Examine 4 Factors That Promoted Social Mobility in The Caribbean

EXAMINE 4 FACTORS THAT
PROMOTED SOCIAL MOBILITY IN

THE CARIBBEAN
Social mobility is the movement of individuals, families, households, or other categories of people
within or between social strata in a society. It is a change in social status relative to one's current
social location within a given society. For example, an upper-class executive may have parents who
belonged to the middle class. Overt discrimination against racial and ethnic minorities, lower- class
and lower-caste persons seriously limit upward mobility and protect the children of the upper
classes and castes from downward mobility. There are some structural aids to mobility.
Antidiscrimination legislation is an important factor in this regard. In the same way, publicly financed
job training programmes leading to marked increase in employment opportunities and modest gains
in income for many lower-class and caste people, are factors helping mobility.
In addition to the structural factors, which determine the proportion of high-status, well-paid
positions in society, there “are certain individual factors that greatly influence as to which persons
get those high-status positions. Other things being equal, the talented usually earn more than the
untalented. The problem here is that we do not know about the ability of all the individuals. How to
measure ability? And how much of mobility can be attributed to ability differences? These questions
cannot be answered easily. Yet, it is a fact that not all people are equally talented. While it is
impossible to measure individual ability differences satisfactorily, we assume that they are important
factors in life success and mobility. Here are four of the factors I have chosen to examine.
Education is an important mobility ladder. It is only through education that the ‘social graces’ are
acquired. It makes possible the upward movement in the social structure. Today high tier jobs are
increasing in a larger number than the laborious jobs. This means that more. people are profiting
from the kind of education that will fit them for these jobs. Education is not equally important for all
careers. College and professional degrees are essential for careers as doctors, engineers, chartered
accountants, advocates, professors. These degrees are helpful but not essential in business
ownership and operation. There is a general belief that education has a magical power of radically
improving the positions of individuals in society. Hence there is a mad rush towards college
admission and to obtain university degrees, and personally as a student currently it is seen as a
waste of time rather than having a straight path into the work force.
Next, I’d like to speak on Religious institutions also provide opportunities for vertical mobility.
Religions such as Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism have paid attention to this aspect. After
obtaining the state recognition during the rule of the Roman emperor Constantine, the Christian
church played an important role in helping many individuals of the lower class to achieve social
ascendance. It had selected a few capable slaves, semi-serfs and commoners to become church
officials. Pope Gregory the seventh, himself, for example, was the son of an ordinary carpenter.
Thirdly Political institutions also provide opportunities for social mobility, if not for all, at least for a
few. Example: Those who enter government service at a young age, would often assume a very high
office over the years either through seniority or through selection. The reservation policy of the
Indian Government too has provided lot of opportunities for the scheduled caste and scheduled
tribe people to achieve social ascendance. Even during the period of feudalism good number of
efficient serfs and semi-serfs could obtain relatively prestigious positions due to the political
opportunities provided for them by the feudal lords.
In the same manner, soldiers occupying almost the lowest position in the army were commissioned
as higher-ranking officials in recognition of their heroism and good performance in the battles. In the
case of Indian history, two slave leaders namely Qutub-ud-din Aibak and Iltumish themselves
emerged as famous slave-kings [of the Slave Dynasty] as just examples.
Lastly is the most superstitious of the bunch but has an amazing twist to it and its Windfall or the
Luck Factor. Many people who really work hard and follow all the rules fail to succeed, while success
sometimes seems to fall into others. Anyone who tries to prove that life is always fair has assumed a
difficult task. But for some, success hinges just on the factor of “luck “. A large part of “luck”
probably consists of working in a favourable sector of the economy. Some sectors of the economy
are fast expanding [for example, computer software industry], while some others are declining
[example, the decline of real estate business in India especially after 1996]. The young worker who
finds a position in an expanding industry has excellent chances for lifetime job security with pleasant
retirement on a good pension. Those who pick a declining industry may find themselves in their later
middle age with no job and no pension. Engineering graduates had very poor mobility prospects in
India during 1970-1985. After 1990s they have again wonderful prospects. The luck factor, however,
is impossible to measure and is a handy excuse for failure, yet it is undeniably a factor in mobility.
These has the moral factor of who you are made by either the social status you built up or was built
up by your parents and past generational members of your family excluding the luck factor which
still hit or miss because the difficult to measure its success fail ratio. But without social mobility we
would never see turn over in fame therefore the riches would have stayed in royal families from the
earlier days and we would always feel a sense pf enslavement to where we are in the social ladder .

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EXAMINE 4 FACTORS THAT

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