SOCY 1101 - Intro to Sociology Assignment #6: Immigration, Privatization of Risk, and Involuntary agency

 2) The two terms coined by the author to describe immigrants' Contingent Pathway to Legalization are privatization of risk and involuntary agency. Explain it.

Both privatization of risk and involuntary agency is a growing concern to modern society that has crept into everyday life. Both terms are highly linked together and will need to be parsed out to fully understand the difference. They disguised as freedom of choice and flexibility. In reality, it is all about throwing responsibility onto the individual. Privatization of risk is defined as shifting the cost of the burden from the system or organization to the individual. In the case of immigrants, as described by Professor Gonzalez, instead of the companies, immigrants are now responsible for finding a visa and navigating the complex legal system on their own. However, if I explain it in this manner, many nativists and extremely nationalists might not understand the concept. They will complain that immigrants should have to jump through hoops to get employed in this great land of opportunity. They will insist that immigrants should cater to this great and prosperous land and be happy with that they even have the chance to stand in the land of freedom. So I will explain the privatization of risk in a manner more pertaining to the current situation.

Privatization of risk is just of the main facets of the global historical push towards privatization that started in the 1980s with Regan. Facilities and services once considered public, that is to say funded by taxpayers, began to be contracted out to private ventures. Everything ranging from healthcare to water began to be managed by companies looking to make profits. The ideology was that private sector competitiveness and wealth generation, the hallmarks of capitalism, should be the solution to improve public facilities and services. Instead of education being funded by the state, it was paid by the individual through loans. Instead of healthcare being universal for all citizens, it was available only to those that could afford it or were eligible for state-run Medicaid programs. Instead of transportation services offered by a regulated single line of taxis companies, it was given to third-party app services like Uber and Lyft.

Privatization of risk refers to a new development in this trend of privatization to minimize company risk by passing it onto the individual where it is the employee or the consumer. One great example is employee turnover. Businesses with high turnover often struggle to retain old employees and train new employees. This is a significant risk and costs the company time and money. The solution: employees now must have the skills from the get-go with at least x amount of experience. In addition, training is now provided through an online portal with various videos that the employee must sit and watch through. The employee controls the speed and the rate of their “training.” Here is where involuntary agency comes into play. Involuntary agency can be best summed up as “its on you to figure it out.” The system does not care if you just graduated and don’t have any experience trapping you in catch 22 cycle of needing a job to get experience, but not having enough experience to get a job. No experience after graduating? SHAME ON YOU! You should have taken some internships or worked for free to get experience. Never mind the fact that you were rejected by 5 internship programs. Never mind the fact that some companies will say internship hours do not count towards work experience. Never mind that you have submitted 300 emails to various companies begging for some work of any kind. You missed your chance and messed up, your fault. With involuntary agency, the individual is responsible for “figuring it all out.” Never mind the vast inefficiencies of the system, the individual is the one whose time, money, and effort means nothing unless it makes a profit/wield some influence. Both the privatization of risk and involuntary agency come together to make the combination of 21^st century: individual opportunity at the individual’s risk.