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Otherness in the Workplace among Highly Skilled Labour Migrants: Swedes in Germany and the UK

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  • Ylva Wallinder

Abstract

The conditions for intra-European labour mobility have changed significantly during recent decades, mainly due to the European Single Market. Despite this, internationally mobile and highly skilled intra-EU migrants from West to West have not received enough attention in the sociology of work. The present article focuses on highly skilled labour migrants with a university degree from Sweden, currently working in Germany or the UK. Swedish migrants feel they challenge specific norms related to hierarchies in the workplace, behaving according to their own ‘taken-for-granted’ norms concerning the ways in which work is organized and tasks are assigned. Their privileged position as educated Swedish migrants is an important part of their self-image and enables them to challenge norms. Furthermore, they also deal with self-perceived otherness while making sense of their experiences of contradictions and norm-breaking. The findings highlight their self-definitions, according to which they are simultaneously (by default) insiders and/or (superior) outsiders.

Suggested Citation

  • Ylva Wallinder, 2022. "Otherness in the Workplace among Highly Skilled Labour Migrants: Swedes in Germany and the UK," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 36(2), pages 253-270, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:36:y:2022:i:2:p:253-270
    DOI: 10.1177/09500170211024444
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