructuring and demands for
  flexibility have made precarious employment the
  fastest growing forms of work - contract,
  temporary, part-time, piece meal, shift work or
  self-employment. And it has combined with
  historical racism discrimination in employment to
  make racialised groups more vulnerable in the
  Canadian economy
• Characteristics of these types of employment
  include low pay, no job security, poor and often
  unsafe working conditions, intensive labour,
  excessive hours and low or no benefits.
• Racialized workers and new immigrants are
  disproportionately over-represented in precarious
  work, as a consequence of their vulnerability.
  This translates into lower incomes and
  occupational status than other Canadians

16
Racial Discrimination in Employment

• Racial discrimination in Employment
• Historical Racism and gendered racism in access
  to employment practices
• Most jobs are filled through word of mouth
  reproducing existing networks and privileged
  access
• Barriers to occupational mobility in workplace
  and among sectors
• Barriers to access to professions and trades
• Non-recognition of international credentials
• Devaluing human capital on basis of source
  country
• Demands for Canadian experience

17
The Racialization of Poverty

• The Racialization of poverty is linked to the
  process of the deepening social exclusion of
  racialized and immigrant communities.
• It represents a disproportionate and persistent
  experience of low income among racialized groups
• A key contributing factor is the concentration
  of economic, social and political power in fewer
  hands that has emerged as the state has retreated
  from its regulatory role in the economy.
• The experience of poverty includes powerlessness,
  marginalisation, voicelessness, vulnerability,
  and insecurity.
• Different dimensions of the experience of poverty
  interact in important ways to reproduce and
  reinforce social exclusion
• This idea is well articulated using the discourse
  and framework of social exclusion.

18
Racialization of Poverty

• In 1995, the rate for racialized children under
  six living in low income families was 45 per cent
  - almost twice the overall figure of 26 per cent
  for all children living in Canada.
• In 1996, while racialized groups members
  accounted for 21.6 per cent of the urban
  population, they accounted for 33 per cent of the
  urban poor.
• In 1996 36.8 of women and 35 of men in
  racialized communities were low-income earners,
  compared to 19.2 of other women and 16 of other
  men
• In 1998, the family poverty rate for racialized
  groups was 19 compared to 10.4 for other
  Canadian families.

19
Low-income rates rise among successive groups of
immigrants

• During the past two decades, low-income rates
  have increased among successive groups of recent
  immigrants
• In 1980, 24.6 of immigrants who had arrived
  during the previous five-year period were below
  the poverty line.
• By 1990, the low-income rate among recent
  immigrants had increased to 31.3.
• After peaking at 47.0 in 1995, the rate fell
  back to 35.8 in 2000.

20
Neighbourhood dimensions of Social Exclusion

• In Canadas urban areas, the spatial
  concentration of poverty or residential
  segregation is intensifying along racial lines
• Immigrants in Toronto are more likely than
  non-immigrants to live in neighbourhoods with
  high rates of poverty
• Young immigrants living in low income areas often
  struggle with alienation from their parents and
  community of origin, and from the broader
  society. They are disproportionate targets of
  criminalization.

21
Racialized neighbourhoods

• Toronto Area racialized enclaves experience high
  poverty rates
• University unemployment low income
  lone parent
• Chinese 21.2 11.2 28.4 11.7
• South Asian 11.8 13.1 28.3 17.6
• Black 8.7 18.3 48.5 33.7

22
Neighbourhood dimensions of Social Exclusion

• One way to understand the increase in various
  forms of violence, including the explosion of gun
  violence among youth in low income neighbourhoods
  in Toronto are the high levels of
  marginalization, hopelessness and powerlessness
  brought about by the economic restructuring of
  these neighbourhoods, allowing for conditions
  under which generalized violence can thrive.
• Research of community violence suggests that it
  is largely a function of social breakdown
  pertaining to social inequality. It represents a
  nihilism that arises out of the disconnection and
  distorted evaluation of the worth of human life
  that emerges in conditions of despair,
  powerlessness, and hopelessness in some socially
  excluded environments.
• Young racialized group members who grow up in
  these conditions are often caught up in a culture
  of alienation both from their parents and
  community of origin, and from the broader
  society.
• But these neighbourhoods also have a complex role
  as communities for their immigrant and racialized
  residents by providing a space in which a sense
  of belonging is created.

23
Social exclusion and the Criminal Justice System

• Racialized group members and immigrant
  communities have historically been racially
  profiled as dangerous foreigners.
• In the Post-September 11 period, national
  security has been constructed in ways that have
  led to the racial profiling and targeting of
  certain racialized groups - Muslims, Arabs and
  West Asians, South Asians
• Low income, marginal communities tend to bear the
  brunt of the law and order agenda of the
  neo-liberal era mostly through targeted policing.
• Immigrants and racialized groups being over
  represented in those communities are subjected to
  a process of criminalization.

24
Social Exclusion and Health

• Discrimination in the health care system is
  characterized by
• -language barriers
• -lack of cultural sensitivity
• -absence of cultural competencies
• -barriers to access of health services
• -inadequate funding for community health services
• The psychological pressures of daily resisting
  racism and other forms of oppression add up to a
  complex of factors that undermine the health
  status of racialized and immigrant group members.
• Many racialized and immigrant workers are forced
  to accept work in workplaces where they face poor
  and sometimes hazardous working conditions that
  compromises their health.

25
Racism and Mental Health

• Many racialized group members and immigrants with
  mental health issues and mental illness' identify
  racism as a critical issue in their lives.
• One of the reasons the health status of
  immigrants declines is because of the experiences
  of dealing with everyday forms of racism.
• A study conducted by Noh and Beiser confirms that
  Southeast Asian refugees in Canada reporting
  discrimination experienced higher depression than
  their counterparts who reported none.
• Skilled immigrants experiencing mounting barriers
  in gaining employment and access to civil
  society, also report impacts on their mental
  health (Beiser, 1988)

26
Social ExclusionImplications for Social policy

• The social exclusion framework can be a basis for
  identifying barriers to access and equity in
  addressing structural inequalities and barriers
  to full participation.
• A multidimensional approach to confronting the
  problems of social exclusion.
• Naming the processes that perpetuate structures
  of inequality and social exclusion
• Focus on communities in distress and the needs of
  all excluded groups.
• Empowering excluded groups to become active
  participants reversing exclusion
• A multi agency response that mobilizes all
  relevant actors
• Structuring policy interventions around a life
  cycle approach, where necessary to meet both
  individual and community development needs
• Fighting discrimination and oppressions in their
  various, often intersecting dimensions
• Using Community based research as a basis for
  policy formulation