Social exclusion is something that hasn’t been talked about directly before because it is either a cause of something or an effect of something. Either way it is a reality and Canada unfortunately are experiencing a lot of it.
But the question popping up in a lot the people minds would be; what is social exclusion? Well, the answer is quite simple actually. Social exclusion refers to the lack of belonging, acceptance and recognition.
People who are socially excluded are more economically and socially vulnerable, and hence they tend to have diminished life experiences. Social exclusion has been associated with economic and social changes. Social exclusion is becoming one of the most common reasons for people to become more vulnerable, which cause them to have unacceptable experiences at school and in their personal life. Children are the ones who experience all of this to it’s maximum potential.
Children who live in persistent poverty are twice as likely to live in a “dysfunctional” family, they are twice as likely to live with violence, and more than three times as likely to live with a depressed parent. All risk factors for social exclusion and eventual criminality.
Another alarming fact is that child poverty has shown no decrease in the past years. Last time a decrease was seen in the 1990s. the latest figure show a child poverty rate of 15.6%. The UK study found that social exclusion and deprivation consistently emerge as underlying factors in the over-representation of certain visible minority groups in the criminal justice system.
In Western countries, members of disadvantaged minority groups are more likely to be arrested, convicted, and imprisoned for violent crimes, property crimes, and drug-related crimes. Canada is no exception. Data from Ontario correctional facilities reveal a prison admission rate of 705 per 100,000 population for Canadians of European ancestry, and a rate of 3,686 per 100,000 for Canadians of African ancestry.
These number are very disappointing to look at especially in the 21st century and more importantly in a developed country like Canada and we see that countries like the United Kingdom have taken initiative to counter these kinds of problems but on the other hand we don’t see Canada doing much to counter all of this.
For example, lets have a look at the United Kingdom;
In the UK, a social inclusion approach that was adopted in 1997 seems to have already helped to substantially diminish the risk factors for criminality. Their Social Exclusion Unit was launched as a multi-sectoral way to try to tackle poverty, housing, health, and crime issues. It aimed at stopping people from “falling through the cracks” in social services, and reintegrating those who had already fallen behind.
As a parallel to the Social Exclusion Unit, the UK’s Neighborhood Renewal Unit was created to narrow the gap between deprived neighborhoods and the rest of the country. Since the launch of these initiatives, there has been a 66% reduction in people sleeping on streets at night, a 33% reduction in the number of children excluded from school, and the successful placement of over 17,000 disaffected youth into school, training or employment.
If the United Kingdom took take these steps into the betterment of their citizen, I am sure Canada could take the same if not a different approach to handle these problems. Then the real question is what is stopping them?
