The Swedish berry industry relies today on two categories of agricultural seasonal workers: ‘third country nationals’, commonly from South-East Asia, who are granted seasonal work permits for berry ...picking; and another category designated as ‘free pickers’, mostly EU citizens who sell the harvested berries directly to Swedish berry buyers. With regard to both categories of berry-pickers, successive scandals have plagued the industry. Workers who arrive in Sweden hoping for lucrative employment have ended up with large debts, not able to return home, or have become trapped into ‘forced labour’. This article builds partly on results from our previous research projects on berry pickers in Sweden that centre upon recurrent crises, highlighting the social invisibility of berry-pickers that both enables and adds to their precarity and exploitability. In this paper, our research objective is to study the visibilisation of the pickers' situation of socio-economic precarity and their need for substantive rights. The empirical data comprises interviews and observations collected in 2010–2013, and additional follow-up interviews gathered in 2019–2020. The analytical approach follows theoretical notions of ruptures and acts of citizenship, leading to visibilisation and mobilisation. Key findings identify the occurrence of ruptures contributing to a visibilisation of the berry pickers' plight and to civil society calls for the improvement of their employment rights. Berry-worker protests that make their situation visibile are acts of citizenship which have led to wider mobilisations, but in recent years these have been counteracted, not least, by co-ordinated (local and national) authorities and by landowner responses to such challenges. We argue that these counter-responses can add to invisibilisation, thus becoming pre-emptive bureaucratic actions.
•Improvements of berry pickers’ labour rights and living conditions depend on public visibilisation and recognition.•Public visibilisation and recognition is difficult to achieve in remote and depopulated local rural localities.•Ruptures in the citizenship script propel workers' plight for decent working conditions into the corridors of power.•The dispersal of berry pickers to sparsely populated rural areas raises concern regarding visibilisation and labour abuse.
Studien belyser utifrån ett arbetsmiljöperspektiv förändringar i lärarstudenters och universitetslärares arbetspraktiker under den oförutsedda övergången till distansutbildning. Studiens tematiska ...analys av kvalitativa enkäter förankras teoretiskt i Karaseks och Theorells (1990) tredimensionella modell bestående av komponenterna krav, kontroll och socialt stöd i det egna arbetet. Studien visar att övergången till distansundervisning har skapat svårigheter på grund av bristande kontroll över nya studie- och undervisningsrutiner samt minskad tillgång till olika former av kollegialt stöd. Deltagarna ser samtidigt vissa pedagogiska och effektiviseringsmässiga förtjänster med bruket av ny teknik. I båda grupperna poängteras därtill att tid sparas genom distansundervisningens frånvaro av resor och pauser på campus, vilket tycks minska kraven och öka kontrollen över arbetet. Svårigheten att väga dessa förtjänster och förluster mot varandra betonas i studien då positiva upplevelser av ökad arbetsflexibilitet kontrasteras av deltagarna med upplevelser av minskat stöd när campusstrukturen försvinner och ökade krav tillkommer i form av extraarbete, större ansvarstagande och ökad kognitiv arbetsbelastning. Studien fokuserar även distraktioner i hemmiljön och hur avsaknad av informella möten påverkar studiemotivationen och försämrar arbetsmiljön. I studien framhävs övergången till distansläge emellertid som en process där vissa studenter har utvecklat olika strategier för att öka kontrollen.
The study illuminates, from a work environment perspective, changes in teacher students’ and university teachers’ work practices during emergency remote teaching. The study’s thematic analysis of qualitative surveys is theoretically grounded in Karasek and Theorell’s (1990) three-dimensional model consisting of the components demands, control, and social support. The study reveals that the transition has led to a lack of control due to new routines and reduced access to collegial support. However, the participants also recognize certain educational and efficiency benefits with the use of new technologies and emphasize that time is saved through the absence of travel and breaks on campus, which appears to reduce demands and increase the control over work. Balancing these benefits and losses is difficult, as positive experiences of increased flexibility are contrasted with experiences of reduced support and increased demands in the form of extra work, greater responsibility, and increased cognitive workload. The study also focuses distractions within the home environment and how the absence of informal meetings affects study motivation and degrades the work environment. However, the study also illustrates the transition as a process where some students have developed strategies resulting in increased control.
In public discourse, the social inclusion of migrants is often regarded as a challenge demanding migrants to increase their engagement in adapting to the new host country. Such imaginaries commonly ...declare migrants as being unwilling to acquire language skills and specific cultural values. In parallel, formal education is often proposed as the single most important remedy to inclusion, which generally solely implies labor market participation. However, there is a range of other, often neglected, practices that migrants themselves regard as important for their social inclusion in society. This article aims to analyze what practices are assigned meaning by newly arrived migrants in Sweden on their path toward social inclusion in the country. This is a longitudinal interview study with 19 newly arrived adult migrants that were interviewed on two occasions, three years apart. Drawing on a sociocultural perspective, we understand social inclusion as an ongoing process by which individuals become members of different communities. The result shows that important for social inclusion is access to valuable relationships and close social ties. These relations are important in all communities in which the migrants participate. The analysis illustrates three different communities, outside of formal education and employment, that migrants ascribe meaning to concerning language learning and social inclusion. These communities are sports, internships, and civil society engagements. Through its longitudinal design, this study also illustrates how migrants’ narratives and their meanings shift with time and how migrants relate to these communities over time.
This article scrutinises the European Asylum Dactyloscopy Database (EURODAC) as a research object for social science. EURODAC serves as an important part of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) ...infrastructure by registering dig‐ italised fingerprints of asylum seekers, which facilitates the allocation of responsibility following the Dublin Regulation. In this article, we explore the role of EURODAC from its implementation in 2003 until April 2021 through a scoping review that maps and analyses existing social science research in the field. In total, 254 scholarly publications—identified in Scopus, Academic Search Complete, and Web of Science—were reviewed. The article seeks to answer three research questions: What is the accumulated knowledge within social science research on EURODAC? What gaps and trends exist in this research? What are the possible implications of this knowledge, gaps, and trends for other areas of the CEAS such as asylum evaluations and reception of asylum seekers? Based on a qualitative thematic analysis, our review shows that research on EURODAC can be divided into three broad categories: research that focuses on the reconfiguration of borders; research that focuses on migration governance and resistance; and research that emphasises fundamental rights and discrimination. In our final discussion, we highlight the lack of ethnographic studies, of gender and intersectional perspectives, and of in‐depth studies on national legal frameworks including asylum evaluations and reception practices across the EU. The article concludes that social science needs to address the socio‐political underpinnings of EURODAC and acknowledges its centrality to all areas of the CEAS.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the capacities of social movement actors (SMAs) and interest groups to negotiate responsibility, heighten issues of accountability and ...earn legitimacy from authorities and the wider public for the plight of dis-privileged Roma migrant berry pickers in the Swedish labour market.
Design/methodology/approach
– The objective is guided by a multi-sited ethnographical approach to data collection and analysis, which theoretically anchors in social movement frame analysis.
Findings
– The paper proposes that SMAs, in the face of incapacities of state and industry parties, generate the potentiality to leverage immediate humanitarian distress experienced by the workers and to accentuate their political and public visibility.
Research limitations/implications
– Delimited by the internal organisational structure of a berry industry, partly operating behind informal employment schemes, future studies should devote closer attention in localising/identifying possible “back-stage” data-gathering settings.
Practical implications
– Policy-makers and special-interest organisations concerned with internal EU labour migration, labour standards and living condition issues, may consider the social and humanitarian implications of persistent responsibility ambiguities.
Social implications
– The paper raises issues of informal work and forms of labour exploitation.
Originality/value
– The paper provides deeper insight into the societal nexus in which a “hard-to-reach group” of seasonal workers faces potential and actual exploitation.
Adult education and its teachers have an important role when it comes to providing knowledge that prepares asylum seekers for a potential life in a new country of residence. In this article we focus ...on the study circles organised by study associations and analyse the way study circle leaders (SCLs) mobilise their experience of migration in their work with asylum seekers. The article is based on interviews with SCLs and managers, who have been SCLs themselves, and by drawing on a social psychological approach, we analyse SCLs’ relational work with the participants. The analysis shows that SCLs’ migrant background is mobilised as a pedagogical resource and has a prominent influence on the relationship with the participants. However, the relationship is a balancing act, since there is a risk that the asymmetrical pedagogical relationship becomes more symmetrical and thus turns into friendship, guardianship and/or social work. (DIPF/Orig.)
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the capacities of social movement actors (SMAs) and interest groups to negotiate responsibility, heighten issues of accountability and ...earn legitimacy from authorities and the wider public for the plight of dis-privileged Roma migrant berry pickers in the Swedish labour market.
Design/methodology/approach
– The objective is guided by a multi-sited ethnographical approach to data collection and analysis, which theoretically anchors in social movement frame analysis.
Findings
– The paper proposes that SMAs, in the face of incapacities of state and industry parties, generate the potentiality to leverage immediate humanitarian distress experienced by the workers and to accentuate their political and public visibility.
Research limitations/implications
– Delimited by the internal organisational structure of a berry industry, partly operating behind informal employment schemes, future studies should devote closer attention in localising/identifying possible “back-stage” data-gathering settings.
Practical implications
– Policy-makers and special-interest organisations concerned with internal EU labour migration, labour standards and living condition issues, may consider the social and humanitarian implications of persistent responsibility ambiguities.
Social implications
– The paper raises issues of informal work and forms of labour exploitation.
Originality/value
– The paper provides deeper insight into the societal nexus in which a “hard-to-reach group” of seasonal workers faces potential and actual exploitation.
In times of market reforms and international migration, the Swedish welfare model has been seriously challenged. In the context of the arrival of refugees in 2015–2017, the state turned to civil ...society in facing up to the challenges. In this article, we direct our attention to the Workers’ Educational Association’s (ABF) state-funded work with refugees, with a specific focus on the activities conducted, the resources making them possible and the use-value of the resources mobilised. The article is based on observations and interviews with study circle leaders, managers and asylum seekers. The analysis illustrates that ABF, in line with its historical legacy, the broader workers’ movement, the strong notion of popular education as ‘free and voluntary’, has, with its well-established connections throughout the country, not solely taken on the task defined by the state. In solidarity, ABF has also responded to the needs of the refugees. As highlighted in the analysis, ABF has mobilized a wide range of resources, not least providing refugees with social networks and help in contacting the authorities. With such mobilization, opportunities were provided for the inclusion of refugees in Sweden.
Studien belyser utifrån ett arbetsmiljöperspektiv förändringar i lärarstudenters och universitetslärares arbetspraktiker under den oförutsedda övergången till distansutbildning. Studiens tematiska ...analys av kvalitativa enkäter förankras teoretiskt i Karaseks och Theorells (1990) tredimensionella modell bestående av komponenterna krav, kontroll och socialt stöd i det egna arbetet. Studien visar att övergången till distansundervisning har skapat svårigheter på grund av bristande kontroll över nya studie- och undervisningsrutiner samt minskad tillgång till olika former av kollegialt stöd. Deltagarna ser samtidigt vissa pedagogiska och effektiviseringsmässiga förtjänster med bruket av ny teknik. I båda grupperna poängteras därtill att tid sparas genom distansundervisningens frånvaro av resor och pauser på campus, vilket tycks minska kraven och öka kontrollen över arbetet. Svårigheten att väga dessa förtjänster och förluster mot varandra betonas i studien då positiva upplevelser av ökad arbetsflexibilitet kontrasteras av deltagarna med upplevelser av minskat stöd när campusstrukturen försvinner och ökade krav tillkommer i form av extraarbete, större ansvarstagande och ökad kognitiv arbetsbelastning. Studien fokuserar även distraktioner i hemmiljön och hur avsaknad av informella möten påverkar studiemotivationen och försämrar arbetsmiljön. I studien framhävs övergången till distansläge emellertid som en process där vissa studenter har utvecklat olika strategier för att öka kontrollen.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT
Remote Work Environment – A Qualitative Study of Teacher Students’ and University Teachers’ Experiences of Changed Educational Conditions During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The study illuminates, from a work environment perspective, changes in teacher students’ and university teachers’ work practices during emergency remote teaching. The study’s thematic analysis of qualitative surveys is theoretically grounded in Karasek and Theorell’s (1990) threedimensional model consisting of the components demands, control, and social support. The study reveals that the transition has led to a lack of control due to new routines and reduced access to collegial support. However, the participants also recognize certain educational and efficiency benefits with the use of new technologies and emphasize that time is saved through the absence of travel and breaks on campus, which appears to reduce demands and increase the control over work. Balancing these benefits and losses is difficult, as positive experiences of increased flexibility are contrasted with experiences of reduced support and increased demands in the form of extra work, greater responsibility, and increased cognitive workload. The study also focuses distractions within the home environment and how the absence of informal meetings affects study motivation and degrades the work environment. However, the study also illustrates the transition as a process where some students have developed strategies resulting in increased control.
Roma berry pickers in Sweden Mešić, Nedžad; Woolfson, Charles
Transfer (Brussels, Belgium),
02/2015, Letnik:
21, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
In the current era of austerity free movement of labour has produced an ongoing but also contingent flow of migrant labour, an austeriat, moving from poorer crisis-hit regions of Europe to those ...countries such as Sweden where the crisis has been less severe. This article describes the working and living experiences of Bulgarian Roma berry pickers in Sweden. It argues that, in the context of a previously well-regulated labour market, an erosion of labour standards based on the exploitation of seasonal unskilled labour migrants from Bulgaria is occurring in the Swedish berry industry, in turn posing challenges for labour market actors and regulatory authorities. The article concludes with a discussion of what might be appropriate European and national trade union responses to the issues of labour precariousness which have emerged.
PDF
