Introduction
In a society that expresses itself by some type of status hierarchy, such a society people naturally may move up or down in the system throughout their lives. This widely opens the definition of social mobility which simply refers to how far and easily a person can move in the social system. This is the term that used to describe the movement of different individuals or families through a system of social hierarchy (Breiger, 1990). There are two major types of social mobility; social mobility within the career of individuals and social mobility between generations.
The intergenerational mobility is social mobility between generations. The parents are believed to influence the success of their children. It is known that individuals succeed on the back of their own motivation, talents and luck. However success in the workplace mostly is affected by several factors that are not associated or have nothing to do with talent. The factors may include practical interest, culture values and personality qualities. Wholly, these qualities are directly influenced by a surrounding environment and person's family. Intra-generational mobility refers to change in social status over a single life-time (Ream, 2005). Status attainment is affected by both achieved factors for instance education attainment, also affected by ascribed factors such as family revenue. This is achieved by a combination of parents’ status and one’s own abilities and efforts.
I believe where people lives matters, Neighborhood environments have consequences for their families' well-being and their children's long-term life chances. The proximity to jobs, quality of public services such as schools and hospitals, influence of social network and peers and the prevalence of violence and crime can all act either to isolate families from economic and social opportunities. This resulting to either failure of a family or can enhance family prospects for the future. According to a recent research that was carried out by a substantial body of social science shows that growing up in a distressed, high poverty neighborhood is related with an increased risk of bad outcomes, which including poor health, delinquency and crime, school failure, teen-age parenting, and unemployment.
Education is one factor which determines whether a person is upwardly mobile. Our family history starts with a fragmented social mobility. One set of my grandparents (my dad’s parents) attended college while my mum’s parents did not. My maternal grandfather worked in the citrus groves and my grandmother remained at home. Living salary to salary, they were able to afford and stretch their resources to care and provide for their seven children (Breiger, 1990). My maternal grandparents owned a small farm and the seven children help with the chores.
My fatherly grandparents both were educated they attended college. In his occupation my grandfather was an oil and natural gas surveyor under the Ministry of Energy while my grandmother was an English teacher at a nearby local school. After a short period she becomes administrator. They both came from a background of a higher social class family and this resulted to their comfortably living. My grandfather traveled to Indonesia and helped develop and find more oil in the country. My father’s brothers were also educated since they followed their parent’s steps (Ream, 2005). They became people who productive to the country’s economy since they were playing a major role.
My father attended a four year college and my mother was a graduate from Harvard University where she got her degree in nursing. My father was an Army soldier of 30 years, during the era of President Ronald Reagan. His responsibilities were to provide know-how in police, stability operations and detainment in order to enhance security and enable mobility (Thernstrom, 1964). In his duties she met with my mother in one of the hospital, and their friendship relation end up in marriage. In sociology and economics, as well as in common political address, social mobility refers to the degree to which an individual or group's status is able to change in terms of position in the social hierarchy. Due to this extent, social mobility is most commonly refers to material wealth and the ability of an individual or group to move up the class system. Such a change may be described as Intra-generational mobility. My parents were in upper class while my paternal grandparents were in middle class this shows that they were a change in levels and achievements.
As time passed, my family became completed by the offspring, we were two my sister and I. my parents loves and cares of our being, in their eyes we were not for granted as my father used to say, we have role to play. We were brought up in diligence, dignity and disciplined. I was the first born so I had to follow my parent’s steps and set an example for my sister. I learnt great deal from my parents and grandparents (Breiger, 1990). Our parents taught us everything seems to be necessary to know. We learn and evolve as we grow older, and a great deal of the time, my opinions and beliefs from what my parents thought of me. This was a result of higher education and evolution of technology.
When we were glowing up there was some difference between my parents but this was something I could not discover till I joined senior high school. It was because of the difference of income, my mother earned more and she used to drive expensive luxurious cars and she could take us more outings than my father. While my father used to drive an army truck. According to social system I believe my children will be totally different from us, since the way of living is changing too. I joined college where I did degree in political science letter on I joined politics which was something in me. My parent’s will was me to be an engineer but I could not make it because of several factors (Ream, 2005). According to evolution of technology and education our children might have a slight change and differ from our living. Among the factors that affect social mobility they include gender, race and education. In gender there is discrimination in their field of work.
Reference
Breiger, R. L. (1990). Social mobility and social structure. Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press.
Ream, R. K. (2005). Uprooting children: Mobility, social capital, and Mexican American underachievement. New York: LFB Scholarly Pub. LLC.
Thernstrom, S. (1964). Poverty and progress: Social mobility in a nineteenth century city. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
