{"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":244,"pdf_page":252,"physical_index":252,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"9f86604a9e710d8f8ffb0fc61dfa3897226464accb54feb4be8c2f791113f81d"},"chapter":"Dynamics ofVirtual Work","content":"7 Unionization Through Migrant Enclaves: from Ci<sub>v</sub>ic Engagement to Political Rights\n\nAs Bengali tech workers sought a platform for civic and community action, their experiences and identities as migrants led them to connect with fellow migrant workers from the Bengali sub-national region. As Palash said “it is easy for us to connect with them; we speak the same language, and we all come from the same land.” For Bengali tech workers who do speak Kannada, engaging with lower-class Bengali migrant workers was also a matter of convenience. As a sub-national community, they also felt a need to uplift Bengali lower-class migrant families, through initiatives such as Pother Dabi. However, this rediscovery of sub-national community unfolded within the spatial fixity—defined as the “convergence of commodities, information, multifaceted human and nonhuman interactions, norms, customs, and social practices in a bounded geographical place” (Thuppilikkat et al., 2024)—found in the unauthorized settlements and labour bastis of lower-class Bengali migrant workers. These bastis, which house Bengali migrant rag-pickers, gig workers, and others engaged in informal labour, have become enclaves within the city, with its own rhythms and markers of identity.\n\nAs urban lower-class migrant enclaves, these bastis are surrounded by towering buildings that seem to erase their existence. Yet, within this enclave, everything needed to feel at home is present. During our participant observation, when we walked through these settlements, we passed by workers here who have carved out homes from rusting tin boxes and tarpaulin sheets, creating a semblance of stability in a city that offers little. Within it, there are tiny saloons, women managed small grocery shops, sites where men gather after long workdays to play carom game, small shops with TV set playing Bengali news channels in the evening, and films or sports at night, and streets lined with second-hand motorcycles, bicycles, and makeshift stalls, each contributing to the vibrant, albeit humble, life in the basti. We also identified a tea shop with Bengali music playing in the background, a fritter shop serving Bengali-style snacks like chop, and a mobile repair shop cum CD parlour where Bengali songs echo nonstop. In one corner, we observed a small Kalimata Mandir (a Hindu temple), where fresh flowers were placed every day. Above the tin roofs, we spotted bottle gourd vines climbing up, nurtured by the women of the family— lau, a vegetable beloved in Bengal, symbolising both their connection to home and the continuity of life in this alien city. Inside their small single room huts, posters of iconic Bengali figures like Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Rabindranath Tagore decorate the walls, a silent testament to their cultural pride. These workers knew they were not welcome in the city; their status as informal labourers left them marginalized. However, they are also acutely aware that the city desperately needs their cheap labour as much as they need the city to survive. In this precarious existence, they have forged an uneasy pact with the city—a city that does not fully acknowledge their presence but cannot function without them. For now, though, these workers remain rooted in the city, staying as long as their labour is needed and as long as they can send money back home to their families. The basti is their home, not by choice, but by necessity—a testament to their resilience in the face of exclusion and hardship.\n\n244\n\nD. DHAR ET AL.","previous_page":243,"next_page":245}