Emotional Labour across Borders : A Qualitative Study of Emotional Labour in the Context of EU Internal Immigration

In 1983, Arlie Hochschild introduced the theory of emotional labour, proposing that the suppression or evocation of emotion in professional settings constitutes a form of labour. While this theory had a significant influence within sociology and inspired extensive research, it has seen limited application across other disciplines. This thesis investigates how immigration effects workers' perceptions of emotional labour by exploring the workplace experiences of immigrants from Southern European countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece) living in Sweden, using semi-structured interviews. The gathered material was analysed using the method of Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA), to contextualize the findings within existing literature. The results of this study lead to the assumption that economic and social differences between countries, collegial and co-worker relations within the different workplaces and gender and race may influence the performance and perception of emotional labour and determine the long-term implications it has.