Purpose– Against a theoretical discussion of informalisation, the purpose of this paper is to trace wider commonalities and migratory interconnections that are leading to informalised or deteriorated employment conditions both East and West in the enlarged Europe. Design/methodology/approach– The paper examines the ways in which informalisation has come increasingly to typify employment relations both East and West via contrastive case studies from Sweden and Latvia. Findings– The paper illustrates how a growing tendency towards informalisation of work and economy comes about as a consequence of dual tendencies towards informalisation both “from above” and “from below”. Migrant labour has a part in this process, especially in the post-EU enlargement period, increasingly enabling free movement of labour from the former socialist countries to the West. Research limitations/implications– The implications of the paper are that the harmonisation of labour standards in the enlarged EU is not necessarily in an upward direction and that wider EU labour markets may be increasingly segmented as processes of informalisation grow in scope. Practical implications– Policy-makers concerned with preserving labour standards and norms of decent work may consider the implications of the interconnected processes of informalisation and migration, in particular, with regard to “undeclared work”. Social implications– The paper raises issues concerning the European social model and its viability. Originality/value– The paper bridges research on informalisation of the economy and labour migration in the context of EU enlargement.

This article represents the analysis of the life history of one of the refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina who came to Sweden with Croatian passports and, as such, initially received a negative decision to her request for asylum, and then a temporary residence permission for a period of six months. The analysis covers three geographically and temporally separate phases of this refugee odyssey: life during the war and flight, then refugee life in Croatia, and finally refuge in Sweden. The main aims of this article are twofold. Firstly, it aims to show the way refugees themselves look at their refugee life and the role of the various macro-, mezzo- and micro-actors, who in every way influence their life. It also refers to the various strategies developed by refugees to cope with the situation in which all their expectations are crushed to pieces by the pragmatic political interests of the countries in which they seek asylum. Secondly, it tries to demonstrate all the possible strategies which the governments of Western Europe try to develop in “solving the refugee problems” in situations where the gulf between their humanitarian rhetoric and real pragmatic politics becomes uncomfortably deep.

This paper explores the largest steel producer in Bosnia and Herzegovina asit shifted from a state-owned company to a foreign-owned private company.The impact of the transition on industrial relations, effect of new managementon employment conditions within the company and the changing role of tradeunions is explored. The extent to which the findings can be considered a typicalconsequence of the inexorable encroachment of capitalism and privatisationacross Eastern Europe is considered. The paper commences with brief summaryof the historical and political context of the transitional economies. Thisis followed by a brief history of the steel industry in general, and in Yugoslaviaand Bosnia and Herzegovina in particular, detailing the main features of industrialrelations. The background to the specific case study is then presented,providing a short history of Mittal Steel and its restructuring challenges in thetransitional post-communist period. This provides the foundation for the analysis,which explores the impact of privatisation on industrial relations in thecompany, looking in particular at the effect of new management and its culture,and the concomitant effects on employment contracts, working conditions andthe changing role of trade unions. The paper concludes with a discussion of theextent to which the transformations can be explained by the various theories ofpost-communist capitalism.

This paper examines the current state of immigrant small business research (ISBR) in Sweden, discusses the main trends in the field and presents the key texts that represent these trends. It is noted that research in the 1990s was largely influenced by the current political agenda, while academic communication between Swedish and international ISBR on the one hand, and Swedish ISBR and Swedish ‘mainstream‘ small business research (SBR) on the other were conspicuous by their absence. Besides, only a few researchers in the field were able to conduct their research in asystematic manner or with stable and long-term funding of research teams. The situation has changed in the 2000s. This period was characterized by increased academic interest in immigrants’ small businesses. Researchers dealing with ISBR wanted to free themselves from the current political agenda as well as from the focus on domestic priorities in terms of research questions and methodology. This has resulted in a large number of published policy-critical texts. At the same time the research interest shifted towards the previously neglected aspects of immigrants’ small businesses, such as immigrant women in business, young immigrants and immigrant entrepreneurship in the high-tech sector. These studies were based both on ambitious quantitative survey and on refined qualitative micro-studies. This critical review concludes with the discussion of a possible future research agenda for ISBR.

Purpose – Against a theoretical discussion of informalisation, the purpose of this paper is to trace wider commonalities and migratory interconnections that are leading to informalised or deteriorated employment conditions both East and West in the enlarged Europe.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines the ways in which informalisation has come increasingly to typify employment relations both East and West via contrastive case studies from Sweden and Latvia.

Findings – The paper illustrates how a growing tendency towards informalisation of work and economy comes about as a consequence of dual tendencies towards informalisation both “from above” and “from below”. Migrant labour has a part in this process, especially in the post-EU enlargement period, increasingly enabling free movement of labour from the former socialist countries to the West.

Research limitations/implications – The implications of the paper are that the harmonisation of labour standards in the enlarged EU is not necessarily in an upward direction and that wider EU labour markets may be increasingly segmented as processes of informalisation grow in scope.

Practical implications – Policy-makers concerned with preserving labour standards and norms of decent work may consider the implications of the interconnected processes of informalisation and migration, in particular, with regard to “undeclared work”.

Social implications – The paper raises issues concerning the European social model and its viability.

Originality/value – The paper bridges research on informalisation of the economy and labour migration in the context of EU enlargement.

The article considers current policy trends and academic controversies related to qualitative data preservation and re-use. In the first part of the article, the epistemological/methodological, ethical/legal, ideological/political, and practical/technical aspects of the ongoing British debate about data archiving and re-use are presented and commented. In the second part, the Swedish case is briefly described and considered in light of the academic concerns that have been raised by the British debate. The situation in Sweden may be summarized in three points: First, there are many signs that the infrastructure for qualitative data archiving and re-use is being developed without the active participation of sufficient epresentatives of the qualitative research community; second, there are many signs that developing the infrastructure takes as a point of departure neo-positivistic or foundational epistemology, treating qualitative data in the same way as quantitative data, with all the methodological problems resulting from this; and third there are very few, if any, signs that serious academic debate has started in relation to all the issues that have been raised by the corresponding debate in Britain. 

During the past three decades, the traditional model of the welfare state in advanced economies has been replaced successively by the neo-liberal economic and political model. As a result, global labour markets today are extensively characterized by precariousness, instability, insecurity, vulnerability, risk and, of course, increased exploitation. However, these processes have not affected all segments of the population or all sectors of the economy equally severely. Some groups and individuals, and certain sectors, have been affected worse and earlier than others. This article attempts to demonstrate this through a case study of labour conditions in the London hotel industry in the mid-1980s. Using the author's personal experience as an empirical point of departure, the article demonstrates how the precarious nature of the work, ethnic segmentation and informal economic arrangements that dominated the London hotel industry at that time were early signs of what were going to become the key characteristics of most economic sectors not only in London and the United Kingdom, but - today - globally.