SOCIOL 101 Chap.5 Neoliberal Work, Precarity and Tied Visas
Neoliberal Work, Precarity and Tied Visas
Week 4 asks who does the work that keeps Aotearoa running and why so much of it goes unseen. Ongley's reading presents the present labour market as the result of an economic model adopted from 1984, when full employment stopped being a policy goal, bargaining was individualised, labour costs were pushed down, work was destandardised and production was opened to global competition.
The lecture insisted on using neoliberalism as a precise description of that programme rather than as an insult. Two measurement lessons follow. The official unemployment rate counts only people available for work who searched in the past four weeks, while underutilisation adds those who want more hours or would work but are not searching, and the two give very different pictures of the same country.
The second reading, by Stringer, Collins and Michailova, turns to temporary migrant workers and shows how an employer-tied visa hands a worker's right to remain to one boss, which makes refusing unlawful demands costly. The chapter's lesson for coursework is that hardship at work should be traced to rules: who set the policy target, who wrote the employment law, who designed the visa and who decided what gets counted.
A paragraph built that way reaches the critical edge the course asks for, and it avoids blaming either workers or a few bad employers.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Neoliberalism as a dated policy programme
- 02
Standard, non-standard and precarious work
- 03
Unemployment and underutilisation measures
- 04
Uneven unemployment by age and ethnicity
- 05
Employer-tied visas and the RSE scheme
- 06
Where cost settles in the food chain
Worked example · free
Compare the unemployed and underutilised measures of one labour market
- 1State the definition behind 5.6%: only people available for work who actively searched in the past four weeks are counted as unemployed.
- 1Add what the broader measure includes: part-timers wanting more hours and people available but not searching, which lifts the figure to 13.8%.
- 1Compare the two: the underutilised rate is about two and a half times the unemployed rate, roughly 440,000 people against 166,500.
- 1Note that the official rate is a share of the labour force, which leaves out people who have stopped looking; the underutilisation measure brings some of them back by counting people available but not searching.
- 1Draw the sociological point: the choice of definition decides how large the problem appears and whose need becomes visible.
Key terms
- Neoliberalism
- A political and economic programme, begun in Aotearoa in 1984, that relies on markets to organise social life and reshapes the state around them.
- Underutilisation rate
- Labour force share made up of the unemployed plus part-timers wanting more hours and people available for work but not searching.
- Non-standard work
- Casual, fixed-term, seasonal, part-time, agency or contract employment, which is not insecure in every case.
- Tied visa
- Work permission limited to a single named employer, so that leaving the job can mean losing the legal right to remain.
- RSE scheme
- Recognised Seasonal Employer arrangement, running since 2007, through which accredited horticulture and viticulture employers recruit Pacific seasonal workers.
Neoliberal Work, Precarity and Tied Visas FAQ
Why does the course say unemployment is a policy choice?
The lecture traced how the target changed after 1984 from full employment to controlling inflation, and how in 2022 the Reserve Bank raised interest rates while describing employment as above its sustainable level. Unemployment then rose. Rules about contracts and the way the count is defined are also decisions, so the level of joblessness reflects choices rather than weather.
Is all part-time work precarious?
No. The course distinguishes non-standard work, which includes secure permanent part-time jobs and well-paid contracting, from precarious work, which lacks guaranteed hours, predictable income and protection when the work ends. Ongley himself warns that some theorists have overstated how far insecure work has spread, so claims about precarity need evidence about protection.
What makes a tied visa so significant?
Because leaving the employer can mean losing legal status, saying no to an unlawful demand can cost a worker the job, the right to stay, the plan to settle and the savings spent on arriving. Stringer and colleagues found that this pressure, rather than a few bad employers, explains why underpayment, unpaid trials and wage handbacks can become routine in certain industries.
Why are interviews treated as evidence this week?
The Stringer, Collins and Michailova study has no statistics; it rests on 131 interviews with migrant workers and with stakeholders on the supply and demand sides of the labour market. The course guide argues that interviews show the mechanism, how a visa condition actually operates inside a workplace, which a survey of rates cannot reveal.
How can I use this chapter in the essay?
It supplies a strong critical-edge paragraph for any issue involving work. Identify the rule that shapes the hardship, show who benefits from it and who carries the cost, and connect the ordering of who is most affected to longer histories, as the course does when it links 1991 and 2026 unemployment patterns by ethnicity.
Assessment move
Make a two-column sheet headed before 1984 and after 1984 and list the changes the lecture named, adding Ongley's five shifts in your own words. Then practise the counting lesson: take any statistic about work in the news and write down who is inside the denominator and who has been left out.
For the migrant-labour reading, draw the chain from buyer to grower to wage bill to worker and mark where a visa condition removes the ability to refuse. Keep one sentence ready that separates precarious from non-standard work, because the course guide stresses that non-standard work is not the same as insecure work. Finally, link the week back to the census lecture: in both, a definition decides who is visible.
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