Mimicry and Mobility: Exploring the Policy Travel of Work-Related Crime from Norway to Sweden

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Abstract

This article examines the transnational transfer and adaptation of the concept of work-related crime (WRC) in the Nordic context. It focuses on the adoption of WRC by Swedish policymakers, following the introduction of the concept in Norway during the 2010s. Employing the literature on policy mobility as a theoretical lens, the article discusses how WRC, promoted by Norway, has been mimicked by Sweden in times of policy-related uncertainty and ambiguity. Mapping out how policy has been assembled in the late 2010s and early 2020s, the article shows that Swedish WRC policy is characterized by a discursive flexibility, allowing it to capture an array of policy issues and appeal to a political majority. Moreover, it is argued that this flexibility is what allows WRC to travel across domestic borders, as it enables the issue of labor exploitation to become embedded within existing policy areas – in this case, in the intersections between migration, crime, and labor policy.

Authors

• Elin Jönsson, Department of Criminology, Stockholm University

• Isabel Schoultz, Lund University

• Synnøve Ø. Jahnsen, The Fafo Institute for Labour and Social Research