04-03-2009

Guofang Li believes there are several reasons why the rainbow underclass is increasingly lagging behind in US society. First of all, the immigration process contributes to problems. “Immigrants often come from third world countries with totally different linguistic backgrounds. Once they immigrate to America or another country, their training and professional lives in their home countries often are not recognised. Many have to start from scratch. Refugees, for example, are usually trained for low-skilled jobs, such as factory work. They are taught skills that help them to find any job, not a job that they were trained for before. This gap between previous training and current job prospects is one of the main reasons for downward social mobility of immigrants within the rainbow underclass.” However, it is not the only problem according to Li. “Racial and economic segregation are causing problems too. In the United States, the middle class is slowly disappearing as a result of economic restructuring. Basically, the poor are getting poorer while the rich keep getting richer. Middle class people are losing their middle class income and status, joining the working class poor. These structural inequalities form another explanation for the downward spiral the rainbow underclass is in.” The third main issue for the rainbow underclass is achievement. “Data have shown that minority students score consistently lower than students from middle class backgrounds. The three aspects I mentioned, the skills gap, segregation and educational underachievement are interrelated.”

The role of education and employment

In Europe, the main solution to the problems of the urban underclass is thought to be education and employment. Guofang Li agrees that education is very important for upward social mobility, but that focusing on education alone is not enough. “For many people of the rainbow underclass, it is true that education is the only ticket to a better future. But just focusing on education and getting a diploma is not enough. Many African Americans in the United States are well-educated but still cannot find a good job because certain structural inequalities in society have not been addressed.” These inequalities are not only visible in the job market, but also in schools, Li believes. “Schooling is not always in favour of a particular group. It has its limits. Urban schools always have fewer resources, fewer qualified teachers and a less demanding curriculum. This is not what schooling should be like for minority groups. They should have the same academic standards as other schools. They might even need more resources. This matter really needs to be addressed.”

According to Guofang Li, our economic and educational future depends on whether the aspirations of the rainbow underclass for upward mobility are realized. “Minority children in the United States are going to be the majority in number in the future. Currently a lot of schools already see that minority children have become the majority. They are the future of society. If this large majority of children is not educated to their potential this would have a great impact on the development of the nation and society as a whole. It would be a huge waste of human resources. If the rainbow underclass is not fully included in society, it will probably become further segregated.”

Addressing the issues the urban underclass is facing is not an easy task. Guofang Li believes policies should especially focus on three elements: the skills gap, racial and socio-economic inequality and the social environment of neighbourhoods. “When it comes to immigrant groups, policies should address the question of how to settle them in society. There should be policies to make sure their education and training in their new country fits their previous education and skills. Secondly, there should be some systematic effort into examining power- and racial inequality issues. We need to rethink how to allocate resources in order to avoid that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. For example, in terms of the resources available for schools, we could have policies that equalise resources. Then, we also need to improve social-environmental issues. A lot of urban neighbourhoods have become breeding grounds for kids who drop out, drug use and violence. There should be a lot of more efforts to refurbish these neighbourhoods. Maybe we should also have a community based education system in place to improve the social environment and to help children in such a situation to see the possibilities of the future. Many of these children are very isolated in their environment and can’t see such possibilities. They need to be given critical thinking abilities in order to enable them to analyse their current situation and see alternatives for their futures.”

In order to effectively address the problems of the rainbow underclass, educational and immigration professionals would need several skills, Guofang Li proposes. “They should be able to understand and accept different cultural and class backgrounds. Without that kind of knowledge and perspective, people will always look at situations with the same stereotypes of who the immigrants and poor people are. Professionals should be more empathetic. Often, the people who are trying to solve the problems of the rainbow underclass are not in the same situation at all. One of the issues in education for this group, for example, is the cultural conflicts between home and school regarding values, aims, and methods of education. Therefore, a second essential skill for educational professionals is the ability to engage in creative thinking and problem solving in the face of these cultural discontinuities. The problems the rainbow unde rclass is facing are very complex, and need to be met with creativity.”

EUKN, Simone Pekelsma