Strategic silences for normative work: Inclusions and exclusions of migrant labour in policy foregrounding of the Swedish gig economy

Abstract

Migrants constitute a sizable portion of vulnerable workers in digitally-mediated work, particularly in the gig economy. They face wide-scale labour exploitation as well as exclusions and further marginalization from existing labour markets and welfare systems. Policy intervention is a focal point of debate in the expanding gig economy literature. In Nordic countries, it is often assumed the welfare state will regulate the gig economy, but due to ambiguous understandings of what the gig economy is, debates are focused on topics such as taxation, often downplaying complexities. This study aims to explore how strategic silences towards migration underpin policy narratives relating to the foregrounding of gig economy in welfare contexts, specifically Sweden. Our approach highlights silence as an agentic and strategic process. Based on twenty-three selected Swedish Government Official Reports (SOU series) issued between 2016 and 2022, we first mapped the main themes regarding the gig economy in the Swedish policy arena. We show the Swedish state is shifting to recognize migrants and the gig/platform economy, but the role of structural inequalities remains ambiguous. We further critically analyzed contents of ten reports and show silence is strategic in two ways: first maintaining normative work forms as the key interest of the state and second, positioning precarious migrant labour as a sphere of exclusion. This study provides new perspectives and insights into the governance of the gig economy by highlighting the role of strategic production of silences regarding structural inequalities and the tensions within welfare-labour relations.