Ethnic inequalities - Marxism

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What do marxists think?
That immigration serves the needs of the capitalist class for labour and is used to divide workers from each other so that they're easy to control, thus capitalism prefers conflict between ethnic groups as it is beneficial to the ruling class.
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What two sociologists could you use for Marxism theory?
Cox or Castles & Kosack
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What did Cox say about racism?
race is a human creation. Racism is developed b exploiters against the exploited - racism has its origins in the development of capitalism, with its need to systematically exploit labour power. If racism is developed to justify exploitation, it cannot be
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What did Cox say about early capitalism?
That it went hand in hand with colonialism.
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What did Cox say about white people?
It is not only white people who are capable of racism, but it was white people who developed capitalism, therefore it was them who first developed racism.
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What would have happened if capitalism was never developed?
the world may never have experienced racial prejudice,
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What did Castles & Kosack find?
Most immigrants were concentrated in low skilled & low paid manual labour jobs in poor working conditions. Many immigrants were also unemployed.
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How did Castles & Kosack explain the treatment of immigrants?
it came from the need in capitalist societies for a reserve army of labour; it was necessary to have a surplus of labour power to keep wage costs down.
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Why did Britain turn to immigrant labour?
To provide a necessary cheap pool of workers who could be exploited.
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What did the arrival of immigrants lead to?
the working class being divided into 2 - with the white population becoming the top layer & immigrant workers on the bottom.
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What was this called?
the divide & rule tactic.
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Why was the divide & rule tactic beneficial to the bourgeoisie?
it suppressed the overall wage levels of the working classes and immigrant's could be scapegoated
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What problems were immigrants blamed for & what did this allow?
employment, allowing the bourgeoisie to divert the white working class' attention from the real cause of inequality; capitalism.
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Eval: How is Cox's theory useful?
it details the economic imperatives of migration for the capitalist class.
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Eval: criticize Cox's theory
His views are too simplistic as it is difficult to prove that racism is a capitalist ideology; it may benefit capitalism in the long term but there is no evidence that it functions exclusively as an ideological system, as Cox suggests.
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What was Cox's theory labelled as?
Race blind
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Why was his theory labelled as race blind?
Cox does not treat race as an important factor in its own right because he is mainly interested in the economic differences caused by capitalism.
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Eval: Castles & Kosack positively
they offer a good illustration as to how workers are divided from one another through racial divisions.
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Eval: Castles & Kosack criticism
it would be a mistake to think all ethnic minorities are disadvantaged in the UK, e.g. there are over 5000 Muslim millionaires in Britain.
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Eval: Castles & Kosack (de-industrialization)
de-industrialization has changed the nature f economic immigrants; in recent years immigration laws have become a lot tighter so many economic immigrants tend to possess higher level skills & knowledge.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

What two sociologists could you use for Marxism theory?

Back

Cox or Castles & Kosack

Card 3

Front

What did Cox say about racism?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

What did Cox say about early capitalism?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

What did Cox say about white people?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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