Ethnographic Research Paper

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Ethnographic Research Paper

Introduction

Education has been seen as one of the key paths if any child was to have a better future and sustain himself financially. Many American families have until this day believed that the best present a parent could give to a son or a daughter was education. For the past decades, education and learning centers have been on the increase as a way of fulfilling this grand thirst for knowledge (Baker & Green, 2008). There have been very many colleges and tertiary institutions springing up in the United States with the mission and goals of providing the best education to the people of the nation. It will appear that such an education is a key tool to the development of any global economy whatsoever. The belief here is that education sheds life for the future of both an individual and even a nation.

We will then agree that, the more an individual is educated, the more the income realized by that particular person. If there is any truth here, the translation is that a given household would be earning an amount of income, which is equivalent to the education status in that given household. In order to see whether there is any correlation between income and education in a given household, it was better we conduct a study and come up with conclusive information. The other thing that would be worth considering is the correlation between the amount of income in a given household and the ethnicity of the people in that given society or community. This can therefore shed some light on the income patterns in the Queens New York Area.

Literature Review

From literature review, there have been a number of notable changes in the earnings as well as the income in different parts of the world. For instance, more and more people continue to get educated and the translation here is that the people will obviously get better income (Baker & Green, 2008). We have been seeing more and more people getting higher education, but at the same time, once such people get a job, the outcome is better, and this means there is the reason why more people want to become educated. The other issue has just emerged lately, whereby, as people continue to get educated, there have been declining employment opportunities, and that has been forcing people not to get educated. However, different economies have been trying to restructure their education systems to ensure that such an education empowers the child and not just forcing them cram all the things they taught in class (Noel, 2001). This is being achieved through the integration of technical courses and business studies.

Such household earnings have over the past years been indicated to improve whenever the house-hold head has a better education. Although that has been the case, it has been noted that there are still some other factors that would affect the family income. This is so because the family income is always characteristic and determined by the labor market and its dynamics, change of jobs and careers, population pressure and the economic status (Noel, 2001). It has hence been noted that, apart from education, there are still very many other factors influencing the amount of income that gets into a given household.

The amount of income that is being earned in most of the countries today has been varying from year to year due to economic imbalances and recessions. This has been translating to low family earnings, and a good example is in United States after going into economic recession (Joel, 2009).  There have been reports that the most influential thing to the amount of one’s income is the education level. It has therefore been argued that, as a person climbs the ladder of education, the better the gains. This means that education is a very important tool if a given person wanted to get better earnings. Reports have also indicated that, some people tend to venture into own businesses after they have realized that there were no jobs in the world, and by so doing they make good money, hence taking a large income home by the end of the day. What this means is that such income is not directly linked to education, but itself is a product of such an education.

The globe has today been experiencing different trends as more and more people continue to become enlightened and understanding the purpose of better education. Since 1980s, it has been indicated that there have been variations in the earnings of those educated elites in the society upon comparison with the non-educated people in the same society. This has therefore changed both the household as well as individual’s earnings (Joel, 2009). That being the case, people are marrying depending on the educational standings, contrary to what used to be experienced some years ago. This means that educated women are marrying educated men, hence a better income in that newly created family.

In the past few years, there have been adjustments in the earning patterns in different families. For instance, in 1998, family earnings in America increased from 23 percent to about 40 percent of all the earnings received by people between the ages of 25 and 35 years (Abraham, 2001). Between the years 2002 and 2003, the percentages have been on the increase, and this can be because of the increased educational systems in the country. Such earnings have been reflected for both women and men. The other thing is that the incomes by the ladies have been indicating the highest growth percentages. This is so because the last decades were seeing women not accessing necessary education as their counterparts, the men.

In addition, over the last 10 years or so, there has been variability in the incomes within households that are headed by younger people than the ones headed by the older people (Abraham, 2001). This has also been in line with the changes being implicated in the economic structures and settings. For instance, between the years 1994 to 1998 was a period whereby the globe experienced a strong growth in economy, hence resulting in increased income in many households. The suggestion here is that the economy structure will also play a big role in distribution of family income (Abraham, 2001). During the recent years, the average income in families headed by younger men and women has been attributed to the changes in education systems around the world.

It will also be important to examine the world between the years 1998 and 2002 when the world experienced a slow economic growth as compared to the last four years. During that period, the percentage of family incomes also declined with a smaller rate. This means that the economy structure also influences the amount of money a given household earns (Noel, 2001). This is so because different employers will have to put the given measures to ensure that their companies, firms or industries are not swallowed by the economic situation of the moment. By so doing, the employers, with the government inclusive, tends to reduce the employees’ salaries.

There has been a relationship in education, race and income in the United States. This has been because educational system had not been streamlined in the country (Abraham, 2001). What was happening is that the Black Americans and other races had been treated differently and sometimes not being given the necessary opportunity in accessing similar education. This means that such people would have different roles in the economy, something that dictated the income of such individuals. This means that the whites in the country received a fatter share of the country’s wealth distribution. In addition, there were other issues whereby the blacks could not be involved in white-collar jobs such as doctors, lawyers and even secretarial jobs since they have no qualifications for such jobs. This resulted in poor family incomes hence forcing them to lead poor lives.

With education, the incomes in some of the households headed people without high- learning have been varying in the United Sates and elsewhere. Research has also been indicating that the people having something less than a high school education have been having low earnings, and also with a higher rates of variability because some of them may be lucky to have better paying jobs even when not highly educated (Noel, 2001). The other reason why people with lesser education tend to earn less is that they marry people with lesser education, and by so doing getting less household incomes. The implication here is that any household that is headed by someone with only a high school education tend to have most of the children not getting better education due to lack of funds, and that becomes a kind of a family trend. In that case the household earnings continue to remain as low as possible (Dickson, 2004).

It will hence be agreed that education will play a key role in determining the amount of income that goes to a given family. From past researches done in a number of countries, it has been revealed that the level of education will determine the available job to a given person, as well as the amount of income such an individual will expect (Baker & Green, 2008). A person with poor education cannot access high profile jobs, and therefore the basic income will be as low as possible. The total percentages of the households that are headed by people who have something less than secondary or college education tend to experience poor payments and such jobs may not be consistent. This is so because sometimes they become victims of retrenchment and sacking whenever better people for the job are found (Baker & Green, 2008). Other factors have been known to affect the family income. The major one is the structure of that given household. For example, if we have a family which is headed by a widowed, separated or divorced person, it will be noted that the earnings may be low (Dickson, 2004).

In many countries experiencing racial discrimination and ethnicity or tribalism, the nature of family earnings remains distorted. Like in the United States of America, there have been a number of effects of the city characteristics as well as the neighborhood on a number of individuals (Baker & Green, 2008). There have been a number of employment issues that have not been addressed and that has led to discrepancies in the American household earnings. This is something that started being addressed recently in some of the country’s states. Many economic experts have been asking the previous governments to address the income imbalances between different races in America since all the people of that should be considered part of one great nation. The fact is that, most of the family incomes in the country have in one way or another been dictated by race and ethnicity among different groups of people in the country (Dickson, 2004).

What has been in the country is that most of the people with work experience and education tend to be denied classic jobs because of their race or skin color. The implication is that one may fail to be employed in a well paying job just because he or she is from this race and not the other. This has resulted in different earnings in the entire United States as well as in the whole world. With the black men, it has sometimes been very hard for them to get decent jobs even if they have the experience and knowledge, but the mistake is that they are of black origin (Noel, 2001).

The other factor, which has been noted to influence the amount of income in a given society, is the occurrence of a disability. Some people may have been highly educated, but later in life they fall upon a disability which affects the rest of their dreams. Such people tend not to continue with their jobs, and hence what happens is that they become incapable and unable to provide for the family members. The occurrence of such disabilities tend make many people lose psyche in their lives and hence never engage in any other form of income generating activity (Geoffrey, 2001).

Over the past few years there have been many fights staged by women in fighting for their rights. Such fights have seen more and more women becoming involved in the employment sectors and other sectors of the global economy. Women have also been increasing their participation in the job market, right to vote, right to become politicians and so forth (Baker & Green, 2008). More and more women are being seen emerging from what used to be strictly private life to public figures with greater ideas, dreams and innovations for the world. This has hence helped reverse their social roles that included looking after the house, giving birth and making sure all the children’s needs were catered for. This has changed and the modern woman is now very much involved in employment, management and bringing income to the family just like the husband (Geoffrey, 2001).

More upcoming women are joining the office and managerial workforce and by so doing enjoying the benefits that used to be enjoyed by men (Dickson, 2004). At the same time, the amounts of income in different families have increased since the women are now contributing a lot to the family income. Looking at most of the developing and third world countries, it will be seen that the lack of basic education has been forcing a number of women to get involved in risky economies such as street-trading, domestic households, home-makers and even casual laborers (Geoffrey, 2001). Although the fact here is that they are earning, it will be realized that whatever they earn is minimal. This has therefore been forcing many people to stand up and fight for the rights of such women so that they may not suffer much. Although women are termed as very productive in any given society, it should be necessary that such people be given the opportunity to get presentable jobs so that they can have better living conditions. Women have over the years never been featured in the corporate employments, but instead they have been forced into domestic work, which is never paid for and undervalued (Dickson, 2004).

Objective of the Study

This study was conducted competently enough in order to shed some more light on the influences of education on family income and the impacts of race and ethnicity when it comes to the family earnings. Both Whites and Black Americans occupy the Queens NY area. This study would be useful in giving us the major co-relationships existing between the socio-economic factors such as education and the amount of income in that particular household. Another important thing is that we will be able to determine how the amount of income in a given household affects the living conditions in that particular household. This is quite inarguable since the amount of money earned in any particular family will greatly influence or determine the kind of life the people of that family lead. The study will also be a key tool in emphasizing the need of education to a child if a better future was to be realized.

Hypothesis

There were two main hypotheses behind this study. The first one was that, the higher a given house-head was educated or learned, the better the income realized by that particular family. The other hypothesis was that, there is a major role played by ethnicity and race in the amount of income earned in any given family. The study area was the Queens New York Area.

Research Design

In this study, well framed and designed questionnaires were issued to different individuals in different households in the Queens New York Area and the obtained information form the questionnaires is what was used to come up with the report. All the questionnaires used in this study were designed in such a way that they were non-discriminative and open-structured. The interviewees included both male and females who were working and the breadwinners in the households. Such a strategy was appropriate since the two gave information on their income brackets and their levels of education. The questionnaires had a place where such details where to be reflected for analysis. Generally, the questionnaires used in this study included the following parts: individual details for the house head or the breadwinner, the occupation of the person, the family type and size, the family living standards, religion of the family since some religions influence the learning patterns of the followers and then a brief discussion of that household. Such questionnaires where hence randomly distributed in a good number of families in the study area.

In order to obtain a reflective data from the study, there was also the need to interview the economic experts in the area and in the entire nation who could have been following the education-income trends in the country over the last years. With education being one of the socio-economic factors of the current world, it would be observed that it would have such an impact on the family income and influence the family expenditure and budget. That being the case, any information obtained from the Socio-economic experts was very useful in helping the research come up with quality information. The other important thing about this study is that all the questionnaires were distributed to all the races in the region: the Black Americans, Whites, Hispanics, the Natives and the Asians. During the study, all the interviewees were advised to give genuine and reliable information so that positive measures may be undertaken after the study. After all the process, data and information was analysed to give the following results, which led to our hypotheses testing and conclusion.

Findings and Results

Black Respondents' Years of Education

Black Respondents' Household Income

Black Female Respondents' Years of Education

Respondents' Household Income By RACE

Respondents' Household Income By Education

Looking at the obtained data, it will be seen that we are having more people with lesser education with almost an equal amount of income, but then, as the years of schooling increase, we see that the amount of income to that particular individual increases with a similar rate. Also, looking at the issue of gender, it will be seen that men tend to have better education as compared with the women. Also, the number of black people getting middle incomes is very high as compared with the other races. This may be because the lacks appear to dominate the area, but also the whites tend to have similar education while their income is at the highest level as compared with the others. Another thing that can be deduced from the above results is that the income levels are dependent on race. Also, it will be noted that we have the black majority, followed by the Hispanics and so on.

There is also the question of gender here. We see that women with little education are earning very little, but with variations depending on the race. Another important thing to be noted from the above results is that, the number of blacks, Asians and Hispanics earning little amount of income is higher than the whites. Then, as the income levels increases, we see the number of such races earning such amounts decreasing, while on the other hand the whites earning large incomes are increasing.

Discussion of the results

After carrying out the study, it has been noted that education has a direct impact on the income in any given household. A higher educated person will be in a position to get a presentable job that will give him good income. In addition, an educated person will tend to marry someone with a similar education hence increasing the household earnings by double. On the other hand, somebody without such a good education will end up marrying a person with a similar education, and in that case, his or her household will be getting low income. This means that the life they would have live to will have to be of low quality because they do not have enough money to sustain a quality lifestyle. Once that has happened, it will occur that their children may not be able to access better education and so it becomes a family trend of low earnings. The other thing is because of race and ethnicity. The study has indicated that the amount of income is dependent on the race the family members are. This is because education, different jobs, and employment opportunities have been made available depending on the race of the people.

Interpretation of hypotheses

From the obtained information after this study, it has been agreed that our hypotheses reflect what is on the ground. This means that the level of education will greatly determine the income of a given household. In Queens New York, it has been noted that most of the families enjoying better salaries and financial strengths have a good education behind them. The explanation here is that the acquisition of education has been opening doors for better jobs that can give an individual good income. From the study, therefore, it has been noted that there is a very big importance why education is necessary in any given society. This is so because this data is a reflection of any other society in the United States as well as in the whole world.

It has been noted that there is a relationship between race and the amount of income realized in any given family or household. The whites as compared with other races in the region own most of the better earning households. This means that the whites have a priority in the employment allocations because they are the majority. Also, there is a high chance that such whites tend to be highly educated than the other races hence benefiting from any available white collar job in the area. It would hence mean that such imbalances should be addressed by ensuring that there is equity in the provision of education and learning facilities.

Challenges Faced during the Study

There are a number of challenges that were faced during the entire study period. One of the problems was that most of the people were not willing to give out some information since they considered it as a violation of their personal rights. In addition, a number of interviewees were not willing to give out the required information by deeming the study to be nothing better but only the wastage of precious time and violation of the country’s integrity. Some other people destroyed the questionnaires by declining that they could not give information concerning their personal life, money and family affairs. This is so because the people were not willing to give out their earnings, their occupations and family social affairs as well. Another limiting factor was the lack of enough funds for the entire study period. Financial requirements have been one of the main reasons why many research studies have never been carried out in many parts of the world, and hence such a study would have featured a larger area of study if there would have been enough funds. The other barrier to this study was the lack of enough time to carry out the work and then coming up with the final data analysis, discussion and recommendations.

Conclusion

As a conclusion, we will all agree from this study that education will play a big role in determining the amount of income that is pocketed by a given household. This means that the acquisition of education will be important if one is to make better earnings. Like in our case study here, we have noted that those people who spent more years in education systems enjoy better earnings as compared to their partners with lesser education. The argument here is that an educated person will have higher chances of finding a way into a given well paying job as compared with another person without such an education. In addition, as more and more ladies continue to get educated, we can see that they will get better income than the ones who are not educated. This means that education has a big role if one wants to increase his earnings. It will hence be agreed that education will play a key role in determining the amount of income that goes to a given family (Dickson, 2004). Even from all other researches done in many countries, it has been revealed that the level of education will determine the available job to a given person, as well as the amount of income such an individual will expect. Any given person with a poor educational background will not be able to access high profile jobs and therefore the basic income will be as low as possible. Because of this, the number of households headed by people with less than secondary or college education will tend to get poor payments, which may not be consistent.

Another thing is that racism has still been playing a big role in the Queens area when it comes to earnings. This means that not all the people are being treated equally. Another thing that may be noted here is that people from differences races have been given different education hence not being able to fit in the same income brackets. The best measures, which should be taken, are that all people should be treated equally and be given equal employment opportunities if they have similar qualifications. This will not only bring about equal incomes but also a strong foundation on which the future economy of the country will be built on.

Recommendation for future research

After carrying out the above research, it was noted that there are some things, which should be addressed if the economic stability of this country and the entire world was to be achieved. This would include the provision of equal education opportunities to all people, then after that deal with all the issues of racism. In addition, there are some important recommendations for anyone who would be willing to carry out a similar study. One of this is that the researcher should look for more funding if good results were to be obtained. Also, there should be an allocation of a longer time period for such a study. Another important thing is that such a study would give better results if it had been carried out within a larger geographical area and not just a small area. Such a setting will ensure that the necessary data is obtained which can be of better significance. It can also be useful if online questionnaires can be used. This will reduce traveling costs, damages and reduce the time that would be wasted during the entire process. One advantage of online questionnaires is that they can be analysed easily by the use of softwares, and it would be easy to come up with reputable information.

References

Abraham, D. (2001). Racial Groups of America: Economic activities and cultural practices. Malden: Blackwell Publishing.

Baker, B. & Green, P. (2008). Financing Education Systems. New York: Allyn & Bacon.

Dickson, J. (2004). Influences of Education in Economy Development. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Geoffrey, H. (2001). Family Income: Improving earnings. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Joel, S. (2009). American Education. New York: McGraw Hill Higher Education.

Noel, D. (2001). Education and Economic Advancements. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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