Solidarity and Resistance in the Platform Economy in France: Refugee Gig Workers and Mobilization

Master's thesis submitted at the Department of Social Anthropology, spring 2024.

By: Camilla Søreide Hansen
Supervisor: Professor Don Kalb

This thesis explores the work conditions for refugee gig couriers in Nantes, France. It examines whether workers manage to express solidarity in order to act and bargain collectively against terms that they perceive unjust and exploitative. The thesis presents the results of a six-month fieldwork, utilizing participative observation and interviews with refugee gig couriers. The main insights all address the difficulty of demanding better labor terms when finding oneself in a temporary situation: First, refugees are pushed towards the gig economy, as they are subject to dispossession. They consider gig work their best possible work option. Second, I find that workers are disinclined to bargain collectively for better work conditions, as none of them intends to stay in Nantes. The city is rather a part of their migrant trajectory. Third, I discover that workers, despite their status as independent contractors, are not subjugated to isolative work, as they shape social relations within the gig economy. While these social relations have proven functional in terms of mobilizing for collective action, the workers do have difficulties bargaining collectively across social groups. And fourth, workers are unaware of how algorithmic business management in the gig economy impacts their work situation, and therefore, they tend to displace their anger and mobilize action against other antagonisms than the platform company itself. Given these insights, it seems this category of workers need formal regulations to secure their basic needs and proper labor standards.