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Abstract
This paper considers the cases of labour migration from Finland to Sweden and Finnish women workers in Swedish firms in Finland as small-scale examples to discuss three issues. Firstly, it assesses the usefulness of concepts derived from the historic Atlantic migration, such as the ‘friends and relatives effect’, the wage gap and ‘catching up’. Secondly, it examines the kind of migration pattern that materialised when traditional obstacles to migration were removed due to the short geographic distance and the open border between Finland and Sweden. Thirdly, it juxtaposes the cases of Finnish women working for Swedish textile and clothing companies relocated in Finland and those working at the same time in Sweden as immigrant labour. It is suggested that, with due modifications, these cases constituted an early example of women in offshore production in less-developed countries and the employment of immigrant women in more developed countries. The findings lend support to Sassen's call for examining immigrant labour in association with offshore labour. However, it is recommended that the voices of the female and male workers concerned should also be taken into consideration.
Notes
1. The Swedish firms investigated are as follows (the year of establishment in Finland in brackets): Mölnlycke (1966), Tell Bergman (1967), Skandinaviska Jute Åland (1968), Algots (1969), Collins Syfabriker (1967), Fix Svenska Trikå (1969), Gefa (1969), Janstorps Konfektion (1969), Mölnlycke's subsidiary Mölnteks (1970), and Abecita (1971).
2. Unless otherwise stated, the information on the individual enterprises is based on information retrieved from the Archives of Statistics Finland and Central Archives of the Bank of Finland.