Differences and Inequalities

Drawing on material from two out of the three strands of DD102 study materials, discuss some of the ways in which differences and inequalities can both change and persist over time.

The two topics I have chosen from two strands are City Road, Cardiff from the introductory strand, which looks at Making Lives, Connecting Lives and Ordering Lives. The second topic I have chosen is Migration which is currently a political hot potato here in the United Kingdom and is featured in the main Connecting Lives strand. As both of these selections are inspected there shall be a focus on the differences and inequalities within them and how these variables change and persist across time.

City Road is a busy main road in Cardiff city centre. Across time and history it changes and it has been a main focus of the first part of this module course, an example that was used to demonstrate various elements of social science in action. Differences and inequalities were examined and it can be seen that these can change and persist over time. While analysing this case study a variety of quite different individuals were examined and it was seen how they are making and remaking their lives and how their individual lives and work affect the wider community and society. Some are rich, some are poor, some are successful, while others are not. What they all have in common is that they are part of the rich tapestry that forms in City Road, once a thriving post-industrial centre of commerce that has slowly morphed into a more multiethnic, perhaps, less wealthy due to new developments eg. Cardiff Bay, yet still thriving metropolitan thoroughfare. All cities and urban centres do change across history and their roles in society adapt. In analysing specifically differences and inequalities we shall unveil the change here on City Road, Cardiff.

Nof Al-Kelaby is a restauranteur with a long history of connections to working on City Road since he first came here from Iraq. He has witnessed change and has had varied success. He demonstrates a clear example of how wholesale societal changes on City Road have affected his success as a businessman and his work is directly linked to the communities that City Road supports and we can identify and reveal differences and inequalities on the street through looking closely at his businesses. At the peak of City Road’s appeal to a wider audience for its food-based entertainment sector, Nof owned a Hawaiian-themed restaurant. This was popular, especially for hen parties and was full to the brim with customers, especially on weekends, with Nof capitalising fully on its success. As other areas of Cardiff were built up and developed and started to offer more competition to City Road’s dominant position in the night entertainment market. Eg. Cardiff Bay, customers started dispersing to these new areas and inequalities arose with businesses starting to suffer more from lack of footfall. Nof’s only choice was to adapt to the new conditions. Migration to the area from abroad had continued apace and Nof’s attachments to his original country of origin saw him close the Hawaiian-themed restaurant that targeted local Western Welsh people and rebranded as ‘La Shush’ an Arabic-themed restaurant catering for the Arab community and immigrant population on City Road, with traditional shisha smoking and a more natural Iraqi / Middle Eastern cuisine, closer to Nof’s natural culinary tastes. A business has to cater to its clients and as time progressed on City Road, immigrants became a more predominant feature of the local population. Their wealth levels, as immigrants, was less and inequalities has developed as City Road waned in terms of its socio-economic status in Cardiff.

John Arthur is a homeless man living on the street in City Road. With John, his inequality has persisted over a long time, with him having moved around various U.K. cities as a homeless man before becoming more settled in Cardiff. In a sense his movements have been different so his life is varied but his absolute lowly impoverished status persists. There is hope in John’s treatment by the community here: ‘John also has some connections with the students in the area who make him cups of tea, and the Salvation Army which distributes blankets’ (Havard 2022:68)

Do inequalities exist on City Road for disabled people? What can be done about them to stop them persisting. Disability is a difference. The world able-bodied people take for granted is quite different to wheelchair-bound, Stephen Sweetman. There are barriers to his movement on City Road: Shops with stairs, pavements, roads and buildings all designed with walking pedestrians and cars in mind. Stephen is an activist who has campaigned to introduce changes to the City Road public architecture and spaces in order that future generations of the disabled can achieve more equality in their use of this busy thriving metropolitan thoroughfare. There is a wider change in society as time has progressed during Stephen’s lifetime as disabled people’s rights are becoming more recognised and catered for.

Migration as a topic was touched on as we looked at the example of Nof Al-Kelaby on City Road. However, in the second part of this essay I shall analyse migration more closely. In the news we cannot fail to hear about illegal immigrants and small boat crossings across the English Channel and how they must be stopped. Since 2016 with the Brexit referendum whereby the United Kingdom separated from the European Union, there has been a rise in narrow-mindedness towards migrants. Europeans, for example, no longer participate in ERASMUS exchange programmes at British universities. Racism is on the rise with Tommy Robinson mobilising over 100000 far right marchers in London who were violent and racist in their actions. I feel that migration is an issue for many countries but that healthy migration is good for an international and worldly civilised outlook for a nation. We live in a hi-tech digital world where connections across the globe are made at the touch of a button. By narrowing our focus and discriminating against foreigners who speak a different language or have different shades of skin colour, society as a whole is at risk and differences and inequalities can spiral downwards, out of control, and extreme politics can arise and the lessons of history teach that this is a very dangerous situation. 

Migration can be measured quantitatively. There is often an argument about migrants about their net worth / cost to the national economy. ‘By deducting the costs from the benefits, a single figure – the Net Present Value (NPV) – of the impact of migration may be calculated.’ (Raghuram and Erel 2022:153) The problem in identified this quantifiable statistic is that sources of information are varied, sometimes biased and not always accurately reported. There is variance or differences in how migration may be viewed statistically. Eg. These are two counter claims from Table 4.1 (Raghuram and Erel 2022:152) Claim 1: Migrants cost the economy £100 million a year. Claim 2: Migrants are worth £2.5 billion per year to the economy – Different political sides who may be pro migration or anti migration, fire up their rhetoric by using these opposing figures to stir up voting masses, polarise the political landscape and further skew the beliefs of the public as to whether or not migration is valuable to the country or not desired due to its costs. Migrants, in general, certainly when they first settle, are often very marginalised and inequalities exist. Even when fully naturalised and maybe in second or third generations of their bloodlines, problems still persist due to obvious differences in race, language or religious beliefs. Either society is tolerant or hate arises. The differences and inequalities may persist and be prolonged or change and mutate over time. I think a great example of genuine acceptance of the Windrush generation and black people of African / West Indian origin, here in the United Kingdom is in Premiership football whereby a vast proportion of players are of black or mixed race heritage. We see actions in football like ‘taking the knee’ to fight racism and on the whole racism from supporters on the terraces has almost been totally eradicated. This is a good sign for multicultural, diverse Britain.

The decisions on what migrants are allowed to enter the country are varied and differences and inequalities exist, change and persist in this area of policy-making. Different skills from migrants are valued differently across time. ‘It is therefore not easy to decide whether one migrant is more necessary than another or what jobs and skills matter.’ (Raghuram and Erel 2022:160). I feel that migration on the whole is beneficial to this country and should be encouraged but equally it should be controlled and if immigrants do not adapt and conform with British society for whatever reason, we should reserve the right to deport them back to their lands of origin. Uncontrolled migration can be dangerous and I fully understand why the politics of migration can be so delicate and divisive. There are no easy answers to migration.

This essay has explored the differences and inequalities produced in City Road and also in Migration. Many examples have been illustrated to show how these differences and inequalities can be described and measured by social scientists and why they are relevant in the attempts to understand society. Throughout this course, many different topics have been discussed and it has furthered my appreciation and understanding of the critical work necessary in becoming a successful social scientist.

1554 words

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Havard, K. (2022) ‘Connecting Lives’ in Allen, J. Blakely, G. and Staples, M. (2022) 1: Understanding Social Lives. Milton Keynes, The Open University

Raghuram, P. and Erel, U. (2022) ‘Migration: changing and connecting places.’ In Clarke, C. Doye, Z. Hassan, I. and Woodward, K. (2022) 2: Understanding Social Lives. Milton Keynes, The Open University