Is there any criminal law protection for exploited migrant workers in Sweden? Logics of criminal law and the labour migration regime

The exploitation of migrant workers is widespread in the Nordic countries in labour intensive sectors. This article investigates whether there is any criminal law protection in practice for exploited migrant workers in Sweden. On the basis of descriptive statistics regarding the outcomes of criminal investigations on human trafficking for forced labour and on human exploitation for forced labour and work under unreasonable conditions, we show that migrant workers enjoy very limited protection in the current practice of criminal law viewed in terms of prosecutions and convictions. Using this as a point of departure we also ask how we might understand the (low) level of criminal law protection for exploited migrant workers. We contextualise the statistics on the basis of an analysis of composite cases based on police investigations and of interviews with police officers and prosecutors. Inspired by an institutional logics perspective, the paper discusses how two separate logics, namely the logics of criminal law and of the labour migration regime, can together provide an understanding of the (low) level of criminal law protection for exploited migrant workers.