Varying perceptions of social dumping in similar countries

In the Nordic countries, the term ’social dumping’ has been intimately connected to the issue of labour migration since the 2004 EU-enlargement. However, what is understood by social dumping differs between countries and across time. Comparing the policy and discourse on social dumping in Norway and Denmark, the article focuses the ways at term like social dumping is gradually defined and redefined. It shows that even though Norway and Denmark have very similar labour market systems and have faced very similar challenges with regard to labour migration, they have diverged in the policies adopted and in the understanding of what should be perceived as social dumping. Drawing on Foucault the article therefore argues in the study of social dumping focus on the abnormal (understood as the strategies used by firms to undermine or circumvent social standards) and focus on the normalization efforts (understood as the efforts of authorities and trade unions to counter this circumvention) should be supplemented by studies of the normation process (understood as the process by which acceptable and unacceptable social standards is continuously defined).