Stratified pathways into platform work: Migration trajectories and skills in Berlin’s gig economy

IF 4.6 1区社会学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Environment and Planning A-Economy and Space Pub Date : 2023-08-28 DOI:10.1177/0308518x231191933

Barbara Orth

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Platform labour scholars have noted the prevalence of migrant workers in the gig economy. This paper builds on this research but interrogates the broad concept of ‘migrant labour’. The study draws on biographical interviews with platform workers in grocery delivery and domestic work platforms in Berlin, Germany as well as expert interviews with union representatives, migrant organisations and white-collar platform company employees. Through an examination of the mobility strategies of platform workers in this subset of the platform economy, the study reveals a stratification of migrant trajectories and of skills needed to engage in platform work across different types of labour platforms. The study finds that platform companies draw on a workforce that consists of recently arrived young migrants with comparatively high education, language skills and digital literacy. Through close analysis of an understudied section of the gig economy, the paper contributes to the ongoing theorisation of the nexus of migration regimes and platform-mediated labour regimes. The findings complicate the notion of ‘accessibility’ of platform work and call for the inclusion of visa regimes, immigration categories and particular skill sets in future research on platform labour.

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进入平台工作的分层路径:柏林零工经济中的移民轨迹和技能

平台劳工学者注意到，在零工经济中，外来务工人员非常普遍。本文建立在这一研究的基础上，但对“农民工”的广义概念提出了质疑。该研究采用了对德国柏林杂货配送和家政工作平台工作人员的传记采访，以及对工会代表、移民组织和白领平台公司员工的专家采访。通过对平台经济中平台工人的流动策略的研究，该研究揭示了在不同类型的劳动力平台上从事平台工作所需的移民轨迹和技能的分层。该研究发现，平台公司吸引的劳动力由新到的年轻移民组成，他们受教育程度、语言技能和数字素养相对较高。通过对零工经济中一个未被充分研究的部分的仔细分析，本文有助于将移民制度和平台中介劳动制度之间的关系理论化。研究结果使平台工作的“可及性”概念变得复杂，并呼吁在未来的平台劳动力研究中纳入签证制度、移民类别和特殊技能集。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Environment and Planning A-Economy and Space Multiple-

CiteScore

9.50

自引率

9.50%

发文量

100

期刊介绍： Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space is a pluralist and heterodox journal of economic research, principally concerned with questions of urban and regional restructuring, globalization, inequality, and uneven development. International in outlook and interdisciplinary in spirit, the journal is positioned at the forefront of theoretical and methodological innovation, welcoming substantive and empirical contributions that probe and problematize significant issues of economic, social, and political concern, especially where these advance new approaches. The horizons of Economy and Space are wide, but themes of recurrent concern for the journal include: global production and consumption networks; urban policy and politics; race, gender, and class; economies of technology, information and knowledge; money, banking, and finance; migration and mobility; resource production and distribution; and land, housing, labor, and commodity markets. To these ends, Economy and Space values a diverse array of theories, methods, and approaches, especially where these engage with research traditions, evolving debates, and new directions in urban and regional studies, in human geography, and in allied fields such as socioeconomics and the various traditions of political economy.