Provision of labour rights to migrant workers. (PROMI)

Migrants play an increasingly important role in the Norwegian labour market. At the same time, recent years have seen growing concern about how some groups of workers risk being exploited – whether through social dumping, wage theft and labour market crime, or, in the most severe cases, human trafficking. This research project examines the efforts of both public authorities and civil society actors to protect labour migrants from exploitation. A central focus is how different civil society organisations and government agencies cooperate to uncover and combat violations of labour regulations. Such cross-agency partnerships – where the police, labour inspectorate, tax authorities and others work together – are often highlighted as key to strengthening enforcement. To put the Norwegian model into perspective, the project also compares measures and experiences across the Nordic countries. This allows for an exploration of both similarities and differences in policy development, and how different countries balance the need for a flexible labour market with the imperative to safeguard workers’ rights. The project situates these developments within international human rights standards. Particular attention is paid to the UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families – the only one of the UN’s nine core conventions that Norway has yet to ratify. The key question is how this lack of ratification should be understood in light of Norway’s broader efforts, and what implications it may have for labour migrants’ rights in practice. Through analyses of political strategies, cross-agency cooperation, international frameworks, and migrants’ own narratives, the project aims to provide new insights into how Norway and the Nordic region address the challenge of ensuring decent working conditions for all.

In a global context of anxiety over labour market developments, crime and migration policies are becoming increasingly decisive for workers’ ability to organize and access decent working conditions. The relationship between immigration status and vulnerability for exploitation is perhaps most acute for irregular migrants, who often find themselves in informality/illegality or legal grey zones. At a national level, the issue of migrant workers’ labour rights straddles the concerns of offering protection from violence and exploitation, while at the same time protecting national labour markets and responding to sector-specific demands for cheap and flexible labour. Conflicting priorities often produce contradictory legal regimes, criminalizing the immediate perpetrators while simultaneously restricting avenues for legal immigration. This ignores the evidence that shutting down legal avenues serves to further exclude those who find themselves in an irregular situation, rendering them more vulnerable to exploitation. One of the major challenges associated with studies of the exploitation of migrant labour is the low level of conceptual clarity, combined with a high degree of political complexity and tension associated with the language used to speak about migrants’ rights. To overcome this challenge, PROMI applies an innovative interdisciplinary approach to the issue of policy formation and implementation, in which language, organisational development and the law become important objects of study. Empirically the project investigates policies against the exploitation of migrant workers in Norway. To put the Norwegian example in perspective, comparisons will be made with other Nordic countries. In addition, recent policy developments will be studied within a wider international human rights context, in particular The Migrant Workers Convention (CRMW).