“The Most Open System Among OECD Countries”: Swedish regulation of labour migration

The Swedish legislation on labour migration came into force in 2008, inspired by recommendations of the European Commission. In the regulation, there is a conflict between an employer-governed labour migration with a simplified procedure and protective aims like equal treatment with workers in the country or protection against unemployment. In this article, the author investigates how these aims are balanced against each other, in the regulation, in the regulatory guidelines to migration authorities, in the practical application and in the recent transposition of European Union directives. The author also discusses the consequences of this with regard to the power relation between the employer and the employees.