Situating platform gig economy in the formal subsumption of reproductive labor: Transnational migrant domestic workers and the continuum of exploitation and precarity

Abstract

In conversation with critical platform and labor studies, which tend to focus on drivers and food delivery workers, this article seeks to expand our understanding of the platform gig economy from the perspective of reproductive labor and migrant domestic workers. The exploitation of women’s unpaid and low-paid reproductive work has persisted throughout various stages of capitalist development. Migrant domestic workers’ underpaid reproductive labor becomes an essential site for primitive capital accumulation and the production of the labor force in the contemporary neoliberal global economy. Building upon analyses of the historical and contemporary circumstances of transnational migrant domestic workers in Canada, I argue that digital labor platforms become a technology-enabled, capital-driven force in the larger commodification and exploitation process of migrant workers’ reproductive labor, and such processes are underpinned by entangled structural and institutional forces of the uneven capitalist development, racism, patriarchy, and the state’s discriminatory (im)migration and labor policies. The article suggests that understanding the seeming prevalence of platform work should be situated in the continuous formal subsumption of reproductive labor and the class immobility of migrant domestic workers, and labor activism and movements should contest the entwined power dominations beyond merely demanding regulations over platforms.

Expansive and Invasive: Mapping the “Bossware” Used to Monitor Workers

“…Others have suggested that remote workers intentionally seek monitoring and visibility in order for their work to be recognized and remain competitive (Hafermalz 2021). In this sense, employee monitoring leverages the structural precarity of contemporary labor to amplify power asymmetries (Yin 2023), forcing workers to compete against each other, to document their labor, and to prove their worth as employees.…”

A taxonomy of business models of digital care platforms in Spain

“…Compared to informal labour, these platforms facilitate a formal contract; however, workers are not hired as regular formal carers by the platform, but by households, and the labour contract belongs to a social security special regime of domestic work, which offers less social protection. This is a business model that profits from the discriminatory migration system and discriminatory labour policies and fosters the continuation of care services under a precarious form of employment (Rodríguez‐Modroño et al., 2023, 2024; Yin, 2024). As these DPA grow, some of them (Aiudo, Cuideo, Cuore Care, Interdomicilio, Qida, Senniors, and Wayalia) have started to operate as authorized providers of public home care services, either recruiting health or social care professionals directly under the general Social Security regime or supplying carers to old people's homes as temporary workers.…”

“…In the same sense, also research on migration and platform labour posits that migration is not just a side aspect of the platform economy but central to its functioning, as platform companies rely on ever‐new workers to come in and take on seemingly unskilled, platform‐mediated jobs (Orth, 2024; Van Doorn et al., 2023). As Yin's study in Canada (2024) suggests platform care work should be situated in the continuous formal subsumption of reproductive labour and the class immobility of migrant domestic workers. The power asymmetry between platforms and on‐demand labour is further intensified by the lack of national labour laws and transnational governance to protect platform workers' rights and regulate platforms' practices, as well as by the declining power of trade and labour unions, and the reconstitution of the international labour market (Graham et al., 2017; Yin, 2024).…”

“…As Yin's study in Canada (2024) suggests platform care work should be situated in the continuous formal subsumption of reproductive labour and the class immobility of migrant domestic workers. The power asymmetry between platforms and on‐demand labour is further intensified by the lack of national labour laws and transnational governance to protect platform workers' rights and regulate platforms' practices, as well as by the declining power of trade and labour unions, and the reconstitution of the international labour market (Graham et al., 2017; Yin, 2024).…”

“…Although most of these platforms were created from 2015 onwards and the literature on them is not very extensive, quite a few studies already analyse the impacts of digital platforms in care and domestic work (Hunt et al., 2019; Mateescu & Ticona, 2020; McDonald et al., 2021; Rodríguez‐Modroño, Agenjo, & López, 2022; Rodríguez‐Modroño et al., 2023, 2024; Van Doorn, 2017, 2022; Yin, 2024). One of the main discussion points in this literature has been the possibilities of digitalisation in increasing the labour force participation rates and providing opportunities for marginalised women and groups to access formal labour markets.…”