Preferenser och intressen hos Svenskt Näringsliv och Landsorganisationen om arbetskraftsinvandring under 2000-talets inledning

Abstract

Preferences and interests of SN and LO about labour migration in the early 2000s

The article uses a political economy approach to analyze the preferences of the social partners SN and LO and to identify the coincided and disparate interests which the two organizations tried to defend in relation to labour migration in the debate prior to the Swedish labour migration policy reform in 2008. In contrast to presumptions by Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) scholars,the results of this article reveal that SN has preferred a market-liberal labour migration policy regime at odds with institutional traditions of the Swedish labour market model. However, LO has instead preferred a state-coordinated and regulated labour migration policy regime. In contrast to SN, LO’s preferences reflected basic trade union interests to limit the supply of labour and to minimize potential negative effects for the functioning of the Swedish labour market model. Moreover, the article suggests the importance of changed power relations between the social partners and a shift of Swedish government to explain SN’s influence in the debate prior to the labour migration policy change 2008 in a market-liberal direction.