Navigating precarity. Theoretical insights into the intersection of digital platform work and migrant labour in the gig economy

The role of labour platforms in mediating migrant mobility and engaging low wage labour markets, extensively occupied by migrants, is increasingly important in the political economy of migration. This article offers theoretical insights into the relationship between labour, migration, and the platform economy, proposing time, space and energy as an integrated heuristic for analysing this relationship. It challenges the view of the platform economy as merely virtual, emphasizing how it’s grounded in material realities like space, time, body, labour, and physical and social infrastructures. While algorithms impose control on workers, a focus on everyday life reveals how individuals engage with and adapt these systems. By reflecting on workers’ everyday life experiences, we can better understand their subjectivity and agency within their living and working environments.