Send message to Author

Paper Short Abstract:

This presentation draws on ethnographic fieldwork in three European countries and offers insights into the extent to which migrant food couriers rely on market rationality to interpret their social relationships and strategies and to what degree these rationalities evade a market-driven logic.

Paper Abstract:

Digital platforms promising 'entrepreneurship for the masses' have managed to establish themselves as technology disruptors across the world while relying on precarious migrant workers. This presentation draws on ethnographic fieldwork with platform food couriers in three European countries and offers insights into the extent to which migrant couriers rely on market rationality to interpret their social relationships and strategies and to what degree these rationalities evade a market-driven logic. By analysing three practices, my presentation challenges the notion of neoliberal agency, which frames the entrepreneurial imaginaries of migrant workers. Instead of conceiving the self as 'a flexible bundle of skills that reflexively manages oneself as though the self was a business' (Gershon, 2011: 537), my research participants' experiences scrutinise universalizing forms of neoliberal agency and highlight the essential role played by the social organisation and epistemological differences. First, these workers engage in migration projects in the hope of realising their entrepreneurial dreams upon returning home. At the same time, the responsibility to provide financial relief to families back home impacts their capacity to exert a neoliberal agency. Second, I show how the use of WhatsApp groups challenges prevalent entrepreneurial discourses. Such networks are used to organise strikes and create solidarity against police raids, street attacks or disreputable restaurants. Third, I focus on account buying and renting, a practice of 'identity loan' (Andrikopoulos, 2023) common amongst irregular migrants. I show that its pervasiveness remains important, despite the high fees paid by riders and the constant risk of losing them.