Workforce migration and the Swedish textile industry: a seminar organized by theNordic
Labour History Network
Tuesday, November 15, at 15:00-16:00
Online (
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89551829014, no registration needed)
Migration at the multi-level intersection of industrial relations: the Schleswig-Holstein
Campaign and the Swedish garment industry in the early 1950s
During the so-called Schleswig-Holstein campaign, about 800 – mostly female – young
Germans arrived in Sweden in 1950–1951. The campaign was a German initiative, emphasising
vocational training for young and unemployed refugees and expellees, even though it ended
up in a more pragmatic labour recruitment. In his research, economic historian Johan
Svanberg investigates the international relationship between West German and Swedish
labour-market authorities, by concentrating on industrial relations in the Swedish garment
industry and focusing on the streamlined clothing factory Algots in Borås. He analyzes the
mutual interplay between migration and industrial relations and clarifies how industrial
relations on different levels of society intersected and reciprocally moulded a framework
for the actors involved in the migration process. Svanberg illuminates how the campaign
affected the industrial relations and observes to what extent perceptions of gender, age,
ethnicity, and class among the actors involved influenced their argumentation and agency.
Presenter: Johan Svanberg, Stockholm University
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