Introduction
Inequalities are experienced by everyone, which could be in material and immaterial forms. Social exclusion and economic disadvantage could be some forms of inequalities. In this essay, employment inequalities experienced by Australian indigenous people will be examined. In the past, Australia's indigenous people are recognized as 'human' by the white settlers. They were not protected by human rights and had a low social status; social exclusion was experienced by indigenous people (Lydon 2017). This essay will build an argument about the concept of racism and argue that there is a relationship between racism and Australian indigenous people's unemployment rate. To argue that indigenous people are still experiencing inequalities.
Racism refers to discrimination behaviours because of an individual's race, and it could lead to disadvantages to individuals (Bailey et al. 2017). According to Gilroy (2005) 'Racism involves a mode of exploitation and domination.' Although races of individuals are about genetic, sometimes others used it to indicate the ability of a person, which could be regarded as racism (Prewitt 2016).
Negative understanding of non-indigenous people toward indigenous people
According to the study of Awofeso (2011), around 30% of Australians show a negative attitude toward indigenous people. They mentioned that they would have negative thoughts if their relative committed in a marriage with an indigenous people. This implies that indigenous people have a lower social status compared to other races, a lot of Australians hold a negative attitude toward indigenous people, believe that indigenous people may be more likely to present unacceptable behaviour. It obviously is shown that some indigenous people are not accepted by some non-indigenous people in society.
In the other hand, the existence of discrimination to indigenous people because of race is also experienced by indigenous people. The report of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2010) shows that around 30% of indigenous people have experienced discrimination on different occasions because of their race in the past year. And it is essential to know that the discrimination toward indigenous people does affect their daily life and may affect their self-esteem, which could also worsen the situation of the high unemployment rate of indigenous people.
The research of Griffiths and Pedersen (2009) emphasizes that non-indigenous people's negative attitude toward indigenous people will affect the quality of support that indigenous people receive, for instance, health and general welfare. The discrimination to the indigenous race will not only affect indigenous people's health issues but also affect their working opportunities. Griffiths and Pedersen also pointed out that a lot of Australians hold a negative attitude toward indigenous people, which affects indigenous people's employment rate.
As a result, it could be said that in Australia, there is discrimination of non-indigenous to indigenous people. Study shows that some Australians hold negative attitudes and understandings toward indigenous people, and indigenous also have a sense of social exclusion. Racism could lead to low quality of life for indigenous people, and low self-esteem, which could affect the employment rate of indigenous people.
Indigenous people's unemployment rate
The existence of racism toward indigenous people may affect different issues of indigenous people. The high unemployment rate for indigenous people could be argued as the result of non-indigenous people's discrimination toward indigenous people.
Study shows that the unemployment rate of indigenous people is higher than non-indigenous people. In 2008, the unemployment rate of Australian female indigenous was 12.9%, and the unemployment rate of Australian females was 3.2%, similar statistic happened to male indigenous, the unemployment rate of Australian male indigenous was 19.8% compared to the 2.9% unemployment rate of Australia male (Gray & Hunter 2018).
Similar findings are supported by the report of the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The report shows that indigenous people are more likely to be unemployed due to their race compared to non-indigenous people. The chance of indigenous people being unemployed is three times more compared to other Australians (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012). Different studies show that indigenous people have a higher chance to be unemployed compared to other Australians. Racism could be said as a factor for the huge difference of employment between indigenous people and non-indigenous people.
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Racism could be said as a reason for a huge difference in the unemployment rate between indigenous people and non-indigenous people. Since studies show that some of the Australian hold negative attitudes and understandings toward indigenous people, some of the employers also the same attitude to indigenous people, which could inhibit indigenous people to success in the job seeking.
Existence of discrimination to indigenous people in the workplace
Study of Dunn (2003) shows that around 15% of Australian indigenous people have experienced racism within the workplace and in the education environment, they are likely to experience verbally and physically racism behaviours from others, which would affect the performance of indigenous people in both working and learning.
Helme (2010) pointed out that the chance of indigenous Australians experiencing racism is higher than people with other races. Besides, studies show that racism exists in the workplace and is one of the biggest challenges that indigenous people face in job seeking. Helme emphasized that racism creates massive negative impacts on indigenous people's development in education and employment.
According to a study by Paradies and Cunningham (2009), 70 per cent of participants reported racism experienced in the past, and racism that happened in employment is one of the most common experiences.
Therefore, it could be said that racism exists in the workplace and education environment, and different studies support that racism is likely to occur to indigenous people and which affects their performance. As discrimination toward indigenous people exists in the workplace, it could be argued that indigenous people may become harder to find a job due to the discrimination from non-indigenous people.
Language as an obstruct for indigenous people
Racism could be said as a reason for causing a relatively high unemployment rate for indigenous people. However, some may argue that the high unemployment rate for indigenous people is due to the problem of language, as English is not the first language of some indigenous people, and difficulties occur when indigenous work with English speakers. Employers are not able to communicate with indigenous workers; therefore, they do not hire indigenous people (Freeman & Staley 2018).
Wigglesworth and Lasagabaster (2011) state that English is the common language in Australia and English is a compulsory subject that students have to take in high school. Indigenous are usually able to communicate in English with others. Also, the number of indigenous people speaking Indigenous languages is decreasing, and indigenous people now are usually able to communicate in English.
Biddle (2017) points out that most of the indigenous people in the age range of 10 to 65 years are confident of speaking in English, which also implies that the group of indigenous people who are able to work are confident in communicating in English.
Therefore, the argument of language differences affects indigenous people is invalid. Since the situation has changed, indigenous people are more adept to western culture compared to the past.
Conclusion
To conclude, this article has addressed the issue of the unemployment rate of Australia's indigenous people. Evidence support that there are some non-indigenous people who hold a negative attitude and understanding toward indigenous people, which could affect the living quality of indigenous people. Also, indigenous people are more likely to be discriminated and which can affect their chances to find jobs. In addition, studies show that indigenous people experience racism in the workplace is common. Although English is a popular language in society of indigenous, some people still argue instead of racism language is the barrier of indigenous people to be employed. And studies show that the argument is invalid. Racism could be argued as a factor that leads to high unemployment rate to indigenous people. Exploitation and domination involve to the unemployment issues of indigenous people, race minority experience exploitation and domination in the society of Australia is terrifying but truly happening.
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