Human rights due diligence and financial sector investment decisions: Protecting migrant workers?
Banks and investors can influence working conditions far beyond the financial sector itself. This project examines whether human rights due diligence in investment decisions can help protect migrant workers from exploitation and forced labor, particularly in property development and construction.
Photo by Eric Wang on Unsplash
Project abstract
This research project explores human rights due diligence as practiced within the banking sector and how due diligence is integrated into a bank’s investment strategies.
Specifically, the purpose is to understand how financial market actors can mitigate the risks of exploitative labour practices, including relying on forced labour, in activities within which investments are made.
Hence, the project sets out to investigate how a bank’s policies and practices may impact those at risk of being exploited. As those at risk to a large extent are posted workers and above all third-country nationals recruited for work in industries the production of which cannot easily be off-shored, property development and building construction are of particular relevance.
Funding
This project is connected to the Sustainable Finance Lab, partially funded by Vinnova, grants 2020-04660 and 2025-04681 and the Asylum, migration- and integration fund (AMIF, cofunded by the EU) grant 20373329.