Veiled Muslim women´s position and situation in the Swedish labor market: A socio-legal study on potential marginalizing structures within the Swedish labor market, and the role of law in facilitating the continued reproduction of these

Abstract: Previous research illustrates that Muslim minorities struggle to establish themselves in the European labor market. Veiled Muslim women appear to be a particularly disadvantaged group. Research regarding veiled Muslim women’s position and situation in the Swedish labor market is almost nonexistent. This study attempted to fill this knowledge gap. The aim of the study was to examine how veiled Muslim women’s situation and position in the Swedish labor market is perceived, both by Swedish employment agency officers as well as by veiled Muslim women themselves. The aim of the study was also to illuminate the potential structural consequences of the justifications for differential treatment provided by chapter 2, section 2 of the Swedish discrimination act. The empirical material consists of five interviews with Swedish employment agency officers and six interviews with veiled Muslim women. Several of the interviewed veiled Muslim women expressed that they, due to their ethnic origin and the veil had experienced negative treatment, either by employers or by colleagues, bosses, or clients. Their representations of their position and situation in the Swedish labor market indicates that their religious identity, as well as their ethnicity, potentially affect how others treat them within the field. Moreover,their experiences indicate that Swedishness is a crucial symbolic capital in the field of the Swedish labor market. The results suggest that the Swedish discrimination act lacks in normative power and is insufficient to protect veiled Muslim women from discrimination and harassment in the labor market. The representations of both veiled Muslim women and Swedish employment agency officers contain signs of symbolic violence, by which potentially marginalizing structures within the field of the Swedish labor market are concealed, naturalized, and reproduced. The results suggest that the Swedish discrimination act lacks in normative power and is insufficient to protect veiled Muslim women from discrimination and harassment in the labor market.