Social Exclusion
Social exclusion is referred to the public refusal of individual member if their lifestyle does not meet the regular societal attitudes or if they fail to maintain normal social interaction without necessary material resources and education. Social exclusion is a concept that is used in many parts of the world for the labeling of modern forms of social deprivation and a decline in the margins of society. Social exclusion means non-acceptance of an individual or group of people from the social environment. This may be based on race, ethnicity, language, culture, religion, sex, age, social class, disability, and economic or health status. While backed by the poverty and intolerance, it is the deprivation of man for his fundamental rights. It is also described as the relegation or social marginalization of individuals that never or no longer corresponds to the dominant social model of the society including the elderly, people prone to disability (physical or mental) or other minorities. It is generally not really deliberate nor socially accepted but is a more or less pitiless process sometimes results in progressive breakdown of social ties. In other words, social exclusion can cause weaknesses to the social security and system as it hinders a part of the population to take advantage of the system capabilities (Atkinson, 2014).
The HCSP (Healthcare Services Platform Consortium) uses a minimalist definition as it states that if we consider that the excluded person who despite his state of poverty does not enjoy the same status as other people because he has no right or he does not know his rights or has no more energy to make the necessary arrangements to avail the opportunities, for assistance, (income, housing, school, health) and corresponds most to his location; then we can estimate the number of excluded at about 0.4 to 0.5% of the population, or 300,000 people maximum within a particular region (Wesselmann et.al, 2016).
The term of exclusion has multiple resonances including poverty, insecurity, vulnerable population and/or disadvantaged who are all at aspects filling the apprehension of the same process. The major consequences of the exclusion are impaired living conditions and quality of life. The ATD Fourth World has highlighted the circular dimension of the processes of exclusion, which, once activated, is self-sustaining. It asserts that there is uncertainty when there is a lack of one or more safety which allows individuals and families to assume basic responsibilities and to enjoy their fundamental rights. When insecurity affects several areas of life, it tends to be prolonged and becomes persistent, and eventually, it generates extreme poverty (Eisenberger et.al, 2013).
Moreover, in their study of the exclusion, the authors, Doumont et al. (2000) and Eisenberger et.al (2013) have distinguished two types of exclusion and argued to be existing together in our modern world i.e. the exclusion of the social system and the exclusion from the social system. The first concerns those who are rejected from the system because they no longer meet the criteria for inclusion in society; the second those who have never been integrated and those for which the exclusion from the labor world is sustained. They form a subgroup apart with a workforce swells with time. The coincidence of several factors leading to poverty and destroys the possibilities of rebuilding and ratifies the exclusion, especially since the addition and the intertwining of physical and psychological problems, which contribute to the degradation of the disadvantaged populations, attested to the prevalence of certain conditions. If the exclusion is both the result of a process and the process itself, it must be interested in the factors that contribute to its dynamics in order to reverse it. The most obvious are the low level of education, job insecurity and lack of employment, isolation, an insufficient degree of social protection, bad living conditions and deterioration of the health status at the individual level. And industrial restructuring and the transformation of the production activity at the context and the macro level (Wesselmann et.al, 2016).
Apparently, suffering related to exclusion is the accumulation of tangible stressing antecedents such as lack of income that drastically reduces the availability of goods and services of first necessity (food, water clothing), poor housing (small, cold, wet) brings harmful effects on both the mind and the body, reducing the mobility that eventually limits the chances of active participation in education, job searching etc. in case exclusion, psychosocial stress are subtle to perceive. Lack of recognition and appreciation, the feeling of abandonment, despair, and inability to project into the future, the deterioration and pity in the eyes of others and even oneself are a daily reality for those who are exclude; yet the most painful is that the person has little control to try to control it (Hickey & Du Toit, 2013).
The Ideology & Etymology of Social Exclusion
While talking about the etymology of social exclusion; it is the marginalization or the sidelining of a person or group because of being too far away from the dominant lifestyle in the society. This process can be voluntary or suffered. Social exclusion is often secondary to loss of employment, indebtedness, homelessness, extreme poverty, more or less abrupt break with the social networks and life social in general. It is experienced as a loss of identity. Although social exclusion is a very old and common phenomenon in many societies, the term social exclusion emerged in the 1980s to account for this phenomenon in post-industrial societies (Atkinson, 2014).
Social exclusion is a neologism produced by a neoliberal ideology which denotes a process characterized by the removal of people from all levels of social life. However, being a polysomic and quite a subjective process, there is hardly a consensus about what really would be social exclusion. In the context of history, it is often intrinsically linked to capitalism, being a late condition or failure of a social organization that could be avoided with social inclusion of policies. However, other authors and scholars argue that this is not a capitalist product, but rather a condition of community life and social and they defined it as, ‘Excluded are those who do not participate in the cultural, goods and materials markets'.
This term began to find a social common usage in the 1980s in post-industrial societies. While the phenomenon of sidelining is found in so many societies and dates back to ancient times. The current phenomenon of social exclusion does not necessarily cover, or rather that of poverty only. Today, one of the dominant expressions of Western societies is the deprivation of active participation in the labor market and this is the reason that a number of unemployed feels socially excluded (Wesselmann et.al, 2016).
Therefore, the concept is defined in the EU (European Union) as the exclusion from one or several dimensions of welfare triangle composed of the state, market, and civil society. A failure in one dimension is already an exclusion and the risk to humans and the loss of two or all three of it's critical for social cohesion. Social exclusion is a concept reflecting the inequality of individuals or groups of the population and their participation in the life of society. It can be associated with limited or disabled access to the social system or long-term unemployment, based on the characteristics of the group, such as ethnicity, sexual orientation, health status (e.g. AIDS) or belonging to socially stigmatized groups (e.g. Former prisoners or drug addicts ). It may appear after prolonged material deprivation when people are slowly being excluded from social life and become socially, culturally and politically isolated (Eisenberger et.al, 2013).
Impact of Social Exclusion on Employment
Employment implies social integration, but unemployment does not necessarily mean social isolation. However, it is one of the major consequences that generates from social exclusion. Having a job, not only is the main feature that facilitates people to meet their material needs, but also allows them complete social integration. Therefore, most countries recognize the right to work as one of the fundamental rights of citizens. Employment is the function and the condition of the people working temporary or permanent, in any kind of economic activity, whether gainful or not. Unemployment means the condition or status of persons included in the range of active age (usually between 18 and 65 years), which are for a certain period without performing work in any kind of economic activity, whether gainful or not (Hickey & Du Toit, 2013).
In the sociology exclusion is generally a term that in a modern society the sustainable exclusion of particular social actors referred or entire groups from those social circles which are (possibly together) than that real society , Also, with the concept of exclusion of fundamental rights such as the right to adequate food , the right to basic education, the right to participate in elections, the right to protection from torture and political persecution, the right to medical care and the right to family planning and understood similar rights. Sometimes the excluded feels worthless while feeling other to be marginalized and thus accepts the values of his collective exclusiveness and acts accordingly. As discussed above, social exclusion is the loss of participation in social opportunities. We have also discussed that subjects to social exclusion are mainly large groups (.g. women, non-whites, LGBT people, homeless, sufferers of AIDS, prostitutes, long-term unemployed, slum .dwellers, immigrants etc. Exclusion usually hit from the early years of childhood or with family. Indeed, children who underwent education, too severe domestic violence, divorce or separation of their parents, poverty or severe trauma etc. often internalize their own judgment and exclude themselves from society and start feeling different from other people of the community. Furthermore, early family breakdown situations and child maltreatment frequently lead to social exclusion. This discomfort leads to academic and eventually employment failure; because later, the teen as an adult will not be able to live like those who have professional future (Unit & Britain, 2012).
Unemployment is a situation of an individual who does not have the status of employment without work, job, and employment. It is a social phenomenon that affects the level of prosperity and a sense of certainty or uncertainty among the population regarding employment opportunities and income generating activities with the work. Unemployment is one of the worst afflictions in which people find themselves, often without their will and guilt. Since social conditions, political system and the corresponding country's readiness to solve this problem is increasingly dependent on the fate of the greater part of working-age people. Early retirement or unemployment to work until the age of man does not only mean the loss of much-needed skills; but the causes of emergence of a new phenomenon in the society, a large group of people who foreclosed on the margins of society feel cheated, miserable, useless, listless or aggressive to the company, which is plunged into this situation. In this group certainly appear the problem of social exclusion and poverty (Wesselmann et.al, 2016).
The process of social exclusion of young people is a very complex and cannot be defined only by the exclusion of people in the field work. While in the past life course employment exclusion was typically defined by failure to entering the world of work, but in modern society, a number of significant changes have occurred. The transition from adolescence to adulthood is more complex and nuanced process, however, to have a job in the current period is crucial for young people just after leaving their education system. The scope of work is one of the social sphere, in which young people establish new social contacts and friendships. Due to unemployment, people lose the opportunity to develop important social contacts due to the uncertainty in the labor market. In modern times, young people otherwise watch on full employment, as this subject is no longer a central interest, the more they tend to partial employment , some are likely to continue their education , others want to create a family and stay at home with children. Some social contacts and establish ties, especially outside working time and space for extracurricular activities: music, sports and computer activities (Hickey & Du Toit, 2013).
In modern society, employment is a core part of everyday life and a key source of financial independence, status, prestige, identity and social participation. The labor market is changing the stability of employment, which is an important source of social integration. Unemployment represents a risk factor for marginalization and social exclusion of young people. Young people who face unemployment does not necessarily experience the political, social and cultural exclusion. The involvement of young people in the non-dominant culture (subculture, different ethnic cultures) can foster the processes of marginalization and social exclusion in a broader social context. Due to unemployment, an individual may feel powerless, disadvantaged and socially excluded from social life (Eisenberger et.al, 2013).
According to International human rights law, extreme poverty and social exclusion constitute a violation of human dignity and that it is necessary to take immediate steps in order to better understand the phenomenon of extreme poverty and its causes, to end extreme poverty and social exclusion and to promote the enjoyment of the fruits of social progress with regard to excluded. World Health Organization also suggests that ‘We do not want to see and treat the exclusion and extreme poverty amounts to hide the fact that insecurity is a translation of a strengthening of social inequality that has become in recent years the most significant problem that global society has been to facing for a long time. Its causes and its effects go far beyond the visibly excluded population (Unit & Britain, 2012).
References
Atkinson, A. B. (2014). Social exclusion, poverty and unemployment.Exclusion, employment and opportunity, 4. Retrieved on August 13, 2016
Eisenberger, N. I., Lieberman, M. D., & Williams, K. D. (2013). Does rejection hurt? An fMRI study of social exclusion. Science, 302(5643), 290-292. Retrieved From https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Matthew_Lieberman/publication/9056800_Does_Rejection_Hurt_An_FMRI_study_of_social_exclusion/links/09e41508aa626460df000000.pdf on August 13, 2016
Hickey, S., & Du Toit, A. (2013). Adverse incorporation, social exclusion, and chronic poverty. In Chronic Poverty (pp. 134-159). Palgrave Macmillan UK. Retrieved From https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/57a08bdae5274a31e0000dfc/81Hickey_duToit.pdf on August 13, 2016
Wesselmann, E. D., Grzybowski, M. R., Steakley-Freeman, D. M., DeSouza, E. R., Nezlek, J. B., & Williams, K. D. (2016). Social Exclusion in Everyday Life. In Social Exclusion (pp. 3-23). Springer International Publishing. Retrieved From http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-33033-4_1 on August 13, 2016
