Abstract

This project explores the temporal and spatial reconfiguration of contemporary borders as they govern the international mobility of different shades of migrant labour. It aims to provide a better understanding of how contemporary political borders regulate migrant mobility. It also explores consequences of migrant statuses that leave labour migrants partly on the ‘inside’ and partly on the ‘outside’ of the rights, protections and benefits enjoyed by settled citizens. The research methods are qualitative and include policy analysis and around 100 semi-structured interviews with highly skilled professionals and lower skilled workers, employers, trade unions, and policy makers.

Funding

Swedish Research Council grant 2013-46339-107809-35

Researchers

Linn Axelsson (PI)

Publications

  • Allen, John and Linn Axelsson (2019), Border topologies: The time-spaces of labour migrant regulation. Political Geography 72, 116-123.
  • Axelsson, Linn (2018) Om väntan: IT-företags och dataspecialisters erfarenheter av svensk migrationspolitik och praktik. In: Povrzanović Frykman, M. och M. Öhlander (red.), Högutbildade migranter i Sverige. Lund: Arkiv förlag & tidskrift.
  • Axelsson, Linn and Charlotta Hedberg (2018), Emerging topologies of transnational employment: ‘Posting’ Thai workers in Sweden’s wild berry industry beyond regulatory reach. Geoforum 89, 1-10. 
  • Axelsson, Linn (2017), Living within temporally thick borders: IT professionals’ experiences of Swedish immigration policy and practice. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 43(6), 974-990.
  • Axelsson Linn, Malmberg, Bo and Qian Zhang (2017), On waiting, work-time and imagined futures: Theorizing temporal precariousness among Chinese chefs in Sweden’s restaurant industry. Geoforum 78, 169-178.

Presentations

  • Bordering on the temporal: Fast and slow routes through Sweden’s labour mobility regime, 19th Nordic Migration Research Conference, Linköping University, Sweden, August 2018.
  • Border topologies: The time-spaces of labour migrant regulation, 19th Nordic Migration Research Conference, Linköping University, Sweden, August 2018.
  • Emerging topologies of transnational employment: ‘Posting’ Thai workers in Sweden’s wild berry industry beyond regulatory reach, International Migration Institute, University of Oxford, May 2017 and the Nordic Geographer’s Meeting, Stockholm University, June 2017. 
  • Transnational migration management: The Thai-Swedish case, the 1st International Conference on Geographies of Migration and Mobility, Loughborough University, July 2016. 
  • Living inside temporally thick borders: IT-professionals’ experiences of Swedish immigration policy and practice, the Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, San Francisco, April 2016.
  • “It feels like a prison”: IT professionals’ experiences of Swedish immigration policy and practice, Unravelling the Talent Tale: Skilled Migration Policies between National Images, Faculty of Social Sciences Migration Research Group and Sheffield Centre for International and European Law, University of Sheffield, September 2015. 
  • On tempos, work time and imagined futures: Theorising the times and temporalities of precarity among Chinese chefs in the Swedish restaurant industry, Transnational Migration and Global Work, Stockholm University, March 2014 and the Third Annual Conference of Amsterdam Centre for Global Studies, University of Amsterdam, December 2016.