Photo: Swedish Civil Defence and Resilience Agency

Labor exploitation in advanced economies

In a new review article published in Sociology Compass, Lin Lerpold, Örjan Sjöberg, and Sven-Anders Stegare examine how forced labor and severe labor exploitation are not confined to global supply chains in the Global South. Instead, such practices are increasingly visible in high-income countries in the Global North.

While management research has traditionally focused on abuses in offshored production, this study highlights how sectors that cannot easily relocate - such as construction, agriculture, hospitality, and transportation - may rely on low-cost, precarious migrant labor. These patterns are shaped by corporate strategies, labor market segmentation, and migration regimes.

Sweden as a critical case

Using Sweden as a case, the authors explore a central paradox: how can a country with high levels of democracy, strong welfare protections, and low corruption nonetheless experience documented cases of labor exploitation and forced labor?

The article argues that exploitation should not be understood as an isolated corporate failure. Instead, it emerges from the interaction of institutional logics - including market pressures for cost efficiency, state migration policies, welfare arrangements, and human rights norms. In Sweden, employer-tied work permits, subcontracting chains, and a segmented labor market can reinforce precarious conditions, particularly for migrant workers.

Bridging management, sociology, and migration research

The review integrates management studies with sociological and migration perspectives. It draws on theories of institutional logics, labor market segmentation, intersectionality, and migration governance to explain how vulnerability is structurally produced.

The authors show that strong institutions alone do not eliminate exploitation. On the contrary, institutional arrangements may both mitigate and mask it. Addressing modern slavery therefore requires more than improved corporate compliance or supply-chain transparency. It calls for a broader rethinking of how business models, migration systems, and institutional frameworks interact.

For CMIR, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of how migration policy, labor market dynamics, and organizational practices intersect to shape inequality and precarity in advanced economies.

Read the full article here.