Introduction

This chapter turns to those children at increased risk of poverty either through their belonging to a non-white ethnic minority or through their own or a family member's disability. As well as having an increased risk of living in poverty, these are circumstances that, when combined with poverty, have an interactive effect.

Ethnicity

While the focus here is on ethnicity, it is recognised that ethnicity operates as a proxy to other characteristics, such as skin colour and culture (religion), which have been shown to be the predominant ‘mechanisms that operate to reinforce disadvantage among some groups or to facilitate social mobility amongst others’ (Khattab, 2009: 319). The relationship between ethnicity, skin colour and religion is complex and there is much to learn about how these factors operate in relation to each other to produce and reproduce inequalities (Khattab, 2009: 319). With this understanding in mind, this discussion uses the term ‘ethnicity’ to encompass those factors relating to race, culture and religion that creates and recreates disadvantage in our society for children. Here we look at the impacts on children and young people, and their parents, of society's responses to their ethnicity in relation to poverty, education, bullying and wellbeing, and employment, underemployment and unemployment.

Ethnicity and education

The three characteristics that affect educational experiences and attainment most are ethnicity, socioeconomic status and gender (Tackey et al, 2011). If a child has more than one of these higherrisk characteristics, the effects are that much greater. However, the relationship between ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender and education is not consistent, it depends upon the age of the child and their stage of education (Barnard, 2014). Chapter 5 details the gaps in experience and attainment faced by children living in poverty. There is also a gap in experience and attainment of children based on their ethnicity. These gaps are smaller in early childhood and gather strength as children grow towards adolescence.