FACULTY OF CULTURE AND SOCIETY | Seminar
MIM Master Thesis Award: A Qualitative Study of Emotional Labour

Welcome to the Migration Seminar!

MIM Master Thesis Award: A Qualitative Study of Emotional Labour in the Context of EU Internal Immigration

Profile

Clara Noa Stelljes, master’s graduate from International Migration and Ethnic Relations, Department of Global Political Studies

Abstract

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 affects 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.

Bio

Clara Noa Stelljes is 26 years old. She was born and raised in Germany, completed a Bachelor's Degree in Human Geography from Bremen University. Afterwards she migrated to Sweden to participate in the Master's program 'International Migration and Ethnic Relations'. Her Masters Thesis was awarded the MIM thesis award 2025. 

Between 2017 and 2019 she spent 7 month volunteering as a teacher in Ghana, in the Hans Joachim Janke memorial school and the Future Leaders Academy.

From 2020 to 2021 she worked as a tutor in the German-Jordanian university exchange program 'transnational higher education', aiding in seminar preparation, financial coordination and scheduling for both the German-Jordanian University in Madaba and the University of Hamburg.

She also did a 3 month internship as a research assistant in the project 'Racialized Emotional Labour' led by Carolin Schütze in 2025.

Attendance

This is a hybrid seminar, you are welcome to connect via Zoom or join us at MIM seminar room, floor 9, Niagara, Nordenskiöldsgatan 1. To attend on campus, please gather by the reception area at 13.05.

Join the seminar on Zoom
Meeting-ID: 678 5147 7463

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