Research Items

Abstract

Coloured Families in Liverpool AN investigation undertaken under the auspices of the Liverpool Association for the Welfare of Coloured People into the economic status of 225 coloured families, supplements an investigation made some ten years ago, while reflecting changes in conditions which have taken place in that period ("The Economic Status of Coloured Families in the Port of Liverpool". The University Press of Liverpool, 1939. Pp. 23. 1s. net). The investigation was organized and directed by D. Caradog Jones, the material collected and analysed by Kathleen Johnstone of the Department of Social Science in the University of Liverpool. The coloured families investigated belonged to the class of those who had made "domicile of choice", and were known to have been insured under the Unemployment Insurance Acts. The bulk, but not all, of the men were West African in origin. Only one had been in the country for less than five years, while the largest proportion, 100, had been here for more than twenty and less than thirty years. The investigation in the main was confined to householders. Of the families visited, 201 had a married man as head, 2 with a widower, 3 with a single man, and 19 with a widow as head. Of the 206 male heads, 4 were old age pensioners or invalids; of the remainder 149 were unemployed. There are relatively few of pensionable age. There is a high proportion between 45 and 65, with a low proportion between 21 and 45 years. The mean number of children per family is 2·6 as compared with white 4·8. During the last ten years a change for the worse in economic conditions has taken place. Of coloured only 40 per cent were in receipt of earnings as contrasted with 75 of a survey sample of white seamen, while 73 per cent of the coloured were in receipt of unemployment benefit as against 34 per cent white. In relation to the poverty line, the figures are as follow: more than 50 per cent above, coloured 14·4, white 48·5; within 10 per cent above or below, coloured 22·3, white 10·0; and 10 per cent to 33 per cent below, coloured 20·4, white 15·4.