Welfare Feminism in Britain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Welfare Feminism in Britain - Essay Example It is difficult for us to perceive woman's role as a 'job' because of the surroundings in which it takes place, particularly the family. The institution of the family in modern, post-war society has been subjected to much sociological and psychological examination. During the past seven years it has also been a focus of controversy on the political Left, amongst feminists, socialists, and radicals of all kinds. It has come under attack; it has been defended. Often this debate, originally political, has taken on a highly moralistic flavour, and while it is true that political passions are, ultimately, moral passions, morals about the family has all too often prevented a constructive analysis of this institution as it exists in our contemporary society. Yet it is not hard to understand why the subject should arouse passion; the same reason makes it hard to perceive woman's role within it. (Wilson, 1977, p. 8) A woman has always been subjected to physical care that is mediated by means of on-going emotional and physical relationships of the most intense kind; whether sexual or parental, a woman in particular are reared almost from birth, certainly from early childhood, to conceive of happiness and emotional fulfilment in terms of their future relationship with husband and children. To many it therefore seems alien or even blasphemous to discuss these relationships as jobs undertaken for the capitalist State. Nonetheless, such is the peculiar nature of the family. It plays what is in many ways a repressive role on behalf of the State, not only psychologically but also at the level of economic functioning, and yet at the same time offers the individual a unique opportunity for intimacy, comfort, and emotional support. According to Juliet Mitchell (1971) the individualistic competitiveness of the wider modern society is truly a 'prison of love' for woman. And the Welfare State has always been closely connected with the development of the family and has acted to reinforce and support it in significant ways. (Basch, 1974, p. 79) This it has done by offering various forms of service, both in money and in kind, and also by means of forms of social control and ideology. Thus the Welfare State is not just a set of services, it is also a set of ideas about women's role in society, in family, and not least important socially. In Victorian society women were, for the first time, valuable because they did not work. It was her status as a non-worker that gave woman as wife and mother a very special ideological role. The single woman was society's reject, for celibacy was not highly valued (so that the attempts within the Church of England to start religious orders for women could be seen as radical) while the fallen woman's lot was to be completely outcast (Basch, 1974, p. 81). Yet work had to be found for the army of surplus middle-class spinsters and to them fell the task of teaching their impoverished married sisters how to be better wives and mothers. So grew up a paradoxical situation that still marks social work today; whereby middle-class women with no direct experience of marriage and motherhood themselves took on the social task of teaching marriage and motherhood to working-class women who were widely believed to be ignorant and lacking when it came to their domestic tasks. (Wilson, 1977, p.

Evaluate the claim that migrants represent a threat to the UK economy Essay

Evaluate the claim that migrants represent a threat to the UK economy - Essay Example In a radio interview, for instance, Seimon Glynn, a rural British resident commented: â€Å"We are faced with a situation now where we are getting tidal waves of migration, inward migration into our rural areas from England, and these people are coming here to live to establish themselves here, and to influence our communities and our culture with their own. (____________________, p167) This state pretty much summed up the prevailing attitude towards immigration in the UK. It was made in reference to "inward migration," the influx of new inhabitants that are actually British subjects themselves. With the issue of foreign migration, the resentment and general negative opinion about alien workers are certainly more antagonistic and hostile. With Glynn's point of view, the two general claims against immigration were highlighted: first is that immigration takes away jobs and drain resources; and, secondly, they influence and change communities. This paper will examine if immigration, in deed, harms the UK economy in the context of these two areas. Effect on Cultural Homogeneity A fundamental consequence of immigration is multiculturalism and diversity. There is a persistent notion that they erode and threaten social cohesion and solidarity in Britain. It is not unlike a case about â€Å"they† and â€Å"us† or the concept of â€Å"otherness† that is quite at home with the British society’s imperial past and tendency to side with unity instead of diversity. What this circumstance contributes in the economic discourse of immigration is to reinforce and legitimize the view that diversity taxes obligations behind good society and the welfare state. As wave upon wave of immigrants arrive on British soils, more and more citizens are becoming concerned about the way the state would be obligated to support their needs. Hayes, for example, quipped that â€Å"refugees have begun to look like beggars at the gate, or even thieves† establishing the argument about how immigrants are becoming costly, burdensome, needy, and, hence, undesir able for the kingdom. (cited in Cohen, Humphries and Mynott 2002, p30) Indeed, as a welfare state, Britain is forced to support immigrants with benefits, usually in the form of services as well as cash through a national dispersal system. The prevailing perspective is that this would be unfair to citizens who have to share with the foreign population the services and benefits that their taxes have paid for. Then there is the issue of whether the state of the government’s finances could bear the brunt of these additional mouths to feed. As has been demonstrated in the way foreign workers were perceived to be a burden, the influx of immigrants to the United Kingdom, for some sectors, is seen to have a negative impact on the value of rights and privileges of the British citizens. For instance, the right to buy land of citizens may rightly be infringed or that as the government grants access to the labour market without any effective mechanism that regulate the way employers hire foreign workers by ensuring that it there is no available or suitable workers available in the country. (International Organization for Migration, p50-51) This aspect in the immigration controversy is quite complicated because it is tainted by bias and prejudice. The fact is that immigrants are highly restricted by the government. The stringent procedures and requirements for migrant workers ensure that those accepted into the country are only those desirable and those that could contribute to the UK economy. Cohen, Humphries