Migrant Labour in the Gig Economy

“This book examines empirical realities in different areas of the world, suggesting that while each country exhibits specific singularities and particularities, a broader, paradoxical process of homogenization is underway, particularly affecting migrant workers: the intensification of labor exploitation and precarization. It also suggests that we are witnessing the rise of new struggles and forms of resistance. This reveals that the evolving morphology of labor is giving rise to a new morphology of social struggles.”

— Ricardo Antunes, State University of Campinas, Brazil.

This book explores the gig economy and the role of migrant workers, which has been widely documented, but under-researched. In the last forty years, work and employment, in the advanced economies, has undergone profound transformations and, more recently, a key role has been played by the development of platform capitalism and the gig economy as a way of organising work and providing services.

There are still huge gaps in research on how platform-mediated gig work impacts the structural vulnerability of migrant workers. The aim of this book is to address some of these issues. It includes empirical and theoretical contributions from across the globe on topics such as migrant workers and digitalised work, Artificial Intelligence and labour, digitalisation and work-related policy, digital surveillance, labour struggles in the digitalised service sector, unionism and self-organisation in the gig economy. It will be of great interest to scholars and students of work and employment, social movements, migration and labour studies.

Francesco Della Puppa is Associate Professor in Sociology at Ca’ Foscari University, Italy.

Dipsita Dhar is social activist and PhD candidate at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.

Nicola Montagna is Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Salerno, Italy.