Abstract
In urban gig economies around the world, platform labour is predominantly migrant labour, yet research on the intersection of the gig economy and labour migration remains scant. Our experience with two action research projects, spanning six cities on four continents, has taught us how platform work impacts the structural vulnerability of migrant workers. This leads us to two claims that should recalibrate the gig economy research agenda. First, we argue that platform labour simultaneously degrades working conditions while offering migrants much-needed opportunities to improve their livelihoods. Second, we contend that the reclassification of gig workers as employees is by itself not sufficient to counter the precarisation of migrant gig work. Instead, we need ambitious policies at the intersection of immigration, social welfare, and employment regulation that push back against the digitally mediated commodification of migrant labour worldwide.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1099-1111 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Work, Employment and Society |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Early online date | 5 Jul 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Aug 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Niels van Doorn’s research is generously supported by the European Research Council (ERC Starting Grant – 759776). Fabian Ferrari was supported by the ESRC under grant ES/.P000649/1, studentship number 2094254, as part of the Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) and the University of Oxford (Scatcherd European Scholarship). Mark and the Fairwork team have been kindly supported by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) (Grant No. ES/S00081X/1), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH (Contract no. 81248926), the European Research Council (ERC) (Grant no. 838081), and the OX/BER Research Partnership Seed Funding Fund (OXBER_SOC3).
Funding Information:
First and foremost, we thank all the gig workers who have participated in our research. We are very grateful for the time and information they have granted us. Second, we would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their critical engagement with earlier versions of this article, as well as the managing editor at WES for their judicious guidance and useful suggestions. Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to the members of our respective research teams: Platform Labor (https://platformlabor.net/) and Fairwork (https://fair.work/). The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Niels van Doorn’s research is generously supported by the European Research Council (ERC Starting Grant – 759776). Fabian Ferrari was supported by the ESRC under grant ES/.P000649/1, studentship number 2094254, as part of the Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) and the University of Oxford (Scatcherd European Scholarship). Mark and the Fairwork team have been kindly supported by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) (Grant No. ES/S00081X/1), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH (Contract no. 81248926), the European Research Council (ERC) (Grant no. 838081), and the OX/BER Research Partnership Seed Funding Fund (OXBER_SOC3).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022.
Keywords
- employment regulation
- gig economy
- migrant labour
- migration
- platform economy
- social policy
