The Stigma of Poverty

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The Stigma of Poverty
The experience of living in poverty extends beyond economic and material disadvantages, and individuals who live in poverty usually come across various kinds of stigma, discrimination and prejudice. Stigma as a result of poverty is common in the everyday interactions with people. This emanates from how people discuss poverty, political and media discourses on matters poverty and the attitudes that people hold regarding poverty. Poverty usually causes divisions between the rich and the poor and serves as a way of justifying socio-economic inequalities in the society, and it can also make people living in poor conditions to feel ashamed and excluded. Stigma can go as far as affecting ones health, and people living in poverty can be stigmatized to a point that they feel ashamed to ask for even benefits that they are entitled to, hence limiting low living standards the more.
Given the possible negative effects of poverty stigma, there exists a vivid impetus for challenging discrimination and prejudice that are aimed at individuals who live in povert. When establishing campaigns and strategies to decrease poverty stigma, it is essential to have in mind that stigma comes in different forms and is operational at different personal, social and institutional levels.
Personal stigma happens when people internalize the different kinds of discrimination and media that they perceive or experience from other people. On this issue, a recent qualitative research review indicates how individuals that live on low incomes may borrow from poitical and social discourses about poverty and later see themselves as unworthy. People may get negative attitudes to ruin the psychological stabilities, or may criticize themselves when they fail to attain a certain target. That can leave the affected persons ashamed, guilty and humiliated, which bears a diverse effects on their self-esteem.
Social stigmas entail public attitudes towards welfare and poverty, and are usually measured via national and government commissioned surveys. A 2010 British Attitudes Survey for instance shows that personal perceptions of poverty have become more popular in the United Kingdom. For instance, the percentage of people who thought that some people are given aid due to lack of willpower or laziness had increased as a result of society injustices that had reduced to 21% in 2010, compared to 29% in 2010 (Inglis, 43-49)
Public attitude to welfares vary and are complicated depending on the different benefits that the affected could receive. And unemployment is one of the areas that exhibit negative attitudes. According 2013 data from a UK and Japan survey, more than half (56%) of the UK populace agree that most individuals they knew could not find the jobs they needed, while 33% or a third of...