Browsing by Subject "Border enforcing"

In this thesis I examine the Finnish Border Guard’s (FBG) institutional understandings about migrant sex work and it’s policing. Through stating that the entry of a non-EU/EFTA citizen may be denied at the borders if there is a reason to suspect them of selling sexual services, the Finnish Aliens Act 148 § gives the FBG a role in policing migrant sex work at the national borders. As the law attributes the border enforcing officials with considerable discretionary power while no public information is available about the implementation of the law, the FBG’s institutional conceptions about the law and its implementation become objects of research. With an interview data consisting of four interviews with FBG officials working in superior positions, I present an analysis of the institutional understandings that guide the interpretation of the law. I use a combination of content analysis and frame analysis to examine the two closely intertwined aspects of the institutional conceptions that the interviewees draw from: the descriptions of the practices done at the borders and the institutional framework that gives meaning to these practices. Using content analysis I map out the officials’ descriptions of the ‘correct’ interpretation and implementation of the law on a practical level. Here, I look at how the discretional space between the letter of law and the concrete practices is bridged in the interviewees’ accounts. With the help of frame analysis I examine the underlying conceptions that the interviewees draw from when describing the institutional stance to migrant sex work. Here I analyse the framing of migrant sex work as a phenomenon and the FBG’s role in policing it. In the institutional framework of the FBG, migrant sex work is framed as a ‘public order problem’ that should be hindered through crime prevention and immigration control. In this framework, migrant sex work is criminalised and framed as a threat to the national stability, while the FBG is positioned as an institution ensuring the safety and stability of the Finnish society.