Finally, platform-based digital labor reproduces—albeit with some variations—the structural characteristics of migrant labor, marked by internal stratification along racial, gendered, and legal status lines. These structural conditions are accompanied by phenomena of labor exploitation, discrimination, and irregular recruitment. Within this framework, forms of digitalized labor intermediation emerge, adapting to the racialized dynamics of digital capitalism and manifesting through technocratic mechanisms that perpetuate conditions of subordination and marginalization.
While there is growing academic interest in the platform economy, its technological aspects, its business model and working conditions, very little research has focused on the role of migrant labor and its governance at the intersection of labor market regulation, social welfare, international migration, and migration policies. Some research has recently focused on struggles in the logistics sector in Italy—mostly engaged in by migrant workers (Borraccino, 2021; Cillo & Pradella, 2016; SiCobas, 2017). However, there are still huge gaps in research on how platform-mediated gig work impacts the structural vulnerability of migrant workers and how this can be addressed by welfare policies. This volume aims to fill, at least partially, this gap.
5 Structure of the Volume
The volume consists of two sections: the first section focuses on vulnerability and inherent precarity of migrant workers in gig economy and the second one presents some empirical cases and some forms of resistance implemented by workers all over the world.
In the first chapter of the first sections, Lefteris Kretsos and Vassilis Charitsis seek to scrutinize the potential avenues for workers to resist prevailing mechanisms of labor value extraction inherent in the Greek gig economy. In particular, emphasis is placed on individuals engaged in food delivery roles within digital platforms, complemented by an exploration of pertinent cancel campaigns within the realm of social media. The analysis draws from various published statistical data, a review of earlier surveys examining the working and living conditions in Greece and interview findings with key informants in trade unions and gig workers.
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