In its preamble, the 1919 International Labour Organization Convention aims at improving the conditions of workers everywhere in the world.369 It states that universal and lasting world peace based on social justice can be achieved by eliminating conditions of labour that involve injustice, hardship and privation, seen as the root cause of unrest that imperiled peace and harmony.370 Trade unions are stronger entities in the Nordics than in many other democracies, and membership is a social right.Since their birth, unions have yearned for
collective action by wage-earners to increase their power in cases of dispute with employers, the
‘juristic persons’ or corporate actors who own capital and other means of production.371 When strongly organized wage-earners meet equally and efficiently organized employers to negotiate what is ‘just’, ‘fair’ or ‘reasonable’ vis-à-vis other groups of citizens, the weaker and
unorganized usually suffer the consequences. ‘Weak groups often accept, or are taught to accept, circumstances which stronger groups would consider unjust, and strong actors also tend to develop more long-range definitions of their interests than weaker groups.’372
Trade unions meanwhile tend to take protectionist attitudes towards immigration, except in targeted sectors with demonstrable shortages. Following Freeman’s ‘Modes’, trade unions tolerate immigration that is complementary to national labour and oppose immigration that substitutes it.373
By collating the aims and objectives of the Nordic trade unions and those of the strong, pro-labour rights political parties and unionized employers, the Model should have developed and sustained itself as a compromise between the three.374 The Model may, in addition, be aiming at weakening or moderating wage-earners’ dependence on the employment opportunities provided by organized employers. The provision of extensive social services, for example, may
369 C Tomuschat, Human Rights: Between Idealism and Realism (2nd Collected Courses of Academy of European Law Vol XIII/1 OUP 2003) 20.
370 For additional roles of trade unions, at least in Anglo-American countries, see Harry Arthurs, ‘Labour Law After Labour’ in G Davidov and B Langille (eds), The Idea of Labour Law (OUP 2011) 13, 13-14.
371 W Korpi ibid, 347, 357.
372 Ibid.
373GP Freeman 1995.
374 Examples: The Confederation of Norwegian Enterprises (‘Næringslivets Hovedorganisasjon’, NHO), the Confederation of Swedish Enterprises (‘Svenskt Näringsliv’), Confederation of Danish Employers (‘Dansk Arbejdsgiverforening’, DA), and ‘Confederation of Finnish Industries’ (EK).
be to a larger extent intended at the emancipation of individuals from market dependence, thus the de-commodification of some goods and services.375 In the Nordics, ‘pre-industrial modes of social production’, for example, ‘family, the church, noblesse oblige, and guild solidarity’ are no longer functional because of ‘social mobility, urbanization, individualism, and market
dependence’.376
These circumstances create unique challenges for resettled refugees given all their initial vulnerabilities. The Model universally protects citizens but might also be permanently locking out those without access to the labour market, weaker groups in general, and resettlement refugees in particular. It creates dependence and addiction by providing the minimum and not guiding its clients to provide themselves with this, even when they are capable. This could be one of its unintended consequences: power as a resource becomes more unevenly distributed.
Together with other weak and marginalized groups in any society that depend on welfare benefits, resettlement refugees have no command over the arena of resources including money, property, knowledge, psychic and physical energy, social relations and security, even when they do their best.377
In the industrialized Nordic countries, and indeed in many other countries, access to society’s resources which individuals have control over is mainly through employment.
Resources can be economic or a professional background that can influence access to other social goods like influence and prestige.378 Individual control over resources is important
because individuals are active beings, can control and purposely direct their living conditions and therefore should not be treated as passive beings whose needs are ‘assured by the flow of goods
375 E-A Gösta, ‘The Three Political Economies of the Welfare State’, ‘Decommodification in Social Policy’ and
‘The Welfare State as a System of Stratification’ in L Liebfried and S Mau, eds. Welfare States: Construction, Deconstruction, Reconstruction, Analytical Approach, Vol 2 (Edward Elgar Publishing 2008) 3.
376 Ibid 7.
377R Erikson and H Uusitalo ‘The Scandinavian Approach to Welfare Research’ in R Erikson et al. (eds) The Scandinavian Model: Welfare States and Welfare Research (M.E. Sharpe 1987) 189.
378 Sosialdepartmentet, ‘Flyktningers tilpasning til det norske samfunn’ (NOU1986:8, Desember 1985) (‘Official Norwgian Reports, NOU 1986: 8’), 18. See complete report in Norwegian, Sosialdepartementet, ‘Flyktningers tilpasning til det norske samfunn: en utredning etter oppdrag fra Sosialdepartementet avgitt i desember 1985’
(Universitetsforlaget 1985) (Norway, Ministry of Social Affairs, ‘Refugees’ adaptation to the Norwegian Society, a study commissioned by the Ministry of Social Affairs released in December 1985’, University Publisher 1985).
and services’.379 But because of the powerlessness of the recipients of welfare benefits, the Model keeps providing minimum resources that keep them alive but can become a morass and from which escape is not easy for resettlement refugees.
For Torben et al., the Model succeeded because the population was small and ethnically homogenous.380 Because of this ethnic and religious homogeneity, trust developed and this resulted in improvement and efficiency due to coordinated action. The labour market was at one time closed, but as time progressed, the Nordic countries opened their labour market to
globalized labour and the result was higher productivity and income, Torben et al. noted. But when refugees or immigrants join the Nordics as a community, it becomes heterogeneous in religion and ethnicity. This ‘increased openness, therefore, gives rise to fear among workers as well as resistance by trade unions and political decision-makers’.381 The potential for a class-based feeling of solidarity may be constrained by heterogeneity that may eventually erode redistribution from welfare, as in the case of the USA.382 Again, there is an assumption that individuals belonging to the same group generally support each other. Norms of social justice and solidarity can be complicated by people from outside the group.383 Locking refugees out of the labour market, and giving them minimal support while blaming them for all life’s
uncertainties, could be a logical decision.
Currently the Nordic labour market is characterized by inter alia, high unionization, highly coordinated wage bargaining geared to wage compression, and active labour market policies.384 A 2013 study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) found that the Nordic countries were the most unionized.385 In Finland and Denmark, as
379 R Erikson and H Uusitalo ibid (n 377). It should be noted that the definition of content of welfare is left to the individual person.
380 AM Torben et al., The Nordic Model: Embracing globalization and sharing risks (The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy, ETLA, Helsinki 2007), 39; Koikalainen et al., Welfare or Work: Migrants’ Selective Integration in Finland (University of Lapland Finland 2011).
381 AM Torben et al. ibid 31.
382 AW Schmidt and DC Spies, ‘Do Parties ''Playing the Race Card'' Undermine Natives' Support for Redistribution?
Evidence from Europe’ (2014) 47 (4) Comparative Political Studies 1.
383 Ibid.
384 AM Torben et al. ibid 40.
385 K Nergaard, ‘Antall fagorganiserte og organisasjonsgrad i Norge’ (Number and Degree of Organization of Trade Unions in Norway) (FAFO, 12 May 2017)
<www.arbeidslivet.no/Lonn/Fagorganisering/Antall-fagorganiserte-og-organisasjonsgrad-i-Norge/> accessed 5 February 2016.
many as 69 per cent of workers were unionized, closely followed by Sweden (68 per cent) and Norway (55 per cent). The corresponding percentages elsewhere were Canada 27, Australia 18, USA 11 and France 8.386 Analysis reveals inter-sectoral differences: for example, 81 per cent of public sector employees in Norway are organized, compared with only to 23 per cent in
commerce and trade.387 Managers and academics were the most organized professions, with 64 per cent of workers unionized, while jobs requiring less education (in commerce and trade) were only 38 per cent unionized. Resettlement refugees can end up paying the price, facing long periods - or even their entire lives - unemployed. In general, the more professional and organized the employees, the harder it is for immigrants and refugees to penetrate that particular sector.
Becoming a manager could be many times harder than working at supermarket tills, for instance.