Child Poverty In Canada Essay

Child poverty is not only a major concern in Third World nations but also within our own nation of Canada. Poor children have fewer resources, choices, and opportunities, which can result in despair or even isolation from the greater society (Hughes 1995: 783). Though this is a major issue within Canada, sociology can help individuals to think critically about child poverty by understanding how family dynamics are an influencing force, as well as the lasting consequences that child poverty can have on an individual. It is then by understanding these forces, and how society as a whole influences child poverty, that child poverty can be solved through having a united definition, a plan with a clearly outlined allocation of resources, as well

However, in contrast to the prevalent stereotypes, child poverty is a major problem within many countries, including Canada. Child poverty rates in Canada are consistently higher than other wealthy nations in the world (Albanese 2010:15). In 2015 there were 4.8 million Canadians living in low-income households, and 1.2 million of those individuals were children, meaning that one out of four people living in poverty were children under the age of eighteen (Statistics Canada 2017). Multiple factors contribute the child poverty situation within Canada, with the largest influencing factors being family and race. Children in families lead by single mothers are the most economically vulnerable to poverty, with 47 percent of these families living in poverty (Albanese 2010:20). Immigrant and First Nation children have the highest risk of being exposed to poverty in Canada. 49 percent of children from immigrant families and 40 percent of First Nation children living off of reserves live in poverty (Albanese 2010:20). However, child poverty in Canada has been greatly improved since the mid-1990s; this improvement is primarily because of the introduction of government-run family-related programs. These programs include the Canadian child tax benefit, which is a tax-free monthly payment to families with children under the age of 18 (Statistics Canada

One of the most important things is to have a unified definition of what poverty is and national plan working towards the removal of child poverty, for if there is more than one definition of poverty it is hard to measure the progress of a nation (Sharma and Ford-Jones 2015). Another major influencing factor is economics. In 2005 a UNICEF study found out that there is a direct correlation between high government spending on social benefits and lower child poverty rates, as exemplified by the Nordic countries (UNICEF 2005). However, the study also found out that government spending has more to do with policies and the allocations of funds, believing that many countries have the possibility of getting child poverty below 10% without a major increase in spending (UNICEF 2005). Therefore, by increasing spending in meaningful, clearly defined ways the most amount of money can be spent in effective ways. One of the final key ideas to reduce child poverty is to be proactive in the screening process. Much of the effort that goes towards reducing poverty is ineffective because it comes to late in the child’s life, therefore it is important to catch it early enough to deal with it effectively and have less of a negative impact on the child (Sharma and Ford-Jones 2015). To practically apply this