Digital Bordering of Polish Workers Registered with a D-Nummer in Norway: From Precarity to Welfare Exclusion and Work Exploitation

In order to register as a resident in Norway and obtain a permanent personal identification number (fødselsnummer), EU citizens have to show proof that they have secured at least six months of future employment in Norway. Those who are unable to secure long-term employment are assigned a temporary identification number (d-nummer) and officially considered non-residents in Norway. As non-residents without a permanent identification number, they cannot obtain BankID, the most widely used electronic identification method in Norway. The article explores the consequences of lacking BankID in the context of digitalized public services in Norway, focusing on access to welfare benefits and vulnerability to work exploitation. The article relies on participant observation of advice meetings with 14 Polish workers offered by the Salvation Army’s Migration Centre in Oslo. Employing the concepts of digital bordering and precarity, we trace how the personal identification number system translates precarious working conditions into exclusion from the digitalized welfare state and amplifies vulnerability to exploitation, which in turn undermines EU citizens’ ability to register as residents with a permanent identification number.