Migrant Labour in the Gig Economy The Intersection of Migrant Labour, Platform Capitalism, and Resistance

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To some extent, this is reflected in the Eurobarometer data and other media reports, which indicate that the gig economy in Greece is still emerging (Koutantou & Maltezou, 2019; Τζωτζές, 2024). According to Vrikki and Lekakis (2024), while the platform economy in the USA, China, and the UK grew rapidly in the early 2000s, the rise of the platform economy in Greece took off since the first austerity measures were adopted in 2010.

Greece played an unfortunate pioneering role in the course of the economic crisis that surged almost 15 years ago and had its roots in the collapse of Lehman Brothers’ financial crisis in the USA a few years earlier (Koukiadaki & Kretsos, 2012; Lekakis & Kousis, 2013). Successive governments facing a serious threat of bankruptcy signed the so-called memorandum agreements with the Troika of international lenders consisting of the European Commission (EC), European Central Bank (ECB), and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Those agreements were based on the rule of conditionality.

The Greek government was compelled to implement various reforms. Otherwise, it was not possible to get financial support from its lenders. Typical examples of such reforms include the modernization of the public sector, as well as regulations aimed to make product and labour markets more efficient, such as the dismantling of the collective bargaining system, and the introduction of increased employment and wage flexibility (Gialis et al., 2017; Tourtouri et al., 2020). Privatization of public assets was also considered a necessary step to guarantee the above objectives.

In this context, Greece became a byword of modern internal devaluation policies with significant political implications for both the national and the global accounts (Armingeon & Baccaro, 2012; Mexi, 2019). The unpopular fiscal adjustment measures (tax hikes, salary cuts, pension cuts, etc.) along with rising trends in unemployment and the prolonged recession of more than 25% of GDP in five years fuelled the Greek citizens’ sense of frustration, uncertainty, fear, and anger (Kretsos, 2015). Greece became repeatedly the site of running demonstrations and sometimes violent confrontations between police and (mainly) young people including migrants (Mason, 2012).

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The problematic effects of the crisis were not only being felt by an ‘underclass’ or specific sub-groups within the workforce, such as migrants. Instead, the crisis has been impacting wider groups across the lower and middle classes (Kretsos, 2012). Nevertheless, it is accurate to state that the economic crisis impacting the Greek economy had significant and varied effects on migrants’ livelihoods (Fratsea, 2019; Fratsea & Papadopoulos, 2020; Papadopoulos & Fratsea, 2022).

The crisis further skyrocketed the notion of coercive geographies that significantly shape the living conditions of documented and especially undocumented migrants (Cheliotis, 2017; Kasimis et al., 2015). For example, xenophobia against migrants increased, while the systematic detaining of all irregular immigrants became official policy (UN Human Rights Council, 2013). To sum up, the gig economy in Greece emerged in a heavily politicized and polarized context embedded in and shaped by the modern political economy and the transformation dynamics of Greek capitalism after a massive in-scale and depth austerity policy. Further, the precariousness of migrant labour is not merely a consequence of economic crises or the gig economy, but rather a result of specific policy decisions by the Greek state in the last three decades (Triandafyllidou, 2015).

The emergence of the gig economy in Greece and its impact on migrant labour cannot be examined without those historical and contextual elements. Certain scholars like Huliaras and Sotiropoulos (2021) perceive the rise of the gig economy as an opportunity for the Greek economy and the younger generations that have long suffered from comparatively higher than the EU accounts levels of unemployment and intermittent work. In an opposite vein, in the current analysis, we argue that the gig economy serves as a new force that exacerbates the existing disorganization within Greek capitalism, resulting in more temporary and contingent contracts and work arrangements. This phenomenon is particularly evident in the case of migrants working in the Greek labour market, as will be discussed later.

It is also reflected in the mobilization of e-food delivery workers in 2001, which made visible that things are not always rosy for gig workers in Greece. More specifically, in September 2021 the management of the efood platform, part of the German-owned company Delivery Hero, sent a letter to its 1.000 delivery workers that the company is planning to offer jobs only on a freelance basis. Those workers who disagreed with this decision had no choice other than to stop working with the company from next month. A massive mobilization by the company’s trade union followed against this decision. Such mobilization though was met with growing support by social media activists, individual consumers, and the opposition political parties (Vrikki & Lekakis, 2024). Finally, and under conditions of growing social pressure and media attention, the management decided to accept the union’s claims and offer jobs to all delivery workers under full-time and indefinite contracts.

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The victory of e-food workers represents an emblematic case of effective resistance in the so-called Greek gig economy, as it effectively articulated trade union interventions and strategies with modern versions of consumer and digital activism. Nevertheless, the effects of that victory were short-lived and limited in scope. This is partly related to the deeply ingrained tradition of informality and frequent violations of labour law in the Greek labour market, as well as Greece’s compelled shift towards neoliberalism following the economic crisis (Tourtouri et al., 2020). All the above factors resulted in the gradual institutional decomposition of democratic institutions, such as the collective bargaining system (Tourtouri et al., 2020), which, in turn, affects migration policy.

Besides, migration policy should not be analysed in isolation from employment policies, labour conditions, and welfare institutions, as these elements are deeply interconnected (Anderson, 2010). Both traditional and emerging actors—employers, workers, trade unions, the state, employer organizations, and migrant communities—shape and are influenced by migration regulations and outcomes (Alberti & Cutter, 2022; MacKenzie & Martinez Lucio, 2019).

This multifaceted interplay highlights the complexity of migration policies and their effects on the labour market and migrant experiences. As such understanding the complexities of migration policy requires a comprehensive approach that considers how these various factors interact and influence one another. The influx of refugees and migrants after 2015 and the recent pandemic have further exposed this dark side of power imbalance in the Greek labour market (Theofanidis et al., 2019). In addition to this, there is a clear orientation towards more restrictive policies on migration in the form of an optimization of the existing migrant labour force into the domestic labour markets (Martín et al., 2015).

The above characteristics of the Greek context are important to consider when searching to acknowledge the characteristics and the position of migrant labour in the Greek gig economy. Migrants in Greece, like in other countries, often face less favourable employment conditions in the labour market (Floros & Jørgensen, 2020; Kapsalis, 2018; Kapsalis et al, 2020). The next part of the analysis will delve deeper into these issues, exploring the nuanced relationship between migration policies and broader socio-economic frameworks.

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3 Migrants in the Greek Labour Market

Scholarly research on migrant labour in Greece has predominantly concentrated on two principal domains. The first domain entails an analysis of the legal framework regulating the mobility and integration of third-country nationals. For example, Triandafyllidou (2009) asserted that Greek immigration policy remained for more than decades incomplete and short-sighted, dealing with immigration as a necessary evil and not as an opportunity, for the simple reason that full integration of migrants into Greek society may have affected the election outcomes.

The second domain addresses the historical migration patterns, emphasizing Greece’s evolution from a country of emigration to one of immigration (King & Black, 1997; Mavrommatis, 2022; Triandafyllidou, 2015; Triandafyllidou & Maroukis, 2012; Χολέζας, 2017). Greece’s geographical position makes the country a primary European entry point for many African and Asian immigrants and a crucial transit route for undocumented immigrants (Papadopoulou, 2004).

On the other hand, policy reforms, such as Law 3838/2010, which granted the automatic right to acquire Greek citizenship for migrant children born or educated in Greece, along with the two regularization programmes between 1997 and 2007 and the lifting of mobility restrictions within the Schengen area, created new opportunity structures for migration and mobility patterns, particularly in industries like tourism and agriculture (Fratsea & Papadopoulos, 2020). For instance, nationals from Romania and Bulgaria no longer face restrictions on residence and employment in Greece since both countries joined the EU in the mid-2000s. Meanwhile, for immigrants from Albania without a valid residence permit, border crossing has been made easier by the abolition of the visa requirement in 2010.

Nevertheless, many migrant workers in Greece continue to be less visible because they engage in seasonal and informal work, while many migrants and refugees have to wait in Greece for months or even years often living in extreme conditions, as has been highlighted in relevant studies both in the agricultural context (Kasimis et al., 2015;

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Papadopoulos et al., 2018), as well as in the hospitality industry (Maroukis, 2016) and care sector (Maroukis, 2017).

In other words, the Greek case is not that different from other national cases, especially other Southern European countries that share similar characteristics and challenges in the regulation of work and industrial relations, such as strong clientelism, low levels of policy coordination, a history of adversarial industrial relations, and trade union fragmentation (Rodríguez & Lucio, 2023; Zambarloukou, 2006).

In Greece, as in other countries, migrants’ jobs are typically temporary offering minimal welfare benefits, and the societal integration of migrants is limited and inadequately addressed by the government, welfare services, and trade unions (Kapsalis, 2010). The position of migrants in the Greek society and economy aligns with the broader trends identified in the international sociological literature on labour migration (Afouxenidis et al., 2012; Anderson, 2010; Kalleberg, 2009; Phizacklea & Miles, 1980).

As elsewhere, immigrants in Greece continue to form a flexible, segmented workforce reserve due to their usual detachment from specializations, networks, and trade unions (Burawoy, 1972; Behtoui & Neergaard, 2012; Portes et al., 2007). This marginalization includes practices such as employers withholding wages and failing to pay workers on time, which is commonly documented in the literature as a typical method of controlling migrant labour (Ortiz, 2002; Papadopoulos et al., 2018). Further, this development is shaped by specific economic factors, as well as historical contexts and legacies in both migration policy and labour regulation in Greece.

More specifically, during the 1990s and mid-2000s, migrant workers from Africa and Asia were disproportionately employed in the booming construction and agriculture sectors (Mexi, 2019). At that time, Greece had one of the highest rates of international migrants among European nations and one of the highest gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates in Europe (Baldwin-Edwards, 2004). Nevertheless, the disorganized nature of immigration primarily benefited employers, as migrants lacked union voice and representation, while in certain cases employers exerted direct and even violent control over workers.

This was well-illustrated by the events at the Manolada strawberry fields, where indigenous farmers fired upon Bangladeshi migrants protesting against months of unpaid wages and inhumane living and working conditions (Kapsalis et al., 2020). Work in Manolada has been characterized by severe exploitation and inhuman living conditions for migrant workers (Papadopoulos et al., 2018). In general, almost all relevant migration studies highlight significant peculiarities of migrant labour in the Greek economy including the pronounced role of the family in welfare and employment provision, coupled with the informal nature of the labour market.

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For Maroukis (2013) both familistic welfare regimes and work informality create an opportunity structure that facilitates both geographical and socio-economic mobility for migrants. In an opposite vein, other scholars (Floros & Jørgensen, 2020; Kapsalis et al., 2020) talk about the dominance of coercive geographies, where localized and spatialized intersections between labour regulations and migration policies result in restricted spaces that create a lack of freedom and immobility.

Such spaces have already been mentioned in earlier studies. For example, Fouskas’s (2014) study of Egyptian immigrants found that their employment and financial position was determined by insecure and low-status jobs with poor working conditions. This situation hindered their participation in trade union organizations. To counterbalance this incapacity, Egyptian immigrants adopted and followed individualistic behaviours and heavily relied on informal networks and religion for support, rather than collective action.

A similar situation of the absence of formal labour market integration was also detected in an earlier study by the same scholar regarding Bangladeshi and other migrants in Athens (Fouskas, 2012, 2013). Again, the centrality of precarious working conditions represented an insurmountable obstacle to the full integration of migrants into Greek society. As a result, the community of Bangladeshi migrants in Athens developed social networks to cope with the precarity and the absence of a full citizenry and stable employment, which kills the prospects of unionization. As mentioned in the study, Bangladeshis in Greece avoided joining Greek trade unions, believing Greek members would not be able to understand or solve their unique issues, such as obtaining legal documents (Fouskas, 2012). In contrast, the Bangladeshi Immigrant Workers’ Union of Greece assists its members in finding employment and resolving individual workplace issues.

Papadopoulos et al. (2018) also discovered that many Bangladeshi migrant workers in the agricultural area of Manolada use a wide range of social practices to improve their precarious lives and working conditions in their locality. Likewise, in various rural regions of Greece, Indian and Pakistani Punjabi men assert their agency against the violence of their illegal status by publicly playing the sport of Kabaddi. Kabaddi tournaments have become a form of resistance and a celebration of South Asian male migrants’ diverse cultural identities, serving as a strategy to gain masculine capital and reclaim respect for their unique cultural identities (Kukreja, 2023).

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Certain studies also highlighted the gendered and cultural experience of precarity and resistance. For example, Xhaho et al. (2021) focused on the strategies Albanian migrants use to cope with the needs of reconciling work and family duties. The challenges of managing childcare responsibilities are exacerbated by deficiencies in welfare and care provisions, particularly for individuals with regular and even more so for those with irregular migrant status.

Structural barriers like the illegal status, informal employment, excessively long hours of work, and the lack of access to family-friendly policies make necessary the search for individualized solutions, such as the delegation of care to older children and the reliance on social and family networks or even leaving the children (under the age seven) alone in the house to care for themselves. Other studies on migrants’ agency also highlight the influential dynamics of social networks and the “irregularmigration-chain” (Tahir et al., 2018; Wissink et al., 2020) in determining unpredictable and non-linear trajectories of migrant groups due to policy constraints and experience of critical events.

As such, alongside traditional labour market segmentation and labour process theoretical approaches, social capital theory is valuable for capturing the norms within and between groups (employers, recruiters, and employees), resulting in segmented outcomes, as informal networkbased arrangements facilitate, build, and reinforce the segmented labour market structure (Groutsis, 2009). This is evident in the body of literature that examines the working and living conditions of migrants in Greece, focusing on themes such as individualism, collective agency, employer strategies towards migrant labour, and the roles of labour market intermediaries and networks established by trade unions and migrants (Xiang & Lindquist, 2014).

The common denominator of those studies is that migrants are not emerging as passive subjects of exploitation in the disorganized capitalist setting of Greece, but instead, as active agents of social and political mobilization. As such, the relationship between precarity and agency creates patterns and mechanisms of self-organizing and resistance, survival, and adaptability. Nevertheless, such mechanisms do not minimize the ongoing risk recognized in the traditional Marxist theory of subordinating workers’ initiative and creative agency to a production process designed by and for capital (Umney, 2018).

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According to Marx, there is always a necessity for some form of supervision over workers due to the inherent conflict of interest between labour and capital. This explains why even well-organized migrant protests like those in Manolada in 2008 and 2013 or in the mobilization of workers in the e-food, which both managed to draw media and political attention and support from various solidarity movements, anti-racist collectives, and political parties had short-lived and minimal improvements in migrant labour conditions (Papadopoulos et al., 2018). Similarly, the Bangladeshi Immigrant Workers’ Union of Greece was unable to reduce the risk of their members being marginalized in Athens (Fouskas, 2012). Likewise, the impact of Kabaddi tournaments in Greece was limited in providing a broader sense of migrants’ emancipation and citizenship, as they are very localized and confined to this subgroup of migrant men (Kukreja, 2023).

Consequently, the struggle against migrants’ precariousness, adverse institutional frameworks, and hostile policies remains increasingly challenging in the disorganized capitalist setting of Greece. To fully understand the position of migrants in the Greek labour market, it is crucial to examine the structure and actions of employers, as well as the ability of management to enforce norms and rules governing the labour process. In this context of exploitation and marketization, the algorithmic control of work in the Greek gig economy introduces new risks and insecurities for migrants and other workers significantly reducing their ability to influence their employment terms (Greer & Umney, 2022; Riemann et al., 2024; Shapiro, 2018; Waldkirch et al., 2021).

Nevertheless, the successful mobilizations of e-food delivery workers and agricultural workers in Manolada may indicate the potential rise of a new social movement, with migrants at its core. This movement could provide a new avenue to overcome the precarity of migrant communities in both urban and rural areas of Greece (Papadopoulos et al., 2018; Vrikki & Lekakis, 2024). The potential emergence of a new social movement, with migrants playing a central role, does not undermine or dismiss trade unions’ crucial role in advocating for migrant labour rights in Greece.

Nevertheless, such potential demands a strategic reorientation of Greek trade unions in dealing with the problems of both migrants and gig workers, including a stronger emphasis on organizing strategies. As noted in Mexi’s study (2019), Greek unions have not actively pursued engagement with gig worker groups as part of their revitalization strategy to broaden representation among non-standard workers, a trend documented internationally in other countries.

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