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Blueberries of Wrath : An examination of the complexity in the Swedish berry industry

In the early 21st Century Sweden’s daily press was full of articles of Asian migrant workers that was picking berries in the north of the country. It was reported that the pickers was exploited by the industry and that it was complete chaos in the berry forests and that no one wanted to take responsible for the situation. As one measurement the Swedish Board of Migration adopted guidelines of how to import work force. The guidelines had a positive effect. The guidelines, however, also created a new problem a now shifted focus to another group of pickers: migrant workers from poor member-states of the European Union. This research partly aims to find out who is the responsible for the situation and who can do something that can improve the situation. Further, the research aim to find out why so many Easter European chose Sweden as country to work in, and then if the Swedish Board of Migrations guidelines actual effect of the migration flow. As a part of a solution for the berry pickers a few organization stands out, namely the ones that a company can use to clean their name with if they connect themselves to. This research then also aim to understand to find out if those organizations can make a positive impact of the situation. Mainly daily press has been used as the main source to create a framework over the situation. The analysis is made from the statements found in the large share of different sources available, but also through Swedish rules, politicians and the workers and theories of migration. In order to put the situation in Sweden in a larger context, a comparison with Austria is made. The final conclusion of the research is somehow devastating. There is still a hassle to understand who can be put in charge of the wheel, but the aftermath is that in the end the actor with most power in the industry might be the consumer of the berries.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-31376
Date January 2013
CreatorsWimby Schmidt, Johanna
PublisherLinnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för samhällsstudier (SS)
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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