Poverty is a social problem that affects the lives of many indigenous families. Many studies have been done on the inequalities that these families face, but not much has been done to alleviate them. As mentioned by Pendakur and Pendakur (2011), “Mendelson (2006) finds that on average the Aboriginal population suffers from higher unemployment, lower levels of education, below average incomes and many other indicators of limited socio-economic circumstances”(p.64). The policies put in place by the government on these aspects provide many disadvantages to aboriginal persons, and changes must be made to improve their quality of life.
Ball (2009) mentions that “[o]verall, 52.1% of Aboriginal children are living below the poverty line, and have the highest rate of poverty compared to other equity groups: visible minority children and children with disabilities” (p.38). Studies on aboriginal persons found that almost one-half of the aboriginal population did not graduate from high school (Mendelson, 2004, p.19). Because of the need for a high school diploma and the growing need for post-secondary education in today’s society, the availability of jobs as well as the pay scale for those who do not provide this education is significantly lower than a comfortable cost of living. With this information in mind, it is not surprising to learn that findings on the 2001 Canadian census show that in 2001 the unemployment rate for those with indigenous ancestry was 19.1%, compared to 7.4% for the rest of the population (Mendelson, 2004, p.23). The significance of this finding is alarming, and makes you wonder why nothing has been done to alleviate this shortcoming.
For those who do graduate from high school, there are more barriers and problems that arise. A study of Pendakur and Pendakur (2011) found that compared to British-origin persons, aboriginal persons make significantly less, even when controlled for age and education. They also find that registered Indians face the most discrimination, earning far less than even those who self-reported an aboriginal identity (p.63). This evidence has also been proven to hold true at even the highest levels of schooling (p.64). This is very discouraging evidence for those of aboriginal descent who want to pursue higher education. Even with the implementation of programs such as employment and education equity, these findings continue to appear.
Naturally, the next question after reading these findings are what can be done. Many scholars have made suggestions but nothing significant has been done to alleviate the shortcomings. Due to the fact that Manitoba and Saskatchewan have high rates of aboriginal populations, Mendelson (2004) stresses the importance of changing policies to incorporate everyone into the workforce and alleviating the continuing inequalities (p.42). This is a critical move to be made by the government. If these problems were addressed on a provincial level, there would be more people who would be encouraged to pursue higher education and enter the workforce, knowing that they would not be discriminated against based on their background.
Although poverty is a social problem that will take years and significantly more efforts to alleviate, there are many small steps that could be taken to make the problem less significant. Aboriginal persons have a long history of discrimination and are still dealing with the consequences. As mentioned above, the government should implement social policies to help with education and income disparities to alleviate some of the shortcomings. Until this is done, this group will continue to be disadvantaged by not providing them with the opportunities to succeed and continuing to make them more susceptible to poverty.
Leah
References
Ball, J. (2009). Aboriginal Young Children’s Language Development: Promising Practices and Needs. Canadian issues 1(1), p.37-44.
Mendelson, M. ( 2004). “Aboriginal People in Canada’ Labour Market: Work and Unemployment, Today and Tomorrow.” Toronto: Caledon Institute. Accessed at http://www.caledoninst.org/Publications/PDF/471ENG.pdf
Pendakur, K., & Pendakur, R. (2011). Aboriginal income disparity in Canada. Canadian public policy, 37(1), p.61-83
It's sad that Aboriginal people are still facing discrimination in Canada even though this was their land at first. It's interesting you mention that Indigenous unemployment could start as early as high school years because close to half of the Aboriginal population doesn't graduate. Some people forget about such little things like this and then complain that they'r lazy when in reality they're living in poverty and have other issues going on. It makes sense that there is more unemployment in Aboriginals because more and more places are requiring the high school diploma. The government should really step in to make sure that educational needs are being met!
ReplyDeleteGood post!
Dora
Although there are scary statistics about Aboriginals and unemployment rates and schooling they have made huge steps, considering Aboriginals were just recently in the past few decades been allowed to attend university.
ReplyDelete-Kerri