Changes in migration control during the neoliberal era: surveillance and border control in Swedish labour immigration policy

Frank, Denis

doi:10.1080/2158379x.2014.963381

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Similarly, following the 2008 global financial crisis, Sweden implemented policies that intensified migration control and involved private actors-trade unions and employer groups-leading to an unprecedented surveillance of migrants in employment sectors (Frank 2014). Later, in 2015, as a result of the high numbers of vulnerable people entering Sweden to find refuge and seek asylum, the government argued that the welfare system risked collapse.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Everyday Bordering’ in England, Sweden and Bulgaria: Social Work Decision-Making Processes When Working with Migrant Family Members

Walsh

Khoo

Nygren

2021

Int. Migration & Integration

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The global movement of people is a growing feature of contemporary life, and it is essential that professionals providing support services know how to best engage with migrant families. However, despite globalisation and the related processes of de-bordering, borders continue to remain significant and, in contemporary life, the ways in which immigration is controlled and surveilled—bureaucratically and symbolically—are multiple. The paper draws on data gathered in the immediate period following the so called 2015 European ‘migration crisis’ and examines whether and in what ways social workers in three European countries—Bulgaria, Sweden and England—enact bordering in their work with migrant family members. We apply the concept of ‘everyday bordering’ to the data set: whilst borders are traditionally physical and at the boundary between nation states, bordering practices increasingly permeate everyday life in bureaucratic and symbolic forms. Overall, the data show that everyday bordering affects social work practice in three ways: by social workers being required to engage in bordering as an everyday practice; by producing conditions that require social workers to negotiate borders; and in revealing aspects of symbolic everyday bordering. Our analyses shows that ‘everyday bordering’ practices are present in social work decision-making processes in each country, but the forms they take vary across contexts. Analysis also indicates that, in each country, social workers recognise the ways in which immigration control can impact on the families with whom they work but that they can also inadvertently contribute to the ‘othering’ of migrant populations.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Everyday Bordering’ in England, Sweden and Bulgaria: Social Work Decision-Making Processes When Working with Migrant Family Members

Walsh

Khoo

Nygren

2021

Int. Migration & Integration

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“…Now, the labour market test was phased out and employers were given significant influence over labour migration (OECD 2011). Indeed, the December 2008 reform sought to reduce state involvement to a minimum and, instead, entrust employers to identify labour shortages (Frank 2014). As noted earlier, this extensive neo-liberalisation of Sweden's labour immigration policy, in turn, should trigger growth in the number of private actors, including different shades of intermediary actors, in the governance of labour migration (Hedberg and Olofsson 2021).…”

Section: A New Regulatory Space Of Labour Migrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Re-visiting the ‘black box’ of migration: state-intermediary co-production of regulatory spaces of labour migration

Axelsson

Hedberg

Pettersson

et al. 2021

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

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It is now widely held that a variety of intermediary actors, including recruitment and staffing agencies, multinational corporations and local brokers, shape labour migration. This paper argues that in order to better understand the global circulation of labour it is necessary to explore the involvement of these actors in the production of the regulatory spaces through which migrant labour is brokered. Indeed, migration intermediaries do not only navigate borders on behalf of their migrant clients. Nor is 'the state' primarily a backdrop against which the understanding of the role of intermediaries may be developed. Instead, we argue, regulatory spaces of labour migration are made and remade through direct and indirect exchanges and interactions between intermediaries and state actors. Through an analysis of three moments of regulatory change in Sweden, the paper shows that such interaction does not take place in an even landscape but, rather, that the ability of migration intermediaries to influence the regulation of migration lies in the capacity to form close relationships or establish a powerful presence. A focus on the dynamic co-production of regulatory spaces by intermediaries and state actors, in our view, offers a more nuanced account of how labour migration currently is brokered and regulated.

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“…Neoliberalism and globalization has fundamentally changed the pattern of labour migration in the world (Overbeek, ; Shipper, ; Ullah, ), in the sense that countries that were once net exporters have also become importers of migrants, or at the least participate as transit territories in the business of sending people, or a combination of all three (Bob‐Milliar and Bob‐Milliar, ; Ullah, ; Lewandowska‐Gwarda, ; Acharya et al., ). In line with this, a growing body of research has begun to examine the ways neoliberalism has influenced the movement of people across the world, as Frank () argued that states’ involvement in migration should be kept in minimum and people should be able to move freely across borders if there is demand for their labour. Some researchers defined neoliberalism as a philosophy that privileges market over government intervention (Hayek, ; Friedman, ; Poole, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

NeoLiberalism and the Challenges of Managing Labour Migration in Urban Malaysia

Tedong

Kadir

Roslan

et al. 2018

International Migration

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Labour migration into Malaysia has increased rapidly in recent decades and this has affected Malaysia's government policy in managing migrants’ movement. Interestingly, Malaysia has attracted a high degree of unskilled labour, accompanied by unabated rise of undocumented migrant workers. Mitigating undocumented migration is the main aim of Malaysia's labour migration policy and therefore the focus of Malaysian government. This has impacted on how enforcement agencies work out strategies. These agencies are the forefront of Malaysia's labour migration policy but they faced a number of challenges, such as documentation, finance and manpower capability, and political intervention, which impede their ability to optimize their capabilities in enforcing the Malaysian government labour migration policy. Resolving these challenges and moving towards a long‐term labour migration policy will benefit the Malaysian state, its citizens and the labour migrants.

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Changes in migration control during the neoliberal era: surveillance and border control in Swedish labour immigration policy

Cited by 12 publications

References 19 publications

‘Everyday Bordering’ in England, Sweden and Bulgaria: Social Work Decision-Making Processes When Working with Migrant Family Members

‘Everyday Bordering’ in England, Sweden and Bulgaria: Social Work Decision-Making Processes When Working with Migrant Family Members

Re-visiting the ‘black box’ of migration: state-intermediary co-production of regulatory spaces of labour migration

NeoLiberalism and the Challenges of Managing Labour Migration in Urban Malaysia

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