{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"ce325a04-5bc9-4819-a776-439d90410b32","title":"Migrant Labour in the Gig Economy The Intersection of Migrant Labour, Platform Capitalism, and Resistance","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9783031912610","requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"ce325a04-5bc9-4819-a776-439d90410b32","id":"ce325a04-5bc9-4819-a776-439d90410b32","uuid":"ce325a04-5bc9-4819-a776-439d90410b32","title":"Migrant Labour in the Gig Economy The Intersection of Migrant Labour, Platform Capitalism, and Resistance","normalized_title":"migrantlabourinthegigeconomytheintersectionofmigrantlabourplatformcapitalismandresistance","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9783031912610","isbns":["9783031912610","9783031912627"],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":270,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/ce325a04-5bc9-4819-a776-439d90410b32","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Migrant%20Labour%20in%20the%20Gig%20Economy%20The%20Intersection%20of%20Migrant%20Labour%2C%20Platform%20Capitalism%2C%20and%20Resistance","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/ce325a04-5bc9-4819-a776-439d90410b32/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/ce325a04-5bc9-4819-a776-439d90410b32/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/ce325a04-5bc9-4819-a776-439d90410b32","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/ce325a04-5bc9-4819-a776-439d90410b32/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/ce325a04-5bc9-4819-a776-439d90410b32/search"},"page":{"printed_page":176,"pdf_page":186,"physical_index":186,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"35075320f0d386c827ee943b4c71cb8e4161a88da8fc2136070d605c34f48b0b"},"chapter":"Dynamics ofVirtual Work","content":"This chapter critically examines the approaches adopted by traditional trade unions in representing migrant workers, highlighting the limitations that led to the failure to fully recognise the unique vulnerabilities resulting from the intersection of employment and migration status. Drawing on a growing body of literature on the collective organising of migrant and BAME workers, particularly in the field of platform work, we point out the importance of adopting more inclusive and nuanced strategies that acknowledge the socio-cultural profiles of workers and the complexities of their experiences. Moreover, we discuss the key role played by civil society and co-ethnic networks in advocating for migrant labour rights. Indeed, in our research we explored how independent unions especially have increasingly collaborated with these external actors to support migrant workers and challenge unfair labour practices, particularly in the context of digital labour platforms.\n\nIn particular, we take the case of the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB), shedding light on the construction of forms of mobilisation through continuous negotiation with migrant and BAME workers. Through an immersive ethnographic approach, the study— conducted in London between 2019 and 2021—illustrates how the IWGB has navigated the complexities of organising precarious migrant platform labour, both within and outside the union structure. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of building bridges with other nonunion organisations and communities to amplify the voices of migrant workers and challenge exploitative practices in the gig economy.\n\n2 Reclaiming Migrant Workers’ Rights\n\nThe ability to engage migrant and BAME workers—along with other poorly represented categories of workers, such as women, young people, and more generally non-standard workers—has been one of the main trade union revitalisation strategies in recent decades (Alberti, 2016; Connolly et al., 2014). In particular, Ibsen and Tapia (2017) identified two main trends that, despite national differences, are currently affecting trade unions in the Global North: the convergence towards the so-called organising model, which aims to reach new worker constituencies, and the capacity to build coalitions with other collective actors, including social movements as well as migrant associations and community organisations.\n\nMore specifically, in recent years, a number of scholars have highlighted the over-emphasis by traditional trade unions on class and economic exploitation at the expense of other inequalities and a lack of attention to the socio-cultural profiles of actors, including non-union entities (see Alberti & Però, 2018). By adopting this perspective, a flourishing debate has elaborated on how trade unions are (or are not) able to recruit and organise low-paid migrant workers, and on the novel strategies they can develop to mobilise this particularly precarious category of workers (Holgate, 2005; Milkman, 2000). At first, the focus was on the two main approaches adopted by trade unions to recruit and organise migrant workers: the first, termed ‘universalistic’, which assumed a homogeneous identity of workers, and the second, labelled as ‘particularistic’, which considered migrant and BAME workers as members of specific ethnic communities or individuals with distinct social and employment needs. By showing the ‘false dichotomy’ between work and migration issues, Alberti and colleagues (2013) highlighted that for a long time, trade unions have tended to consider migrants as ‘workers’ rather than ‘migrant workers’, therefore failing to recognise the specific vulnerabilities resulting from the intertwining of employment and migration status. Moreover, in the same article, the authors pointed out the need for trade unions to broaden migrant worker mobilisations beyond the workplace to include community groups.\n\n176\n\nP. BORGHI AND A. MURGIA","previous_page":175,"next_page":177}