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During the 1990s the number of unauthorized migrant workers increased in Sweden. The Building Workers' Union (BWU) reacted restrictively to this change. The political objective of the BWU was to preserve the existing institutions in immigration policy. To achieve this end, the Union cooperated with the police to detect unauthorized migrants. The Union became in fact an integral part of the internal migration control that the police performed. The restrictive reaction of the Union created the "illegal" migrant in the construction sector as a political problem in Sweden. This political problem did not exist in Sweden before the 1990s.

A striking characteristic in labour migration to Western Europe since the beginning of the 2000s has been the increased number of skilled migrants. In Sweden, most skilled migrants from countries outside the EU come from India, but there has also been significant skilled migration from China. This article investigates the impact that firms have on the migration from India and China. It focuses on managers' motives for employing migrants, their view of migrant workers and the means they use to find suitable workers. The article argues that interorganisational relationships play a key role in the recruitment of highly skilled migrants. The firms that employ migrants hold positions in an organisational field, and the relationships they have with other actors within the field shape how and why they employ migrants. The empirical data was collected through a multiple‐case study of 13 firms that have employed high‐skilled migrants from India and China.

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