Ethnicity and the reproduction of labour market locations : do Maori students really have a choice?

Abstract

Maori people are widely represented in the unskilled and low-status, low-paying jobs in New Zealand. Recent statistics show that 59.1 % of the I\1aori school-leavers who find jobs go into manual occupations, and only 5.4% go into technical or professional work (Department of Education, 1982). 49% of Maori students become unemployed on leaving school (Department of Education, 1983). While the reasons for this state of affairs must necessarily embrace a great number of issues which analyse how inequality is structured in Aotearoa, attention must also be given to the way monocultural schooling enhances the reproduction of specific locations for Maori students within (or outside) a stratified labour market. This study looks at some of the processes involved in the occupational decision-making of Maori students as observed in two secondary schools in a provincial city in the North Island of New Zealand.