Britain’s Broken Ladder of Social Mobility

The New Tork Times The New Tork Times

Successive governments have believed that the answer lies in making sure that poor children are taught to both aspire and achieve, all the way through to university. It is regarded as the ultimate success story when a young person from a working-class family gets into one of Britain’s two elite institutions, Oxford and Cambridge. The assumption is that if only they reach “Oxbridge,” their struggle for social mobility will be over; they will be part of the elite, and doors will open for them.

That is a devastating myth. Ambition and talent are not enough to succeed in today’s Britain. Hidden high barriers remain.

Joe, as I shall call him to preserve his privacy, is a living example. He is one of the brightest young men I know, but in November, he was sitting alone in a spare bedroom in a depressed town in northern England, where he knew hardly anyone, in despair at his inability to start a career. The year before, Joe graduated from Oxford with a top degree and then won a scholarship to study music for the next year. After that, he planned to find a job in London, perhaps as a law trainee, a management consultant or a researcher — just like his prosperous middle-class friends.