Seminar Sustainable Platform Work: Studying the role of gender and migration in platform work

This seminar explores how gender and migration intersect in the gig economy. How do migrant workers navigate precarious forms of platform labour from food delivery to domestic and care work? And how do migration infrastructures, visa regimes, and gendered norms shape their mobility, work experiences, and aspirations? Join us for two presentations that offer critical insights into the gendered and migration-related nature of platform work! The seminar can be attended both online via MS Teams and on location in Utrecht.

Jing Hiah and Roy Huijsmans (EUR): “Platform Work and Migration: A Dynamic Interplay”
This contribution focusses on the interplay between two major social phenomena: the emerging platform economy and migration. It does so by weaving together the concepts of young adults’ mobility trajectories and migration infrastructure. This analytical frame is applied to empirical data generated through long-term ethnographic research and qualitative interviews with two groups of non-European migrant workers in the platform economy, namely a group of mainly young adult men working as platform-mediated food deliverers based on research in the Netherlands (2018-2022) and a sample of mainly young adult women active in paid domestic and care work based on research in the UK (2021-2024). Focusing on these two groups allows a gendered analysis that intersects with other dimensions such as age, class and educational attainment, shaping the way these groups’ mobility and aspirations interact with migration infrastructures. Importantly, these dynamics need to be understood in a context in which, in general, Europe-bound migration by non-European nationals has become increasingly restricted. In such a context, the regulatory dimension of migration infrastructures comprises specific visa schemes, such as the international student visa, ‘search year’ visa, the Au Pair visa and other forms of cultural exchange. Our research demonstrates how these visa schemes, that at best come with a highly restricted right to employment, interact with the contested ways in which labour relations and conditions are constructed within the platform economy, thereby shaping particular mobility trajectories.

Ilse van Liempt and Minke Hajer (UU): “Delivering Masculinity: Irregular Migrant Men Navigating Precarious Platform Work”
Delivery work functions as part of the arrival infrastructure for (irregular) migrants, offering relatively easy access for those without recognised qualifications or language skills in the new context (van Doorn & Vijay, 2024; Wessendorf & Gembus, 2024). It is a job many are introduced to upon arrival that enables them to work while being excluded from the formal labour market and social support systems. These opportunities are gendered as the sector is heavily male dominated. Based on fieldwork with 18 male bicycle food delivery riders in Utrecht, this paper explores how riders experience the labour environment and perceive and perform their masculinity. Food delivery provides male migrants with opportunities to earn a living, support their families, while also allowing them to assert a heroic masculine ideal through endurance, risk-taking, and engaging with the, sometimes hostile, urban environment. While platform work offers certain opportunities, irregular migrant food delivery workers often find themselves trapped in precarious situations due to their dependence on intermediaries, vulnerable to scams,  and in fear of negative customer feedback and behaviour. Following the rhythms of the algorithm, delivery workers must also navigate frequent police stops, traffic accidents, street violence, and injuries; while continuously managing the physical demands of bicycle couriering, preparing and protecting their bodies against the elements and harsh weather, while negotiating the delicate balance between invisibility and visibility in the urban environment. The paper contributes to a better understating of (irregular) migrant labour, masculinity and urban precarity by showing how platform work shapes embodied and gendered experiences of belonging and exclusion.

Presenting:

Jing Hiah is Assistant Professor at the Department of Law, Society and Crime of the Erasmus School of Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam, where she works, amongst other things, on social harms in the labour market. Her recent work, supported by a NWO Rubicon fellowship, focused on inequalities, and mobilities in platform labour.

Roy Huijsmans is an Associate Professor based at the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam, where he works on questions related to the role and position of young people in dynamics of development. Next to research in the Southeast Asian context he has studied the intersection of migration and platform work in the Netherlands.

Ilse van Liempt is Associate Professor in Urban Geography at Utrecht University working on the intersection between migration and urban studies. She is the PI of Horizon project I-CLAIM: Improving Living and Working Conditions of Irregular Migrant Households in Europe. The food delivery sector is one of the sectors researched in I-CLAIM.

Minke Hajer is a postdoctoral researcher in Urban Geography at Utrecht University, with a background in the sociology of migration and citizenship. She works on the I-CLAIM project, researching the living and working conditions of irregular migrant delivery workers and domestic workers.