Labour exploitation and work-related crime

This article explores the emergence of the term ‘work-related crime’ and its increased prominence in Norwegian public discourse. Analysing newspaper content from the years 2000–2023, the study combines quantitative and qualitative approaches to media analysis to study how this novel concept relates to previously established discourses on labour exploitation of migrant workers. Drawing on Bacchi’s ‘What is the Problem Represented to be’ (WPR) approach, the article identifies four typical media representations of work-related crime in which discourses on organised and economic crime relate to claims about changing labour market relations and victimisation. By shedding light on these critical issues, the study seeks to deepen our understanding of the ways media discourse represents the issue of migrant workers’ rights in a Nordic context.