In Europe as on other continents, there is today a growing number of undocumented migrants seeking incomes for themselves and their families, through their remittances also contributing to the national economies of their countries of origin. Undocumented workers play an important economic role in the migrant receiving countries as well, since their cheap and flexible labour is in high demand in various sectors. The last few years, the presence of undocumented migrants has been increasingly debated also in Sweden, commonly addressing their position without rights in Swedish society.

The aim of this project has been to provide an anthropological analysis of how the presence of undocumented migrants in a nation-state brings out the conflict between on the one hand, principles of state sovereignty, citizenship and the formation of demos and, on the other, the notion of universal principles of human rights and political participation. This was addressed by focusing on how undocumented migrants address their formal exclusion from three central dimensions of citizenship (see below). The project’s empirical focus was on undocumented labor migrants from Latin American countries, living and working in the Stockholm region in Sweden.

RESULTS
ONE. The ability for undocumented migrants to address and counter their formal exclusion from citizenship in Sweden is highly dependent on their degree of vulnerability to attempts at abusing their lack of legal status in the country.  This vulnerability was found to have two central components: the risk for deportation and the consequences such deportation would have, and the migrant’s access to networks in the host country to provide means for orientation.
Undocumented migrants from Latin America, my study showed, have a less vulnerable position in Sweden than many other undocumented migrants, which enables them to some extent to counter abuse and their exclusion from citizenship. Deportation will for most Latin Americans not threaten their physical safety. This enables them therefore to include a “return” as possible solution when facing too dismal salary offers and hence to reject such options. Furthermore, Latin American undocumented migrants commonly rapidly evolve an extensive network with other Latin Americans in Sweden, both persons with irregular and regularized status, through which they commonly find tools to address, and counter, their vulnerable position. As a result, and in comparison with most other undocumented migrants working in Sweden as documented in research, reports etc, the Latin American migrants focused upon in this project generally received considerably higher salaries for their jobs, had somewhat better working conditions, and were able to find better living accommodations.

TWO. With help from the tools reducing their vulnerability in Sweden, the Latin American migrants focused upon in this project addressed their formal exclusion from the three central dimensions of citizenship in the following ways:
a) The exclusion from citizen rights: As undocumented migrants, they formally hold very few rights in Sweden. However, through their network, they gradually increase their knowledge about Swedish salary levels and other regulations, and Swedish society in general, which enables them to navigate between different employment offers and calculate what are worthwhile endurances. Through the same networks, they find employers who speak Spanish and are willing to employ undocumented Latin Americans.  Furthermore, many of the migrants I met had some knowledge of labor rights and union work from home, and several had a relatively high educational background. With this toolset, they were able to some degree to counter their rightless position, and find better salaries and living conditions than many other undocumented in the country. Furthermore, for a period, a large number of Latin American undocumented joined a labor union to press claims for certain rights vis-à-vis employers (see result 3).
b) The exclusion from demos, a self-ruling political community:  I found generally little interest among Latin American undocumented to influence the politics of Sweden. However, I found a definite concern to have political influence on specific matters that directly affected their lives, which for some years had the concrete demonstration in the union the Register, whereby principally Latin American undocumented migrants manifested themselves as political subjects pertaining to a demos (see result 3).
c) The exclusion from ethnos, a community of shared fate, memories, and moral sympathies: As migrants from Latin America, the persons focused upon in this study did usually not experience daily exclusionary practices from national citizens; they were probably generally considered fairly “similar” to the majority population concerning notions of both race and religion. However, most had few or no Swedish friends, and spoke only little Swedish. Instead, most had a rather vast network of acquaintances within the Latin American diaspora in Sweden, and sometimes, when they had time and energy, participated in church ceremonies, football tournaments or festivities within this diaspora. The Latin American diaspora was however usually regarded with dubious eyes, as it held both supportive and exploitative tendencies; most of their employers were Latin Americans, and some highly abusive.

THREE. In contrast to (most) citizens of the country, undocumented labor migrants from Latin America challenged the notion of the sovereign nation-state as the central unit for reference. In their strivings to find jobs and incomes, they moved and made strategies rather independently from the Swedish state, which mattered little to them. Instead, their fundamental unit for reference was the employer, with whom they had to enter a relationship on highly unequal terms and from whom they encountered frequent abuse. When these migrants presented claims for rights, it was demands that their employers adhere to certain rules, such as respecting initially agreed upon salary levels, certain working conditions regarding safety, etc. Such claims were particularly articulated and enacted within the union the Register, part of the syndicalist trade union federation SAC, which existed 2007-2013 and organized principally undocumented migrants within the Stockholm region, the majority from Latin American countries. I followed the work of the Register in 2011-12, and could conclude that the union was remarkably successful in its claims on and negotiations with employers.
Importantly, this organization by undocumented labor migrants manifested a demos irrespective of the demos defined and legitimized by the nation-state. Through this demos they demanded rights outside the realm of citizenship; rights pertaining to their status as employees in the country, and of the employers to adhere to these rights, and they won – limited and highly temporary – successes in their demands. Thereby, the migrants contested the supreme sovereignty of nation-states to delimit who will carry the legitimacy to claim the enactment of rights, whether considered universal human rights or rights contained within the particular citizenship.

NEW RESEARCH ISSUES
The present project has come to highlight the conflictive relation between irregular labor migrants and Swedish labor unions. Most Swedish unions have strongly resisted to acknowledge undocumented labor migrants as legitimate subjects for union organization and support, defending the same exclusionary boundaries that are exerted by nation-state regimes. However, the union the Register within SAC, addressed in this study, the creation of the Swedish Trade Union Center for Undocumented Migrants, and the recent opening for membership for undocumented migrants in some unions, may indicate that these positions are under change. To follow and analyze this development would provide pertinent questions on not only the future role of undocumented migrants as political subjects, but also on the continued relevance of citizenship and legal status as defining the subjects for union mobilization.

INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE
In August 2016, I participated with a paper at the 18th Nordic Migration Conference in Oslo. Because of health problems prohibiting me to fly by air I have not been able to go more distant international conferences. However, I have benefited greatly from being part of the Swedish Irregular migrants and irregular migration network.

RESEARCH INFORMATION OUTSIDE ACADEMIA
June 9-10, 2015, I held the presentation “Living without Rights: Undocumented Migrants and the Boundaries of Citizenship” at the workshop “Researching the History of the Informal Sector. Methodological Challenges and Opportunities” in Stockholm, organized by the Labour Movement Archives and Library.
May 10, 2016, I held the presentation “To live without rights – On undocumented labor migrants from Latin America: How (and may?) irregular migrants become social and political participants in Swedish society”, at Stockholm University. The presentation was part of the open public seminar series “Sweden, migration and refugees – a series in seven part”, organized by the Department of Social Anthropology.
Oct 3, 2016, I participated in a debate article in Svenska Dagbladet together with a number of other researchers in the country, addressing the government’s measures to find and deport undocumented migrants and the concerns we had with several of these.

MAJOR PUBLICATIONS
So far, only one of my texts has reached publication:"Papperslösa arbetare och möjligheterna för facklig organisering,” in the 2016 volume “Irreguljär migration i Sverige: Rättigheter, vardagserfarenheter, motstånd och statliga kategoriseringar.”

STRATEGY FOR PUBLICATION
I am presently completing three articles for publication in international peer-reviewed journals, addressing the results outlined above:
- “Irregular migrant workers and national labor unions: An uneasy relation.” Based on my paper presented at the 18th Nordic Migration Conference in Oslo, 2016.
- “The role of diasporic networks for irregular migrant workers: Networks of support, exploitation and mobilization.” Based on my paper presented at the conference “Diaspora: A one-day conference on a travelling concept” at Stockholm University, 2015.
- “Irregular labor migrants and the demand for rights outside of citizenship.” Based on my paper prepared for IMISCOE 10th Annual Conference “Crisis and Migration: Perceptions, Challenges and Consequences” in Malmö, 2013.

The project will investigate to what extent undocumented migrants, in spite of their condition of exposed vulnerability, wish and are able to create spheres through which they constitute themselves as social and political participants in a Swedish society of which they are de-facto members but formally excluded from.

The study will be based on fieldwork among migrants from Latin America residing in the Stockholm region.