Along the paths of berry pickers : ascertaining the roles and positions of seasonal migrant berry pickers in Sweden through Swedish media

Sammanfattning: Sweden is one of the northern European countries that receive seasonal migrant labour annually from Thai and free/tourist pickers for wild-berry picking in rural northern forests and lands of Sweden. Both Thai and free/tourist pickers are subjected to different irregularities and unfair labour conditions within the Swedish wild-berries industry. Swedish media is a platform which gives visibility to voices and the labour conditions of Thai and free/tourist pickers by reporting occurrences, dialogues, debates and ideas related to these pickers. This thesis analyses the roles and positions of the seasonal migrant berry pickers in Sweden while examining the plight of these pickers closely from the perspective of Swedish media. The data emanates from 100 media publications published under 22 media publication brands in Sweden. A theoretical framework which incorporates theories and concepts of world system theory, social capital, economic capital, cultural capital and critical discourse analysis is used in the analysis and discussion to understand the roles and positions of the berry pickers while answering the research questions of the study. The results show that both Thai and free/tourist pickers’ roles mainly involve being part of Sweden’s seasonal labour immigration, maximising the efficiency of wild-berry supply within the food system and increasing the financial gain of the Swedish wild-berry industry. The results also emphasise that Thai berry pickers occupy a low socio-economic position in their country of origin while I could not draw conclusions on the free/tourist pickers’ socio-economic position.