Constructions of migrant victims of labor exploitation in Nordic court cases
| Published date | 01 May 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/02697580231174912 |
| Author | Isabel Schoultz,Marlene Spanger,Anniina Jokinen,Synnøve Økland Jahnsen,Heraclitos Muhire,Anna-Greta Pekkarinen |
| Date | 01 May 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/02697580231174912
International Review of Victimology
2024, Vol. 30(2) 261 –281
© The Author(s) 2023
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DOI: 10.1177/02697580231174912
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Constructions of migrant victims
of labor exploitation in Nordic
court cases
Isabel Schoultz
Lund University, Sweden
Marlene Spanger
Aalborg Universitet, Denmark
Anniina Jokinen
HEUNI, Finland
Synnøve Økland Jahnsen
Fafo Institutt for arbeidslivs-og velferdsforskning, Norway
Heraclitos Muhire
Lund University, Sweden
Anna-Greta Pekkarinen
HEUNI, Finland
Abstract
The aim of this article is to explore how courts produce certain representations of victims of labor
exploitation in the Nordic context based on court judgments from Denmark, Finland, Norway,
and Sweden. To achieve this, we analyze and compare criminal court judgments focused on the
exploitation of migrant workers by asking: How are ‘victims’ of labor exploitation represented
in Nordic court judgments? What is left unproblematic and silenced? In each country, we have
identified criminal court cases that have legally examined aspects of the exploitation of migrant
workers, in total, 91 court judgments. Drawing on Bacchi’s ‘What’s the problem represented
to be?’ (WPR) approach, we can show that the representations of victims apparent in the court
judgments involve a legal construction of vulnerability that is reserved for the most marginalized
migrant workers. The narrow representation silences the broader socio-economic context in
which migrant workers exist. Our results also indicate that the threshold for being defined as
Corresponding author:
Isabel Schoultz, Department of Sociology of Law, Lund University, SE- Box 42, 221 00 Lund, Sweden.
Email: isabel.schoultz@soclaw.lu.se
1174912IRV0010.1177/02697580231174912International Review of VictimologySchoultz et al.
research-article2023
Article
262 International Review of Victimology 30(2)
a victim of labor exploitation is lower in some of the Nordic countries and higher in others.
Thus, while there is a normative consensus that the exploitation of migrant workers should
be prosecuted, in practice, the court judgments reflect substantial differences in the legal
interpretations applied across the Nordic countries.
Keywords
Labor exploitation, victims, problem representations, forced labor, trafficking, court cases
Migrant workers are an important source of labor for several sectors in the Nordic countries. At the
same time, work has become more insecure, temporary and flexible, affecting the low-skilled and
low-paid sectors in which many migrants work (Doellgast et al., 2018). Global economic processes
have created a ‘segmented labor market’ structured by gender, citizenship and ethnicity (Likic-
Brboric et al., 2013). While the Nordic countries are well known for their welfare systems, equal-
ity, and good working conditions, current research shows that migrant workers are exploited in
these countries in labor-intensive sectors, such as construction, services, logistics and transport,
and horticulture and agriculture (Ollus, 2016; Ollus and Jokinen, 2013; Spanger and Hvalkof,
2020; Woolfson et al., 2012).
Labor exploitation can be conceptualized as existing along a continuum, ranging from serious,
criminalized practices, such as trafficking, to less severe forms of exploitation and violations of
labor law (Andrees, 2008; Ollus, 2016; Skrivankova, 2010). Anti-trafficking laws, which include
labor trafficking, have existed in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden since the beginning of
the 2000s,1 and are based on the UN Palermo protocol (Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children). The criminalization of trafficking can be
understood as an example of a transnational legal order, which includes the interaction between
international and domestic criminal processes and the diagnostic struggles that shape the meaning
of legal norms (Aaronson and Shaffer, 2021). Although there might be a high degree of normative
consensus at the international level, as is the case regarding the criminalization of trafficking, there
may be discord in the interpretation and implementation of legal norms at the domestic level
(Aaronson and Shaffer, 2021). With regard to the Nordic countries, despite having similar legisla-
tion on human trafficking, there are significant cross-country differences in the number of both
court cases for trafficking for forced labor and convictions for other forms of exploitation focused
on migrant workers (such as usury and extortionate work discrimination2 in Finland and human
exploitation3 in Sweden) (Alvesalo-Kuusi et al., 2016; Ollus, 2016; Spanger and Hvalkof, 2021).
On the other hand, there are significant similarities. With the exception of Finland, there are
very few convictions overall in the Nordic countries for trafficking for forced labor as well as other
forms of labor exploitation.4 One reason for this may be that most anti-trafficking efforts have been
focused on women who are trafficked into prostitution (Skilbrei, 2012), thus neglecting the identi-
fication of victims of labor exploitation, who are predominantly men. Smiragina-Ingelström (2020)
argues that the invisibility of male victims stems from the way trafficking has been defined in law
and from the gendered ways in which victimhood is understood and experienced. Indeed, the con-
struction of ‘victims of trafficking’ often has a gendered dimension, viewing victims as ‘passive
and childlike, and therefore the agency involved in their mobility is underestimated’ (Skilbrei,
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