Research project In Silence – But Not Hidden: Labour Exploitation in the Swedish Labour Market
A doctoral research which examines labour exploitation in the Swedish labour market, focusing on how exploitation is constructed, enabled and experienced. Through three interconnected studies, the project explores how labour exploitation is represented in public communication, how recruitment practices create conditions for labour exploitation, and how individuals experience and navigate exploitative working conditions. Drawing on a social harm perspective, the research also examines the harms that emerge at the intersection of criminalised practices and working conditions that, even when they fall within the boundaries of the law, have serious consequences for individuals’ living conditions, security and autonomy. By bringing together discourses, practices and experiences, the project aims to contribute to a more nuanced criminological understanding of labour exploitation in the Swedish context.
The project seeks to deepen the understanding of labour exploitation in the Swedish context by systematically examining three interconnected dimensions: discourses, practices and experiences. By analysing these dimensions, the project seeks to develop a more nuanced understanding of the mechanisms through which labour exploitation is enabled and maintained.
The doctoral project comprises three studies examining: (I) how labour exploitation is represented in public communication of actors such as government authorities and non-governmental organisations; (II) how recruitment practices enable labour exploitation; and (III) individuals’ experiences of exploitative working conditions. By systematically investigating these three dimensions, the project seeks to deepen the understanding of labour exploitation as a criminological phenomenon operating across different levels of society – macro, meso and micro – and thereby contribute to addressing a gap in Swedish criminological research.
The project draws on qualitative research methods, with empirical material collected through public documents and semi-structured interviews. The social harm perspective provides the theoretical framework for examining the harms that arise in the grey area between unlawful practices and harmful conditions within legal frameworks. By conceptualising harm along a continuum – ranging from criminalised practices such as forced labour to lawful but harmful employment conditions – the analysis extends beyond the most extreme cases of exploitation. This makes it possible to examine how every day and often normalised employment relations, characterised by varying forms and degrees of control, can nevertheless have serious consequences for individuals’ living conditions, security and autonomy.
The overall aim is to deepen understanding of the complexity of labour exploitation and to generate knowledge that can inform efforts to strengthen protective systems and support measures for people subjected to exploitation in Sweden.