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Gig work as migrant work: The platformization of migration infrastructure

Author

Listed:
  • Niels van Doorn

    (New Media and Digital Culture, Department of Media Studies, 1234University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands)

  • Darsana Vijay

    (Faculty of Information (iSchool), 1234University of Toronto, Canada)

Abstract

With markets concentrating predominantly in and around large cities, gig platforms across the globe seem to depend as much on the cheap labor of migrants and minorities as on investment capital and permissive governments. Accordingly, we argue that there is an urgent need to center migrant experiences and the role of migrant labor in gig economy research, in order to generate a better understanding of how gig work offers certain opportunities and challenges to migrants with a variety of backgrounds and skill levels. To fill this research gap, this article examines why migrant workers in Berlin, Amsterdam, and New York take up platform labor and how they incorporate it into their everyday lives and migration trajectories. Additionally, it considers the extent to which gig platforms are emerging as actors in the political economy of migration, as a result of how they absorb migrant labor and mediate migrant mobilities. We move beyond the existing parameters of gig economy research by engaging with two strands of literature on migration and migrant labor that, we feel, are particularly useful for framing our analysis: the autonomy of migration approach and the migration infrastructures perspective. Combining these conceptual lenses enables us not only to critically situate migrant gig workers’ experiences but also to identify a broader development: the platformization of low-wage labor markets that are an integral component of migration infrastructures.

Suggested Citation

  • Niels van Doorn & Darsana Vijay, 2024. "Gig work as migrant work: The platformization of migration infrastructure," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(4), pages 1129-1149, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:56:y:2024:i:4:p:1129-1149
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X211065049
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Weiqiang Lin & Johan Lindquist & Biao Xiang & Brenda S. A. Yeoh, 2017. "Migration infrastructures and the production of migrant mobilities," Mobilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(2), pages 167-174, March.
    2. Maxime Felder & Joan Stavo-Debauge & Luca Pattaroni & Marie Trossat & Guillaume Drevon, 2020. "Between Hospitality and Inhospitality: The Janus-Faced 'Arrival Infrastructure'," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(3), pages 55-66.
    3. Chih-Mei, Luo, 2018. "Are Labour Market Reforms the Answer to Post-Euro-Crisis Management? Reflections on Germany’s Hartz Reforms," European Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(4), pages 738-754, October.
    4. Biao Xiang & Johan Lindquist, 2014. "Migration Infrastructure," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48, pages 122-148, September.
    5. K. Sabeel Rahman & Kathleen Thelen, 2019. "The Rise of the Platform Business Model and the Transformation of Twenty-First-Century Capitalism," Politics & Society, , vol. 47(2), pages 177-204, June.
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