EMILIA > Definition: Social Exclusion/Inclusion
Both lifelong learning and social inclusion have a huge literature and there are many divergent views as to their interpretation. The following definition are taken from European social policy documents and are specific to their application to the aims and agenda of the EMILIA project.
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"Social exclusion affects an individual's opportunity to find a good job, decent housing, adequate health care, quality education, safe and secure living conditions as well as their treatment by the legal and criminal justice systems. It becomes a chronic scarcity of opportunities and access to basic and quality services, labour markets and credit, physical conditions and adequate infra-structure, and the judicial system. The complex problem of social exclusion is intensified for individuals belonging to multiple excluded groups (such as the mentally ill). As social exclusion so severely restricts access to the services and jobs needed for a minimal standard of living, there is a high correlation between poverty and social exclusion. Even when they are not the majority of the poor, the excluded typically constitute the poorest.” |