Why does John Rex describe the colonial immigrants in Great Britain as the “under-class”?

What has
contributed to this situation?

- (First is to define what is underclass)

- In the US, the term „underclass‟ refers to the individuals who fail to become
economically self-supporting, as determined by Gunnar Myrdal
- This means that those individuals who depend on the state and others are part of
the underclass
- However in relation to Great Britain, John Rex decided to change the concept
and states that in Britain the concept has a different meaning than in the US
- In case of Britain, the difference is in terms of who shares and who does not
share in the „welfare state deal‟
- Rex stated that a certain individual‟s position and rights in the welfare state would
determine their access to employment, social insurance, health, housing,
education and personal social services
- Therefore from the “welfare state deal”, certain social rights defines the position
of the working class
- To determine whether a certain minority group is part of the working class will
depend whether the minority group shares the same full rights as the working
class
- Furthermore, Rex states that there is a difference under the US and British
welfare state model whether an individual is accepted into a capitalist society or
not
- Under the US model, an individual is accepted in the society if he is capable of
standing on his own feet and can take care of himself, as a property-owning
individual
- Whereas in the British Welfare state model, it will depend upon the acceptance
into a working class which itself processes substantial social rights

- Rex characterises the colonial immigrants as “under-class” in nature

- This “under-class” nature of theirs is due to their inferior position within the
working class as well as the colonial immigrants being politically separated from
the organized labour movement
- Furthermore, the colonial heritage is responsible for the White working class to
mark the Black workers as outcast
- From this, the white workers also consider the black workers as being outsiders
and are also competitors to the white workers
- Rex also suggests that there is a political division between the „natives‟ and the
„outsiders‟ within the working class
- He also states that the ideologies and structures of the immigrant underclass are
not only based on the false or true consciousness of their position in the
metropolitan society
- But also reflects their role in the structure of the world economic system
- On the other hand, Rex & Moore state that in a market situation where there are
unequal access to property, men in the same labour situation may have unequal
access to housing
- The underclass are defined as not only having a disadvantage in housing but
also having disadvantages in work and education
- They are the migrants in the inner city
- They are created by the creation of similar groups who are also disadvantaged in
specific zones of the city
- In the UK, these are the Blacks and Asians together
- They are a part of the working class, who are not owners of the means of
production, but remaining as a different fragment
- In other words, their position is beneath the white working class
- This position is due to their alleged race
- Therefore they are stratified by both class and what others think their respective
races are
- Cashmere and Troyna also describes the underclass as a two-fold stratification
- The unwillingness of the majority of the working class to include the Blacks and
the Asians in the organized labour movement has led to this stratification
- This is made worse by their refusal to campaign enthusiastically for the
improvement of the general condition of these Black and Asian workers and non-
workers
- This policy of near exclusion where the Blacks and Asians are kept down as
underclass benefits the working-class and is referred to as “exploitation by proxy”
by Frank Parking
- Furthermore, these conflicts are initiated by the powerful bosses for which they
would receive the grand benefit
- These facts have contributed to the migrants being categorised as the
underclass