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Issues faced by the indigenous Australians
Issues faced by the indigenous Australians
Indigenous people health disparities
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Every individuals or group of subcultures are mainly effect or treated fairly with the relation to their values and beliefs or their class in the society. It is important to also note the fact that the breaking of laws and committing crime can lead to greater risks and impact both the lives of individuals creating social disadvantage. Social disadvantage is portrayed as not being able to be treated same as others, not being able to have access to the services or resources provided which is very common amongst the Indigenous Australians and those from lower socio-economic areas. Also, it can be noted that people within these groups have greater chance or higher risk initiating and committing crimes (Australian Institute of Criminology, 2012). …show more content…
However, it must be noted that Indigenous Australians ached restricted conventional market from the time when colonization took place. Moreover, Kidd (2003) states that there is great suffering that the Indigenous people have undergone such as where Indigenous workers were salaried much less than other non-Indigenous workers. These disparities in class create great gaps in employment till today and Indigenous people are socio-economically disadvantaged in health, employment and also in life expectancy (Nepal & Brown, 2012). According to the result of 2006 Census, the average of the Indigenous people weekly gross income was only $278, whereas the non – Indigenous people weekly income was $473 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, …show more content…
For instance, limited resources can have direct influence on employment and education opportunities, which then influences a person’s living standards. Lack of education and good health system is one of the causes of poverty and it influence the level of poverty to a degree that it is included in the measurement of poverty. Within society, people are identified in class and likewise people with low family status are labelled as a lower class or working class and this people are normally jammed together and reside in an area with low socioeconomic. Common features related within low socioeconomic areas comprise chronic unemployment, overloaded housing, health issues, risk of violence and also financial problems (Phillips, Miranti, Vidyattama and Cassells, 2013). Conflict Theorist Marx indicates the societies that are at the lowest level of the social hierarchy as “lumpenproletariat” the underclass, due to the fact that they are unemployed, live on the sidelines of society and are portrayed as criminals and robbers. Subsequently, these statements expressively demonstrate the level of disadvantage that is boarded which contributes as an environmental perception of hopelessness and despair (Bask, 2012). Therefore, in reverse it is very likely that this issues may have impact within the social standard and norm of living in the
Although poverty has minimized, it is still significant poverty which is characterized by a numerous amount of things. There are two types of poverty case and insular. “Case poverty is the farm family with the junk-filled yard and the dirty children playing in the bare dirt” (Galbraith 236)Case poverty is not irretraceable and usually caused if someone in the household experiences “ mental deficiency, bad health, inability to adapt to the discipline of industrial life, uncontrollable procreation, alcohol, some educational handicap unrelated to community shortcomings” (Galbraith 236).Case poverty is often blamed on the people for their shortcomings but on some levels can be to pinpoint one person's shortcomings that caused this poverty. Most modern poverty is insular and is caused by things people in this community cannot control. “The most important characteristic of insular poverty is forces, common to all members of the community, that restrain or prevent participation in economic life and increase rates of return.
There are significant health disparities that exist between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians. Being an Indigenous Australian means the person is and identifies as an Indigenous Australian, acknowledges their Indigenous heritage and is accepted as such in the community they live in (Daly, Speedy, & Jackson, 2010). Compared with Non-Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal people die at much younger ages, have more disability and experience a reduced quality of life because of ill health. This difference in health status is why Indigenous Australians health is often described as “Third World health in a First World nation” (Carson, Dunbar, Chenhall, & Bailie, 2007, p.xxi). Aboriginal health care in the present and future should encompass a holistic approach which includes social, emotional, spiritual and cultural wellbeing in order to be culturally suitable to improve Indigenous Health. There are three dimensions of health- physical, social and mental- that all interrelate to determine an individual’s overall health. If one of these dimensions is compromised, it affects how the other two dimensions function, and overall affects an individual’s health status. The social determinants of health are conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age which includes education, economics, social gradient, stress, early life, social inclusion, employment, transport, food, and social supports (Gruis, 2014). The social determinants that are specifically negatively impacting on Indigenous Australians health include poverty, social class, racism, education, employment, country/land and housing (Isaacs, 2014). If these social determinants inequalities are remedied, Indigenous Australians will have the same opportunities as Non-Ind...
Walter, M. (2007). Aboriginality, poverty and health-exploring the connections. Beyond bandaids: exploring the underlying social determinants of aboriginal health. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.lowitja.org.au/sites/default/files/docs/Beyond-Bandaids-CH5.pdf/ [Accessed 10 Apr 2014]
Having only recently permeated the public and political lexicon, there are few debates that evoke such passion as that of the underclass. Karl Marx tabled the idea of the lumpen proletariat, yet in the modern era, the concept did not take hold in Britain until 1989. Today, the debate focuses on whether frictional forces create a continuum of inequality, or whether a defined underclass does exist. The question asks if 'poor people' belong in a separate underclass, which is a vague definition. There will always be 'poor people', but whether or not this automatically qualifies them as a separate underclass is tenuous at best. Even the most radical proponents for the existence of the underclass stop short of declaring all those below the poverty line as 'the underclass'. This essay will analyse the arguments from either side of the debate, looking at definitional issues, the undeserving and deserving poor and structure versus agency. Overall, it will be argued that Murray’s classification does not hold for the majority and that frictional forces mean the poor are part of a continuum of inequality.
The conflict theory established by Karl Marx, suggested that a society is in a place of continuous conflict due to the competition of limited shared resources among members of its community members. It entails that social peace and order is achieved by domination and power, instead of the public agreement and group solidarity. According to the conflict perspective, individuals with wealth and power try to hold on to it, simply by oppressing the poor and vulnerable Homelessness can be understood through the conflict theory (Champion, 2010). This simply holds that capitalism and greed can be seen as some of the causes of homelessness. Families who lack social, economic and human capital will face problems securing and maintaining housing and
• Amnesty International: Australia- governments dismissal of UN criticism undermines hard earned credibility in human rights diplomacy.
From a sociological perspective there are reasons why poverty exists today and continues to do so. In Herbet Gans “The Uses of Proverty: The Poor Pay All” we can use his insight to explain poverty in America and how social theories can be used to understand modern social issues (Gans, 1971). By breaking down different functions and how the elite and the poor are interconnected within each function we can see how social theories relate to our society.
This theory however as some have argued has emerged from social disorganisation theory, which sees the causes of crime as a matter of macro level disadvantage. Macro level disadvantage are the following: low socioeconomic status, ethnic or racial heterogeneity, these things they believe are the reasons for crime due to the knock on effect these factors have on the community network and schools. Consequently, if th...
The Human Rights Watch’s report on Australia states that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up only 2 percent of the national population yet shocking they make up 28 percent of the adult prison population. According to the same report people with disabilities make up 18 percent of the population but almost 50 percent of the inmate population. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people face many disadvantages which put them far more at risk to end up incarcerated as opposed to their non-indigenous peers. This risk factor increases severely for those who are both Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people and have disabilities.
This report will proffer a critical evaluation of the concepts of poverty and social exclusion. Firstly, it will explain what poverty and social exclusion are and also analyse the relationship
In a time where, according to UN, poverty has been drastically diminished over the last half century, more than during the last five hundred years, still we find that the percentage of the world’s population is living in poverty conditions is above 25%. To analyze and understand what this data signifies, we must unpack the concept of poverty used to collect those figures. The measurement of poverty has been done traditionally based on a quantitative conceptualization of poverty, which only considers indicators of income and consumption, resulting in a flat and static perspective of poverty. Thus the measurements of poverty and its variations from one place to another and through time are based on statistical data. To sustain human life in society, people must have to access to basic needs and services, and deprivation of one of those is a sign that something is not working in a supposedly balanced society. Following this logic, the income necessary to obtain those basic goods is the indicator used to define poverty and separate poor from non-poor. However, poverty is not a straight linear process, it is attached to a specific and finite context, as it interacts with societies, politics, economies, culture, environments, class, gender.
A contributing illustration of this cycle is Wilson and Kelling’s ‘broken windows’ thesis where the initial stages of a physical or social disorder represented a breakdown of social control or at least a low social control, and when these physical or social disorders go unimpeded these offences increase in severity. Left critical realists believe, unlike right realists, that social inequality is the cause for increased crime rates. The contributing three factors of the social inequality as proposed by Lea and Young (1984) are relative deprivation, subculture and marginalisation. Relative deprivation is a consequence of people’s denied or ‘deprived’ basic needs for a dignified lifestyle as recognised by the structures set by society (Marshall, 2007), in order to obtain the basic needs for this dignified lifestyle deviant acts are committed. Subculture is a notion of a group that joins together, as a result of relative deprivation issues, to achieve a solution to obtaining the same values as the rest of society.
Inquiry conducted by the Australia Bureau of Statistics exposes large discrepancies between the educational outcomes of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. For example, the 2006 census revealed that 155,738 Indigenous students were attending an educational institution of some sort, ranging from pre-school to tertiary education. Worryingly, this statistic equates to Indigenous students representing only 3.3% of the overall student population in Australia for that year. The same census found 19% of Indigenous persons aged 18 years and over reported Year 12 as their highest level of completed schooling. In comparison, 45% of non-Indigenous persons within the same age group achieved this level of schooling.
Social issues are problems in the society today that are described as wrong, widespread and changeable. A category of conditions that people believe need to be changed. Poverty is a serious social issue in the society today. According to Peilin (2012), poverty brings hardships to families and individuals as well as political thereby negatively affecting the social stability and social development and posing a severe threat to human security (p. 243). This paper focuses on poverty as a social issue in today’s society. First, it gives a succinct introduction of the social issue, and then describes how it fits into the field of sociology. It also evaluates the sociological theories and terminology that relate to the social issue. The section that follows evaluates what is known and unknown about the particular social issue. This is followed by a discussion regarding the value of sociological research into the issue determining the available or possible practical implications of the sociological inquiry. The information presented here is strongly supported by the concepts and theories derived from reliable sources.
As mentioned previously, low income results from poor education and unemployment, since adequate education is important in the attainment of high-paying jobs. Unfortunately, studies show that 40% of Aboriginal men and women (Indian, Métis, and Inuit) do not