Summary: The Low Socioeconomic Status Of Native Hawaiians

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Introduction Native Hawaiians have a low socioeconomic status compared to other ethnicities in Hawai’i. The consistency of low socioeconomic status means the Native Hawaiian population often has low education levels, low occupational prestige, the highest unemployment rates, lowest life expectancy, and often fall to the lowest quality of life scales (Rohrer, 2005, 86). Low education levels among Native Hawaiians is very important to their low socioeconomic status because education often leads to better jobs. Education also leads to higher occupational prestige. With Native Hawaiian’s low education level their representation in better paying jobs is often very low. The small amount of higher paying jobs among the Native Hawaiian population …show more content…

Congressional findings in 2006 states that Native Hawaiians students start school behind other students, continuously have low scores on standardized tests, they are overrepresented among the students with learning disabilities, and they are more likely to be held back a grade level (Rohrer, 2010, 95). Native Hawaiian students, compared to other ethnicities, on average start out in schools doing poorly. Child abuse and neglect disproportionately affects Native Hawaiian Children (Rohrer, 2010, 95). As a result many don’t receive the help at home they need to be able to further their education. This disproportion of low test scores and inability to do well in school sets many Native Hawaiians on the path of low-income jobs because of inability to enter into higher …show more content…

Since the 1990s, if not earlier, the low socioeconomic status of Native Hawaiians has changed very little and even in jobs that have the same characteristics and are the same occupation there is still a disadvantage to Native Hawaiians (Harada, 2009, 56). In a study done Native Hawaiian males were 0.65 times less likely to enter professional and managerial positions than whites (Harada, 2009, 48). “A high percentage of Native Hawaiians are in service, sales, construction, and other unskilled manual jobs while a low proportion are in lucrative jobs such as engineering, medicine, or management (Harada, 2009, 9). This high proportion of Native Hawaiians having unskilled manual jobs, which often have very low pay, is a leading factor in Native Hawaiian’s low socioeconomic status. The inability for Native Hawaiians to have a large amount of savings or income makes it difficult to borrow money from private banks to start a business (Naya, 2007, 2). The continuation of Native Hawaiian low socioeconomic status is a reflection of the combined affects of ethnic inequalities passed on from generation to generation (Okamura, 2008,

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